10 tips for creating the perfect color palette

Choosing colors that work well together is tricky enough, but in your home, you have to also select colors that flow smoothly from room to room. We’ve given some tips on where you can begin to create your perfect color palette and ensure your color story transcends throughout the entire space.

 

1. Begin with a color you can’t live without

A great place to start is with your all-time favorite color. The Vishion app can take that exact shade and give you options to complete your entire palette.

 

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A post shared by SherwinWilliams (@sherwinwilliams) on Aug 19, 2018 at 4:40pm PDT

 

2. No must-have colors? Start with Formal areas

Choose a color scheme for rooms like the living room, dining room, and entryway first. Then pull one color from the scheme to pull into adjoining rooms. For example, take the black wallpaper and tone it down (say, to light pink or gray) for an accent in more private spaces such as the den, office or bedroom.

 

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3. 60-30-10 rule

60-30-10 is a timeless decorating rule that can help you put a color scheme together easily. The idea is that the 60% color anchors the space, such as paint, a large rug or couch. The secondary color takes 30% of the space. This could be your chairs or bedding. The last 10%  is your accent color for things such as pillows or art.

 

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4. Use the Color Wheel

The Vishion app gives you options to create your palette based on analogous, monochromatic, triad and complementary colors. Feeling adventurous? A triad color scheme is made up of any three colors evenly spaced on the wheel.

Choosing two complementary colors creates an energizing, high-contrast color scheme. It’s also a pretty simple concept: pair two colors from opposite sides of the color wheel, such as purple with yellow, blue with orange or red with green.

 

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5. Use a consistent trim & theme

Knock one color off you palette early on. Designers heavily suggest keeping the same trim color throughout the entire house. Your house should also build off of an overarching theme, seeing a natural progression of colors as you move through the home.

 

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6. Be bold in a window-filled room

Natural light can drastically change the way color appears in a room throughout the day. Take advantage of these bright spaces with a bold color palette. This purple pops because of the sunshine.

 

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7. Decorate from Light to Dark, Ceiling to Floor

Use darker color values for the floor, medium color values for the walls, and light values for the ceiling. The thought process for this style tip is to replicate what we see in nature. With a dark ground, medium-color objects and light blue sky.

 

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8. Pick from the largest pattern in the room

If you’ve selected a wallpaper, picking a color from the largest pattern in the room can be a much easier task. Otherwise, pull from a couch, accent chair or rug pattern to get the palette started.

 

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9. Make small spaces pop

The classic rule to making small spaces seem larger is to use a white or very light color, but designers recommend using these small spaces to pack a punch. Wallpaper makes it easy to really liven up a usually boring area.

 

 

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10. Make it Monochromatic

Using the same color shades may not seem very daring, but it can leave a big impression if the original color is dramatic like the purple below.

 

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A post shared by Architectural Digest (@archdigest) on Mar 29, 2019 at 7:04am PDT

 

 

Don’t forget to answer our five-question survey on your color palette creation process and you’ll be entered in a drawing for a $50 Visa gift card.