When you are designing the colour scheme for a room in your home your inspiration can come from anywhere. Perhaps it is a pretty beach hut you saw in the summer or a vibrant cushion on a friend’s sofa.
It could also be a room in someone else’s home that you recently visited or a boutique hotel that you stayed in.
If you are starting from scratch the world is your oyster (or colour pallet) but if you are revamping a room you have lived with for years and intend to keep the same furniture, you’ll need to think about what you’ve already got and be able to incorporate its colour.
Your first step is to look at an artists’ colour wheel. This will show you which primary colours will work with secondary and complementary colours.
The colour wheel is based on the colours of the rainbow. Now bend that rainbow into a full circle and, ta-dah, you have a colour wheel.
You can make your own or print one from the web, if you have an excellent colour printer, or buy one cheaply online. As a reminder, this is the order they need to be in: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet.
Most of the colour wheels you come across on the net will give you extra hues of these colours in the wheel. We came across a site called Interior Design It Yourself, which explains all about warm and cool colours but there is lots of help out there so don’t be shy about browsing.
If you look at the wheel you should be able to see which colours “go” with each other. Opposites attract, too, so if you like the look of one colour but don’t like the colour next to it, see the coloured wedge opposite.
The beauty of this wheel is you can see at a glance what colours will work with each other. And it’s not only the interior of your home that will benefit from this method.
If you want to revamp your garden you can use this tool to work out your colour schemes there, too.
It’s worth taking some time to find the right colours and materials since you are going to be living with the consequences for some time, so it’s also worth creating a colour-swatch board.
This doesn’t need to be anything fancy, just a piece of cardboard to start you off. Then take photos of existing furnishings you want to work with and stick them to the board, along with your colour wheel. Just beware that the colours in the photo won’t be an exact match to the real thing.
When you go to the local DIY store pick up the free paint colour charts that you want so you can add them to the board later. Many places may allow you to take a small sample of wallpaper away with you, too.
And if you go to a fabric shop staff are often very helpful in giving you a small sample of fabric to add to your colour swatch. If you have the swatch board tucked under your arm they might be able to offer you suggestions that you hadn’t thought of, too.
So have fun with your interior design creation. If you take the right approach you are sure to end up with the room of your dreams. Good luck.
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