Color: color schemes, color ideas, selecting wall color, creating color palatte

Color is the most emotional element in interior design.

Color is fun. Color is exciting. Color creates moods. Knowing a few things about color can be the key to creating a beautiful home.

Yes there is science involved in colors and how they work together but we don't need to dredge that deep. Color can be very basic if you learn to make careful observations of your surroundings and evaluate how they make you feel.

People have pre-existing ideas about or affinities for certain colors which may be the result of a past experiance. We need to consider those but don't write-off a color too quickly. Every person who has ever told me they "don't like blue" has been wearing blue denim clothing at the time. So be careful.

Notice how you feel when you see certain colors. For me riding in red cars make me carsick. It is something about the color and it doesn't matter what shade of red. So red it not a color for me. Does a certain color of pink make you feel nauscious yet your favorite flowers are pink tulips, roses and geraniums? It may be as simple as you actually like pink but only when it is pared with green. Does the color of the sky on a really clear day make you smile? You may like more brilliant blues and not be a fan of navy. For some people brown reminds them of those nasty 1970's brown plaid sofas people used to have, so they say no brown. However when you make it current by putting brown next to different blues (turquoise is hot) or pinks it takes on a whole new meaning.

Once you know what colors make you feel good, make you smile or make you unhappy you can tanslate this information into
what colors to use in your home.

"I felt like I was standing naked in a bowl of oatmeal." - Interior Decorator Carlton Varney when commenting on entering a high-end beige limestone bathroom.

Interior Decorating -

Decorator Tips For Color

Color Schemes Made Simple

Residential Design Color Tips

Color Tools

Color Schemes and Color Ideas

Selecting an interior color scheme can be fun and easy. The trick is to make your public spaces work together. Public spaces are defined as the areas in the home which you may have guests: main hallways, powder room, kitchen, family room , dining room ,TV room , great room, and other similar type rooms. Coordinating the public spaces in a home is a key to making a home comfortable and inviting.

1. Create from the big picture. See the area as whole, not completely separate pieces. Consider how one room connects, physically and intellectually with another. Interior spaces require a connection to each other.

2. The goal is to create harmony. Harmony makes us comfortable and happy. As colors change from room to room they need to flow naturally and be in balance with one another. A home where every room is a different color doesn't make sense and makes people feel uneasy.

3. Choose your roadmap. It may be a piece of fabric, artwork, or a rug. Some item of your choosing serves as the color key to the whole area. It is from this piece that colors can be selected. Each color needs to appear in or coordinate with this piece.

4. Have a color theme. A color theme is a group of colors that support the particular look or feel of a home. They can be soft, bright, eclectic or quiet. Themes can reflect the environment such as nautical or earthy. Themes can reflect the personality of the inhabitants, whimsical and creative or traditional. There are hundreds of possibilities.

Hotel lobbies are great examples of this. The lobby introduces the identity of the property. The lobby area of a well designed hotel sets the theme of the property and gives clues of what is to be expected elsewhere. This creates familiarity which makes us comfortable.

A popular model home color theme in the last few years for has been beige and taupe. Why? Because it says absolutely nothing about the inhabitants and the only personality it reflects is bland, which is why they put it in model homes. Unfortunately because people see it in a model they think it belongs in their home. No, no no.

5. Repetition is the secret weapon. Use the same color or alternative hue more than once in a different form. What is a wall color in one room may appear in another as the sofa color and reincarnated yet again in another room as the fringe on a pillow. It can be the exact same color or a hue darker or lighter depending on the theme.

Colors are should be easy and play well off each other. They must make sense. Some fabric, rug or artwork is used to bring the colors together. Harmony, flow, connection, roadmap and theme are the fundamental words to keep in mind when planning the color scheme for the public spaces of an interior. The interior spaces need to be considered as a whole. The color scheme creates generates flow. Establishing a roadmap and theme give a color scheme purpose. Colors which make sense to the viewer, coordinate and work together create very comfortable environments people want to be in. This makes a successful interior.

Gray is The New Color for Interior Design

- BEIGE IS OUT!!!!!! Yes, this is still the same in 2010.

Gray, grey, geige it's all back! And it is about time. Beige, tan, khaki, coffee with lots of crème, those colors have become so over done to the point where people think they are the answer when they don't know what else to paint the wall or upholster the furniture in. Those colors are so ten years ago!

There are many colors of gray or grey. There are deep charcoal (almost black) grays to softly grayed whites. There are brown grays, yellow grays, blue grays and green grays. Some are warm and some are cold. The wonderful thing about gray is it is very sophisticated with crisp vibrant colors. A pretty gray is much more interesting with fuchsia or violet than boring beige could be. Gray walls with white molding can be very beautiful and fresh.

Gray is not blah and boring. Used well it can make the corners of your mouth turn upward rather than down. Think of it like gray flannel slacks or trousers, they are a classic which can be dressed up or down. A pair of khakis is well, just a pair of khakis they would look silly with a pair of blue satin pumps. Gray can handle it.

How you coordinate the colors is important.

Your interior color palette is the coordination of the colors you like. Selecting room colors can be easy if you work it through first. The following example is how a favorite color of combination is royal blue and light grass green work in a home.

The rooms on each side of the living room are open to or visible from it. Guests would enter the great room first and then go left or right to the other rooms. In this example the public rooms on the main floor are (from left to right) a kitchen, dining room, great room, and TV room. As we start in the kitchen all of the cabinets are royal blue with a neutral countertop. There is a multi-color tile backsplash above the stove (lime green, lavender, orange, yellow, pink, blue/green and royal blue). The kitchen which is open to the dining room share the same white walls (in different materials) and ceiling. The same neutral light bamboo floor flows from these areas flows into the great room. The blue glass light fixture in the dining room is the only dominant fixed color. With white walls and ceiling, light green is the dominant color in the great room furniture with major accents of royal blue followed by other colors (pink, orange, lavender and shades of blues and greens). On the right, the TV room is primarily a neutral color (same on walls, ceiling, floor and furniture) with the next largest color being a vivid pink with small amounts of lime green. These colors appear on back cushions and pillows on the sofa, one chair and in the artwork.

From this example you can understand how colors flow and relate from one room to another. The colors aren't the same in each room but they come from one palette: royal blue and light grass green. Green is the one color in different shades and intensities which appears in each room. Though it doesn't appear in fixed form in the dining room it appears in various table linens, dinnerware and accessories.

Our homes are about relationships, the relationships of the inhabitants, the room functions and the visual relationships that create warmth and comfort to all those who enter. The décor in each room in your home should tell its' own individual story, however the color palette is what creates flow and harmony. To create a "home" all of the individual stories become related by color and sometimes a theme.

Interior Design Factory, Ltd.

Lisa Smith - Interior Designer, IIDA Associate

29399 Shaker Blvd.

Pepper Pike, OH 44124

Phone: 216.255.4143 Fax: 216.765.8065

Interior Design Factory, Ltd.

Where art and design unite. Creative interior design solutions for today's lifestyle.