You have chosen your color scheme for the house. The color scheme should have approximately 3 main colors (these can be neutrals), 2 secondary colors, and 2-5 accent or dash colors. Now let’s take a room and determine how to distribute the colors throughout the room. Color schemes can create magic in a room and can be distributed in different ways.
Let’s start by determining the function of the room. Who is using the room? Is it a public room or a private room, ie one user or multiple users? Is the room formal or informal?
Formal rooms will generally have more neutrals. Grays are the new blacks this year and are considered neutrals. Many formal rooms have neutrals, grays, beiges, taupes, or whites as the main color on the walls, ceilings, and floors. Secondary colors can be used in amounts you determine. All the furniture can also be neutral and some color in the accent pillows or the furniture can also have some colors and accent pillows. Also, plain fabrics create more formality.
The more color used, the more casual the room can feel. Casual rooms, like grand rooms and family rooms, often have statement walls. Many times, if there are hardwood or tile floors, a rug can be the basis of your design. If the room is being used by the public, you may want to introduce your entire color scheme with a neutral or one color as the dominant, add your secondary colors and accents as well. The more color and textures used, the more casual the room can feel.
Lighting always plays a huge factor in your scheme because color doesn’t exist without light. We’ll look at how much light, when the room has natural light exposure, and what kind of artificial light is being used. Knowing this, the more natural light there is in the room, the truer the color will be, as the sun fades. Consider which color is the brightest and how you will illuminate it at night to achieve the hue again. You may even want to accent lights in certain areas to bring back the brightness and add drama to the night. Low-voltage lighting is a beautiful accent lighting, incandescent bulbs in fixtures give off a yellow or warm hue, and halogen and fluorescent lights give off a blue light. Be sure to consider the light source when laying out your hues.
The size of the room is important. I love small dressers with bold hues. Large rooms can take on many colors more easily and small rooms can take on lighter shades. But these rules are broken all the time depending on the person. If you have a bold personality and color scheme, you can fit dark tones, large furniture, and large-scale fabrics into small spaces. Remember that dark walls can visually unbalance a room and need to be balanced. This can actually be a lot of fun. In general though lighter colors for smaller rooms and darker ones are ideal for larger rooms.