When you begin to plan a home renovation, one of your (many!) tasks in the process is choosing the overall home design and color palette. However if you are anything like us, if you go to your home improvement store, go to the paint section and try to pick out your paint colors without planning ahead, you will likely get overwhelmed and go right back home!
Although choosing the right colors in a home renovation involves a little research and careful consideration, it can also be the fun part of it all, before the real hard work begins. Keep reading to see how we’d recommend you approach it and you’ll have a whole home design sooner than you thought!
Just Start!
Home renovations can be stressful so ease into the planning process by only simply browsing home interior social media pages, Pinterest or Houzz first. Do this to get a sense of the latest trends in colors and designs. If you aren’t looking for trends, then this will give you inspiration for how to mix and match pieces in a room.
Once you’ve saved a few favorites, ask yourself what do you like about each of the pictures? Is it the warm mood of the room? the gold accents? the neutral simplicity? It’s possible you’ll start to see a pattern in what you like, which will help you make decisions on a color scheme for your home.
Understanding How Colors Make You Feel
Selecting the right colors for your home can go beyond just aesthetics. Before you buy a paint swatch, it’s helpful to know a bit about how colors can make you feel. For example, warm colors like red and yellow typically make a room feel cozy. Cool colors (like blue or green) seem to bring calmer vibe.
You can dive deeper into color psychology, which is the study of how colors affect our moods. At high level though, just think about what mood you want in each room before picking colors.
When we were designing our primary bedroom, we wanted a color that felt calm and Behr’s Kilimanjaro was a great fit. It’s an olive green that is bold enough to stand out as an accent wall, but subtle enough for a relaxing bedroom vibe. If you want to see more home inspo, we’ve rounded up several olive green paint swatches for inspiration!
Matching Colors with What You Already Have
Take a look around the space to see what furniture and other special decor you already have. It’ll be important to make sure your new colors work well with what’s already there (and what you plan on adding). You may find color inspiration from some accent colors in a piece of artwork in the room.
If you have bold furniture (like a velvety green sofa), it may help to balance out the colors by choosing more neutral walls. If your furniture or artwork already has a neutral palette, you might want bolder wall colors or even just one accent wall to add more interest to the space.
Considering Light and Room Size
Think about how much natural light is in the room or rooms you’ll be renovating. You may be fortunate to have a room that gets a lot of natural light, which means you could consider a darker color if you wanted. On the other hand, we wouldn’t recommend that charcoal gray for a small dimly lit room. Typically, if a room is small, lighter colors can make it feel bigger, while darker colors can add a cozy vibe to larger rooms.
In the kitchen of one of our flip property renovations, we wanted to make the main space feel larger than it was, so in addition to demolishing one of the walls separating the living room and kitchen, we also painted both rooms a shade of white. This boosted the natural light around the room and significantly changed openness of the space.
Related Post: Flip Property – Kitchen Renovation Before and After
The 60-30-10 Rule
Another way to make sure your room is color balanced is to consider the 60-30-10 rule. This concept involves using color in proportions to give your room a seemlessly harmonious feel. This is how it works:
- 60 percent: Your main color choice shows in 60 percent of the room
- Example: walls, furniture, area rugs
- 30 percent: Your second color choice shows in 30 percent of the room
- Example: curtains, chairs, linens, accent wall
- 10 percent: Your accent color choice shows in 10 percent of the room
- Example: pillows, table decor, wall art
I wouldn’t say we follow this exactly ourselves, but when it is done right, it is magazine worthy!
Creating Harmony Room to Room
You are welcome to choose different colors for different rooms if that’s your preference. However it is conventional to choose a cohesive color scheme. Subconsciously, it’ll bring harmony to the entirety of your home.
Making Colors Match Across Rooms
Now this doesn’t mean every room has to be the same color, but there should be a flow. Maybe choose one main color or theme and sprinkle it in different ways throughout your home.
Room Functionality
Each room has a purpose and designers usually like to tailor color choices to what fits the room’s vibe. Bedrooms usually feel calm and chill with softer wall paint choices. On the other hand, living rooms and kitchens can handle more vibrant colors to match the more lively atmosphere.
Testing Before You Commit
If you don’t take away anything else, remember to test your paint colors! Most paint suppliers and home improvement stores offer test paint in a small quantity so that you may paint a small section of your room before committing to a full sized quantity.
This is important because colors can look different in different lights, so it’s best to check out a new paint color on the wall at different times of the day.
Add Your Own Style
We’ve shared a lot of conventional and recommended ideas for choosing a paint color, but at the end of the day, your home should feel like yours. Don’t be shy about adding your favorite colors or color combination that makes YOU happy.
It’s your space, so make it uniquely yours and consider colors that resonate with your personality and create a comfortable environment.
Picking colors for your home renovation takes a lot of consideration. Remember, the right colors aren’t just about appearance but about how they make you feel within your space. Making informed color choices will undoubtedly result in a home that reflects your personality and style. And if you take the time to plan it out, you’ll have paint colors that align with your vision for a harmonious and welcoming home.
