How to Color Scheme Your Home

How to Color Scheme Your Home

Melanie Deguzman

Rowan Cabarrus Community College

Abstract

Color scheming is an important thing to have in your home. In this paper, we will discuss the process to color scheming your own home. You will find out how to choose colors that fit well with one another, how to create your own theme, and how to place your colors in a good space. You will be given step by step instructions on how create that homey feeling we all know and love.  The concepts of color harmony, lighting, diagramming, and the color wheel will be discussed in this paper and will come in handy with scheming your home.

Keywords: Color, theme, room, scheming, color harmony, neutrals, lighting

A good aesthetic is always a nice thing to have. In fact, it is a good staple to have in your own home. The mixing and matching of the right colors can make a home feel warm and inviting. It is not hard to create the warm and inviting notion with color schemes. It may feel overwhelming to have to choose one color and even more with choosing many, but it is not as hard as it seems. It’s as simple as picking out what you like and matching what works with it.

The first part of this process is to look at the layout of your household. What rooms are visible and are close to each other? Where are your entryways? Where are the stairs and stairwell? Where are the appliances and cabinets placed? What color are your cabinets, floors, and appliances? Once you have an idea of the layout of your house, draw it out. Create a diagram of the rooms and hallways in your household.  This will be your sidekick, it will help you have a basis of what colors you choose and where you put them.

Next, check the lighting in your household. Depending on the type of light you have, the tint or shade of the color will change. There are three types of light that are most common in households: natural, incandescent, and fluorescent. Natural light comes from the sun. This type of light shows the truest color of the paint you chose. Incandescent light is a light that has lower power and is usually used in lamps. These bring out the warm tones and yellows in the paint.  Fluorescent lights are like incandescent in that they are both indirect sources of light, but it emits a sharp blue tone. If you are looking to use a vibrant color, don’t place them near large windows or natural sources of light. When that is done, the color will become too bright and overpowering. It would be best for you to place those colors as an accent with incandescent or fluorescent light. A good way to find the outcomes of color in your choice of paint is to use the lightboxes placed in paint stores.  These will show you the different tones your paint could have under specific types of light.

Now, you want to decide what look you are going for. Do you want to have a subtle look? Elegant? Vibrant? With each of those looks, a scheme of color comes. If you want a soothing, subtle feel, go for a monochromatic approach. Use colors of the same shade and hue to create this look. For example, you can use a dark red for your wall and a lighter, but similar shade of red for the trim. If you are looking towards a more elegant approach, use colors that are neutral. This doesn’t mean you must go with whites or greys. You can use a mix of colors like ivories and dark, reddish browns. This type of setting gives extra flexibility due to neutrals being easy to match with. If you want a more vibrant approach, use bright colors with the colors next to them and one color opposite them. For example, you could use red, gold and white. Keep in mind that if you use darker shades the space will appear smaller versus using lighter ones which makes rooms look more spacious. Once you decide your approach for the look, you can move on to choosing the first color for a room.

Pick out a color for the most spacious room in your household. This will be one of two rooms: the kitchen or the living room. You can pick any color you want. Blue. Red. Pink. White. However, if you are having trouble choosing a color, go with a soft or neutral color like white or ivory. Soft, neutral colors are easy to mix and match with more vibrant ones and are easier to make a color palette from.

        After you pick the color for the biggest room, it is now time to figure out the rest of your palette. The rest of your palette will help bring in the warmth and transition to your home. Per Barbara Jacobs, “Transition is the concept of changing color from room to room,” (2016.) With a good transition, your home will look complete. At this point, it is a good idea to have a color wheel near you. This will help you visualize which colors work with one another and which don’t. When picking colors for your home, color harmony is an important thing to look at. There are two main concepts of color harmony: complementary scheming and analogous scheming.  Per Natalie Rodriguez, complementary color scheming is “the concept of mixing color(s) that are opposite on the color wheel with one another.” (2017.)  These are colors like red and green or blue and yellow. This kind of scheming maintains stability and contrast. On the other hand, analogous color scheming is the concept of mixing two or more colors that are placed next to one another on the color wheel. These are colors like yellow, yellow-green and yellow-orange. Usually, one of the colors in the combination dominates over the others. If you want a more vibrant palette, complementary will work better form you. If you’d like a more subtle and airy look, go for an analogous approach.