7 Tips to Choosing Your Home Colours
Whether you are buying a new home or renovating an existing home, designing a colour theme for your home can be an exciting yet stressful task. Here are some tips to help you choose your home colour theme.
1. Get inspiration from your personal style
Your home is a place you are staying in for an extended period of time so it will be good to take a look at your personal style before following colour trends. Below are some questions to help you determine your personal style. Note down the colours and patterns to give you an idea of the overall impression of your home that you want.
- What colours of clothing do you like to wear?
- What are your favourite colours?
- What is a must-have furniture or accessory in your home?
- Is there a favourite artwork that you admire?
- Do you’ve a place or a view you love?
2. Decide the mood of your home
When you step into your home after a long day at work, what is the emotion you want to feel? Do you want a calm and relaxing atmosphere or do you prefer a vibrant and energetic mood? Once you have a clear idea of the mood, you can select the colours for your home. Below is a simple summary of colours and their related moods:
- Red — Passion and energy.
- Orange — Vitality and enthusiasm, less overpowering than red.
- Yellow — Happiness and hope.
- Green — Optimism and refreshing, calming and relaxing.
- Blue — Tranquillity, safety and confidence.
- Purple — Luxury or creativity. Lighter shades of purple can also be soothing and calming.
- Pink — Playfulness, romance and tenderness.
- Brown — Warmth and friendliness.
- Grey — Serious and professional.
- Black — Power and elegance. It can also mean professionalism.
- White — Minimalism and simplicity, purity and innocence.
(Adapted from article, “Colors and emotions: how colors make you feel”)
3. Map out your home
Draw a plan of your home and write down the items in each space, such as the flooring type and furniture. Begin with the living room, dining room and entryway. Think about how one room will flow continuously into another and how the spaces are connected to each other. One way is to experiment using one colour in various amounts around the house. For example, paint the interior walls in one room and then use that same colour as an accent in another.
4. Follow design rules and colour theory
There are a few design rules that can guide you in selecting your home interior’s colour palette.
- Set your colour palette to only 3 colours.
- To ensure your colours are balanced, use the 60-30-10 rule. This means using your dominant colour for 60% of the room. This will be the overall colour and look. Next is your secondary colour for 30%, and then your accent colour for 10% of the room.
- Refer to a colour wheel to choose your colours. There are primary colours (red, yellow, blue), secondary colours (orange, green, purple) and tertiary colours (a mixture of primary and secondary colours). You can also create a colour palette that fits your personal style and mood of your home from the 4 kinds of possible colour scheme: monochromatic, analogous, contrast and complementary. For a more in-depth understanding of colour theory, read this article “Colour Theory 101: A Complete Guide to Color Wheels and Colour Schemes”
5. Test colours in different lighting conditions
Lighting has a big impact on the way colours appear in a room. If you are purchasing a new home, it is also important to visit the home during different times of the day to observe how light shines into the different spaces. Be sure to test your colour scheme in different lighting such as daylight, LED light, incandescent lamps and fluorescent lamps, so that you are happy with how the colours look in the day and in the night.
6. Be creative and experiment with different colours
Designing your home colour scheme is a creative process, so don’t be afraid to experiment and have fun. Try out different colour combinations until you find the one that feels right for you. Check out these free online colour generators and colour viewers which you can use to choose your home interior design colour combinations:
- Canva: Upload your favourite photo or image and create a colour palette from it.
- Coolors.co: Upload any image, select one colour and identify 4 more matching colours. Simply tap the spacebar to generate different colour palettes.
7. Record your home colour scheme ideas
Keep track of all your colour schemes with a visual diary. This visual diary can be made from a folder with plastic slots. 1 to 2 slots can be labelled as one room with the selected paint chips, photographs and relevant fabric swatches. This will also be great for planning various items like flooring, furniture and accessories.
We hope these tips will take the stress out of planning and you will enjoy exploring various home colour design ideas. Take your time to speak to professionals, visit paint stores and collect the colour swatches that you like. Ultimately, the home colour theme reflects your personality and it will be a house that you look forward to going home to everyday.
