Decorating your home can be both inspiring and overwhelming. You want to figure out how to use colors that make everything flow and also captures your personality. A color palette that makes you feel calm, self-assured, and lets your creative side shine. After all, color is one of the first things we notice when we enter a space! It has the power to bring a fresh vibrant feeling, a dark dramatic feeling, and everything in between.

 Choosing a color palette that fits you is your first step to creating a space you love. If you’re unsure of your choice, then you’ve come to the right place. We will look at what a color palette is, how to choose colors that represent you, and how to put these colors to work. Join me as we dive into all things colorful!

What is a Color Palette?

Before we can dive into our design, we must first understand what makes a color palette. Simply put, a color palette is a collection of colors that complement each other. I am sure you remember the primary and secondary color wheels from grade school. When used throughout a design, these colors come together to provide depth and flow to your space. Creating this palette will be the first step in bringing your design scheme to life.

Understanding a Color Palette

Now that we have defined what makes up a color palette, let’s take a deeper look at what it can mean and how it can be used. Color is a powerful component to your home decor. These colors will evoke feelings, provide cohesiveness to your space, and bring your home to life. When looking at the many different palettes or creating your own, visualization is important.  These colors will not paint every wall in your home, but where do the other colors come into play? The answer is in your home decor!

Home Decor is the perfect way to tie in your secondary and accent colors while adding to the overall color arrangement. The addition of a throw pillow, candlestick, even the color of your furniture can all be used to bring your color palette to life. This will help you to not only have a balanced look throughout your home, but these subtle accents also help to add depth to your design.

Understanding how color is used throughout your design will not only help to elevate your look, but also prevent overuse and detachment in your home. When designing the space only a couple of the chosen colors will be used in the painting process, the rest will be used to complement each room.  Most designers recommend following the 60-30-10 rule. Your primary color should use about 60 percent of your design, your secondary color about 30 percent, and your accent color 10 percent. This helps to spread your palette out evenly to create a more balanced feel.

Understanding the complexity that your color palette will play in your home décor, is an important foundation to building your dream home design. Thinking beyond the painted walls, and deeper into the design you wish to bring to life will help you in your journey to narrowing down your color selection.  

How to choose a Color Palette

Choosing your color palette is a personal choice. Only you know what colors will excite you, inspire you, and provide you with a sense of home. Finding the inspiration to start your color search may seem daunting but the answers are right in front of you. Start by asking yourself some basic questions.

• What is my favorite color?
• What is my favorite place to visit?
• Do you have a favorite look or style?
• What is my favorite possession?
• What is my favorite picture?
• What do you like about your current decor?

Asking yourself these types of basic questions, will help you to unlock your hidden color palette. Each of these will help you identify your own personal taste. Maybe its as simple as pairing a complementary color with your favorite choice or maybe your favorite color isn’t one you would splash onto your walls. How about your favorite place? What styles and colors make it up?

While your color palette may seem illusive, the fact is, it’s staring you right in the face. The way we lead our lives, the things we do, the moments we cherish. All these things are made up of color! Perhaps you want to bring home the feel of that memorable place or live in the comfort of your favorite style. The inspiration for designing your home lies within. All you have to do is look for it.

Once you have cut some of the noise out of the choice, you can begin to focus. List out the colors that make up what you like. Over the course of this narrowing process, you may find some are better left behind, or perhaps some make better accents than primaries. We always advise starting with a more neutral feel and adding the vibrant, dark, or dull colors in later to accent. This will allow you to easily carry the colors through your home. For instance, a yellow wall may be your dream in the kitchen space, but will it also carry well into other rooms? Or will you end up regretting your base and struggling to bring your design together? Keeping consideration for how your design will look from one room to the next is an important focus to maintaining your vision.

Arriving at your chosen palette will take some time and serious consideration, but once you have it narrowed down you can begin to reap the rewards. No longer do you find yourself in an uncertain tangle of colors. What goes well? What will match? Will the design work from room to room? Now you know and can move forward, choosing your paint and home decor with confidence that you will have a design that offers balance, flow, and creativity.

As always,

We appreciate you taking the time to read, and hope that you will enjoy visiting our blog as much as we enjoy blogging. Stop by often to see what new topic we are plunging into and stay up to date on our latest Peculiar Decor. As always, whether you subscribe or just send an email, we would love to hear from you! Tell us about your own experiences, the peculiar things you’ve found, and what you want to explore next!