How to Create a Balanced Colour Scheme for Your Whole Home

Have you ever finished redecorating a room only to notice that it doesn’t match the rest of your home?
Whether you have an open space design or separate rooms, choosing a whole home colour palette can create a feeling of harmony that makes your space work together visually.
Here are some tips to help you create unity with colour in your home:
Start with what you have
Although selecting a starting colour can seem intimidating, it doesn't have to. The reason a colour from your friend’s house that looked fantastic over there can look horrific in your home is two-fold; the starting base and lighting.
Paint must be selected in the home with the natural light so you will see how it actually looks at different times of the day. (Depending on the undertones, it will take on many different shades at different times and you need to like all of them).
As well as the starting base, this is made up of the things in your home that are "static" or non-changing such as flooring, cabinets, tile etc. You may very well want to follow the trend and desire to paint grey walls in your house, yet all of your flooring is brown. If you choose the same grey paint that your girlfriend down the street used (but she happened to have concrete tile flooring) you are going to wonder why it doesn't look the same.
This doesn't mean you can't have grey paint, you simply have to select a grey paint with a warm or beige undertone rather than a cool blue undertone.
Don't panic, if this is making you want to run and throw yourself under a bus, that's why we do in-home colour consultations... we'd like to avoid the messy stuff.
Lets move on... the easy stuff is next
Limit the main body of your home to no more than 2 colours plus trim.
Choose main colours for your home that you love living in. You can find a colour scheme you like by looking in a magazine, matching or complimenting colours from a pillow, rug, art piece, or working with pre-designed colour palettes available where you buy paint.
It can be helpful to start with a feeling you want to create in your home like beach or modern/metro. Find an inspiration piece or picture that captures that feeling and note what colours are there.
Bedrooms should be all about personality, this is personal space and these rooms represent you differently than the rest of the home. I personally prefer to see the palette compliment each other when doors are open, which simply means keeping the colours from the same family of undertones.
Please, don't go running for that bus again...remember it's still just paint!
Build your whole home palette with shades of the same hue.
If you are using a shade of grey for instance, you may choose the dark grey for the living room, and a softer hue of that grey for the kitchen. Watch where the light changes during the day to night on the walls throughout the house, these are the areas that will give you natural colour variations from the colours being used as light will play differently with these areas. This is my reason for not using more than 2 colours throughout the main body, especially if there is a lot of architectural detail, it simply gets too busy and you will lose the flow.
Tie it together by using one colour in different ways from room to room.
For example if you choose red for the accent wall in the family room, consider using decorative plates in the kitchen that have that same colour of red, tying the rooms together. Then use that same red in decorative accents for the formal living room in pillows, the fabric for the drapes, or vases.
Mindfully select colours for adjoining rooms or visually connected spaces.
Even if you have separate rooms, if you can look from one room and see to the other, it’s important to choose colours that create harmony between the two spaces. I like to choose my accent colours out of my art. I typically choose 2 accent colours: one major and one minor so that I'm working in 3's, and won’t feel so perfect.
Have some Fun with the powder room.
This is the space that is for the guests where small powder rooms can be "glammed" up with pretty crystal light fixtures, deeper toned wall colours, or better yet stunning, shimmery wall covering.
Remember to follow the same rules for selecting the colours from the flooring etc. as with paint.
Choose the right white.
All whites are not created equal. There are warm and cool whites. Choose a white with the right undertones to work with your colour palette. See, that bus is driving away and you're no longer intimidated by all this undertone talk...
Say goodbye to boring all white walls…. Bring warmth into your home, be it with colour, mid-tone neutrals or cool whites with exotic colour accents!
These simple design tips will help you to achieve a balanced, harmonious look you love! Have fun creating a sense of continuity and harmony with a colour plan throughout your home.