Curate Your Inspiration Thoughtfully
Color aside, you first need to think: where am I getting my home ideas from? What are my reference points? If you’re calling it a day after screenshotting one or two nice colorways of a living room on Instagram, or only using Pinterest as your inspiration source, this might be why it’s hard coming up with your own personal color palette. It’s information overload, but not of enough depth.
Think About Your Personal Aesthetic
Being intentional with your inspiration means you’re no longer at the whim of whatever design image hits your feed, or whatever next trend tapping at your screen; it’s about carving out a clear conviction on what colors are right for you, your lifestyle, and your home.
Start With An ‘Anchoring’ Color
If you don’t know where to start, Lick’s director of interior design and color Psychologist, Tash Bradley, suggests it’s ‘really important to have one whole house color scheme as your thread throughout the house that links all of the rooms together. For example, you could have pink running through the house in each room which will really tie the palette together throughout the whole house.’
Think About How The Colors Combine With Eachother
‘More important than the number of colors is the interaction between them,’ argues Tamsin Saunders of Home & Found. ‘Where and how different colors meet and how that affects your experience of those colors. It’s not just the walls, it’s the doors and the architraves, the worktops, the ceilings, the floors, the artwork, the different textiles, objects and pieces in a room, and how they play off, combine and interact with each other. Everything I place in a room is there not just for its form or its function but for the color and texture it brings to a room.’
Create Your Own ‘Rule Plan’ – If You Want One
Constraints can make you more creative. Though there are no ‘golden rules’ when it comes to how many colors should go in a home, sometimes designers make their own internal color rules to help guide them with their design projects.
Don't Forget About Natural Lighting
Lastly, don’t create a color palette for your home without thinking about how natural light enters. Color is ‘constantly changing according to the light and the season,’ says Tamsin Saunders. ‘The colors you notice in a room will change according to what’s seen through the windows and the light coming in from outside.’