I often find myself following a practiced process to help me design a home. This process changes for each project since each home is unique, but the following can help you to refine your home’s color palette.
One thing I want you to pay attention to is what direction the windows in a room are facing. If a room is facing south, that room may feel warmer and will pull warm undertones. A white paint color with the slightest yellow undertone will appear in a south facing room. If a room is facing north, this same white paint color could feel cooler or grayer.
In rooms facing multiple directions, the light in these rooms may be more unpredictable. Natural light will change in your room throughout the day and the colors in the room will too. What you want to find are colors that complement the room.
The second thing to take into consideration are the fixed and furnished elements in your home. Fixed and furnished elements can include flooring, tile, stone, fixtures, cabinets and furniture. Everything in the room that is fixed is considered when creating a color palette.
With the above factors in mind, do you think that your home has a complexion? This is just like the complexion of your skin. When you are trying on clothes or selecting makeup, you consider what colors work well with your complexion. Our homes are not that different.
What colors work together to create harmony with the complexion of your home? Now that summer is winding down, you may have started decorating your home for the fall season. When doing this, you can use this complexion theory.
Start with one room in your home. I have started with a table arrangement in my dining room. This will be the basic arrangement I carry through to Thanksgiving, give or take a few accessories. My dining room has a large south facing window, so the natural light in the room feels warm. The exterior of my home is painted Sherwin Williams “Eliza Lucas” which is a beautiful blue green color.
My home has a coastal style, so I brought the outside in and painted accents of the blue green exterior color in the interior of my home. My walls are painted a bright creamy white. For the dining table, I started with creamy white colors that coordinate with my dining room table and walls. I added golden block-printed dinner napkins with blue greens and other fall colors. Block printing is a beautiful technique that you can find in fabrics and wallpapers.
The dinner plates coordinate with my blue green accents, and I use them often year-round. Glass accents and amber votives reflect the warm natural light and create a cozy setting. For floral arrangements, you can use seasonal foliage. Magnolia leaves make a lovely seasonal arrangement or garland. I love a heavily-decorated table, but sometimes I like to keep things organic and simple. Simple color choices, texture and light was my inspiration for this table.
By recognizing my home’s complexion and coordinating my seasonal decorations with the home’s existing color palette, I do not grow tired of seeing the decorations. Everything works nicely together. You can do this too!
Check out our fall decorating color wheel to find examples of what colors play nicely together and let me know if you found this helpful. Thank you for reading and as always, happy decorating!
Hello readers. My name is Nikki Brantley. I own a boutique interior design firm in Summerville. Each month I will be writing about interior design and will share information to help you decorate your home. I will post photos with the article for your reference. If you have questions and if you enjoy reading, reach out to us and let us know what you think. If you complete a project based on my advice, I’d love to see what you’ve put together. Please send over your photos and we may share them! E-mail: [email protected]
