| Interior Decorating - Color Schemes Made Simple Beautiful color schemes can be easy and inexpensive. A good color scheme brings happiness to an interior. Color gives an interior life and personality. A bad color scheme creates discord and irritability. In a work environment a bad color scheme will lead to low productivity and unhappy employees. Color matters on levels much deeper than esthetics and goes way beyond paint colors. Unfortunately clashing and harsh colors are commonplace, often the result of rugs, artwork, furniture and paint colors being chosen independent of each other. By following just one of these five simple color ideas, creating color schemes can be simple and beautiful. Room colors are something anyone can do well with a little help. Here are some options for creating pleasing color combinations.  1. Minimize your color scheme to maximize your interest. Limit the amount of colors in your scheme. In a single room this is done by keeping the floors, walls and main furniture pieces in the same neutral hue. All wood furniture is the same color family, no mixing of light and dark. By using one or two pops of color in a neutral dominant room the effect can be dramatic and inexpensive.
2. Layer one solid color and a neutral solid color in repetition. Think of your room in one dimension like a picture and alternate layers of color and neutral. Walls and trim are color A, upholstered furniture color B, throw rug is A, throw pillows B, drapery A, lampshades B and so on. The closer in tint the two colors are such as soft blue as a color and cream as a neutral the quieter and more soothing the room will be. 3. Repetition is an easy element of uncomplicated interiors. It is a timeless trick used by great decorators everywhere. In the public areas of a home, at least those that connect to one another the same color or variation of can occur throughout. If red is the dominant entrance wall color, it may appear again in a patterned wallcovering in the powder room, in the drapery and furniture fabric in the living room, as an accent in the dining room rug, on dishes and accessories in the kitchen and on a piece of artwork and throw pillows in the family room. This creates flow and continuity. It also makes decorating very easy. In a bedroom the same fabric (pattern or solid) can be used on the furniture, drapery, bedding and some times even the walls.   4. Solid colors are chic. Solid colors are also wallet friendly when it comes to upholstery or drapery. Large patterned fabrics usually have a large repeat (how often the design is repeated across the width of fabric) and this translates in to waste and additional dollars. A particular sofa might require 16 yards of a plain fabric and 25 of a patterned fabric. Solid color fabric may also be less expensive than a multi-color fabric jsut because of the expense involved in producing the fabric. Using a solid color for all the upholstery in a room makes it very easy to give the room a quick update with the change of a back or throw pillow as shown here in three pictures of the same sofa.
5. Use a color wheel for a foolproof scheme. Color wheels solve the age old question of does this color go with that one. They are available at any art supply or craft store. Just turn the wheel to see what color goes with another based on the possible scheme types of Monochromatic, Analogous, Complementary, Triad and Tetrad. The description of each is on the color wheel. Interiors with too many fabrics or colors can feel busy, restless and unfriendly. In today's world everyone seems to be striving for a balance between effort and ease. Simple color schemes provide this. Utilizing any one of these five approaches to color schemes can make for a happy, comfortable, and beautiful interior. |