Choosing your Interior Color

Your home environment is your sanctuary that should inspire or relax you and transform the personality of a room. Choosing which color to paint your house is a big decision and knowing how color works is a good place to start.

Handy Tips for Choosing a Color Scheme

Firstly, limit your color palette to 1 to 3 colors that complement each other. Too many colors will be confusing and clashing colors will not look stylish. Look at the base color and find tints and shades to give that color variation.

You could either have one color with different tones, complementary colors, contrasting colors or analogous colors.

The Color Wheel

Analogous colors are any three colors which are side by side on a 12-part color wheel, such as yellow-green, yellow, and yellow-orange. Usually one of the three colors predominates.

Complementary colors are any two colors which are directly opposite each other, such as red and green and red-purple and yellow-green.

Mood of the Room

Another consideration is the 'feel' and function of the room you are decorating - what kind of mood are you trying to achieve? A relaxing space or an active dramatic space? This will help you choose between a neutral and a bright color palette.

Even neutrals can handle a contrasting color to lift them and add to the design feel without losing the relaxing mood of the room - try pairing greys or a beige with a deeper grey such as charcoal.

Match your color to a feature piece

Find a bright color that matches a striking feature piece of furniture and you have the basis for your color palette choices.

Choosing color in your home in your light

It is essential that you take your color cards or color chips home to see the colors in your own environment, as color is affected by light and light reflecting off it's surrounds. The Peel n Stick product from CCI allows you to test a large square of color in your room on the wall and it can be stuck on and easily removed later in any room.

Remember check to see how the color changes at different times of the day and levels of light.