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1. Create a Color Scheme That Matches Your Home’s Furniture
Select three colors from something in your home that you're familiar with. Take a painting, your favorite tie or scarf, a pillow from the family room sofa, or anything else that makes you feel at ease or has an emotional connection with you to the paint store, according to Rivers. If, on the sample strip, three of those colors are present, you'll have 15 to 18 different colours instantly available since each sampling strip usually has six colour options.
Next step is to pick one of three paint colors for walls, and keep the other two in place so that they can be used as fabrics or furniture throughout the room.
To select colors for adjacent rooms, take the original three color sample strips and select a different color. Lastly, select the fourth color that you could use to accent any room in your home: Use pillows, plates or pieces of art to inject a small amount of this colour into every room. It's meant to connect the spaces, Rivers says.
2. Decide on the finish to create an attractive visual effect
Once you've decided on your colours, think about the finish you'll be utilising. Though today's flat paints offer improved stain resistance, conventional wisdom has long claimed that a satin (also known as eggshell) finish is ideal for walls because it is scrubbable and hides flaws. Semi-gloss and high-gloss finishes, it was believed, should be reserved for trim, where they might highlight the curves of a moulding profile or the panels of a door.
Finishes are now being utilised to produce visual effects on the entire wall. Paint one wall flat or satin and the neighbouring wall semi-gloss in the same colour, and "when the light hits the walls, it creates a corduroy or velvet effect," according to Acel Rivers.
Similarly, to generate a matte and sheen contrast, paint the walls flat and the ceiling semi-gloss. (The more light-reflective the ceiling, the higher it will appear.) Remember that the higher the gloss, the more shine and attention drawn to the surface. Colour and shine, when used carefully, may highlight your interior's greatest features.
3. Match the colour to the mood you want to create in the room.
Colour psychology is a minor preoccupation among paint specialists. Many people believe that when choosing a colour, you should consider how the area will be utilised and the vibe you want to create.
Rivers recommends using warm colours in communal spaces (dining rooms, kitchens, family and living areas) and cool colours in private rooms (bedrooms, home offices, and powder rooms).
(Pic Credit: Havenly.com)
Remember that, in terms of emotional impact, one person's "welcome-home orange" is another person's "scramble signal."
Acel Rivers claims that "red will increase your appetite—and your blood pressure; blues and greens are Nature-like and reassuring." Purple is a favourite colour of both children and adults. Depending on the hue, tone, or tint, the colour yellow beckons. Orange can be both inviting and unpleasant.
Yellow has the power to excite the brain, according to Behr's study, therefore it may be worth considering utilising it in spaces where schoolwork is done; nevertheless, yellow should be avoided in bedrooms, where relaxation is normally the aim. Instead, try these relaxing colours in your bedroom for better sleep.
4. Know Your Whites
Whites come in a dizzying array of colours. Pure, "clean" whites are free of coloured undertones. These are popular among designers who want to highlight artwork or furnishings, and they are frequently utilised on ceilings to create a neutral field overhead.
(Pic Credit: Pepper Watkins)
The majority of other whites are either warm (yellow, orange, pink, or brownish undertones) or cool (green, blue, or grey undertones). "Use warmer whites in rooms with little natural light, or to make larger spaces appear cozier," suggests Acel Rivers.
Cool whites, on the other hand, can assist to open up a room. Test several at the same time to discover which one works best with the other colours in the room.
5. Create Flow in Open Plan Spaces
On the ground level, continuity is vital, but colour may assist "zone" a large open space, such as dividing the dining area from the TV room. There's no need to limit yourself to a single colour or even a colour pallet that's either all warm (reds, oranges, yellows) or all cold (blues, greens, dazzling whites).
(Pic Credit: Elegant Decor)
However, "by using muted, dustier values, there's a better chance the colours you choose will flow into one another," according to Acel Rivers. He suggests leaning towards colours that have been muted by a touch of grey; they are frequently seen in historical palettes. Bright colours may be used as highlights in tiny quantities in furniture, floor coverings, and even flowers.
6. Make Small Spaces Feel Bigger or Cozier
Crisp whites, in general, make a place feel larger and more open, whilst warm colours provide a sense of closeness. Large spaces can often take more colour than small areas at the most basic level. "Lighter colours can open up a small space, while darker colours create the illusion that the surfaces are closer together than they are," explains Acel Rivers.
(Pic Credit: Tung Nguyen.)
Of course, some small places do not have to appear large: If you want to create a friendly or cosy ambiance in a foyer, study, or library, hunter green or red may be more appropriate than light peach or celery.
7. Architectural Use of Colour
One of the most effective ways to use color to transform a room is to play up its architectural features. Molding, mantels, built-in bookcases, arched doorways, wainscot, windows, and doors all offer an opportunity to add another layer of interest to colored walls.
Acel Rivers, the founder of Acel Rivers Design Studio, advises painting moulding or doors only one step brighter or darker than the main wall for subtle emphasis. The slight colour change, he claims, "really draws your eye to the detail."
(Pic Credit: garofoli.com)
Another technique to capture attention is to paint a metallic glaze directly over an already painted object, like a ceiling medallion. "A copper or bronze finish is very translucent and gives a nice shimmer that enhances the architectural feature," claims Rivers.
8. Investigating the Effects of Two Colours in the Same Space
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Use two distinct colours in the same space for a more daring look. Consider painting a built-in bookshelf or niche in a room with blue walls a shade of green to draw attention to the objects displayed there or in the niche. Of course, if architectural features are painted the same colour across the entire house, they may also provide a sense of continuity.
9. Utilise wainscoting to give rooms contrast.
(Pic Credit: nextluxury.com)
An excellent chance for a contrast between light and dark is found in a room with wainscot. A white wainscot next to a coloured wall will bring the eye to the wainscot, whereas a dark wainscot below a bright wall will draw attention to the upper walls. You may also use paint to simulate wainscot when none actually exists by painting the top third of the wall one colour and the bottom third another. To further accentuate the wainscot impression, lay a piece of flat moulding at the junction and paint it the colour of the lower wall.
10. Consider your ceiling a fifth wall.
Paint any crown moulding the same colour as the wall and paint low ceilings white to make them appear higher. This will prevent your upward look from being broken.
Although painting the ceiling a lighter shade of the wall colour might have a similar effect, keeping to "ceiling white" often makes a place seem airy. Simply choose the paint sample card on which your wall colour is the middle option, and then choose a ceiling colour that is one or two shades lighter. As a result of the lessened contrast between the colour of the walls and ceiling, the space will look larger.
Even painting the ceiling the same colour as the walls will enlarge a tiny space, like a bathroom.
(Pic Credit: Alisa Bovino)
Painting a bedroom ceiling a light robin's egg blue, for example, might be a method to get a comparable, calming effect in a home with ceilings that are just 8 or 9 feet high.