Creating Color Schemes for Rooms: How I Bring My Rooms to Life With Color

Sometimes I don’t follow the rules.

Like everyone else I just make them up as I go along.

It’s called personal preference or gut instinct.

Sometimes you just know the ideas you have in mind will be better than following any specific format.

To elaborate, let me tell you a little story about an experience I had at a thrift store…

I stopped by a thrift store recently and found some great items for my walls. I found this print, in particular, that plan to hang up. It has various shades of green in it.

While at the store I had to think for a moment as to whether or not I wanted to get it. I pictured it in my apartment. After a moment I could see that it would fit perfectly in my dining area.

It wasn’t so much that it was the most stunning picture I’d ever seen but what really counted in the end was what I could do with it. It provided the perfect variety of green colors that I had been looking for.

And the price was right. It was only ten bucks.

Truly, I felt it could’ve been a little cheaper (but that’s because I’m a bit too cheap for my own good sometimes), but regardless it was a great deal and I knew that.

It was the type of print that would’ve gone for a lot more anywhere else. So I grabbed it while I could, before someone else beat me to it.

Why To-Die-For Items Aren’t Always the Best Items

Honestly, I’ve found that often the best items for my home aren’t necessarily the to-die-for items that I “must have” or else.

I’ve come to notice, for me at least, that over time those items just tend to loose their luster, so I generally purchase pictures or prints that serve a bigger purpose than that.

Nowadays, I’m likely to choose something that I like over something that I absolutely love.

That often happens simply because those type of items offer the best colors for my home and in the end I’m able to coordinate my apartment a bit better because of the great color arrangement; also, because it helps me save a lot more money in the process.

Of course every now and then I get a bit lucky and get the best of both worlds.

But after some general experience with decorating my home and redecorating it, I’ve begun to understand what works best for me, and how I can turn something that’s a nice look into a great look by combining items that compliment each other.

So color usually takes priority over what’s in a picture. However, I do have to like the picture—at least somewhat.

Having said that, it may be a good idea to elaborate on how I create a color scheme in my rooms using prints and other accents, since I do have a specific way of handling it.

Color Schemes Made Easy…

I create what I like to call a “1-2-3 Color Scheme.” It’s just my quick and easy way of color scheming each room. It like connecting the dots.

Buying an artificial tree…

…and then connecting it to a print that has some green in it that somehow compliments the tree…

…and then connecting it to a water fountain that has a green candles that compliments both the artificial tree and green print.

Here’s how it works…

Usually when I want to create a color scheme, the first thing I do is pick a color that I would like to include in my room. In this case it’s green. I find an item that has this color in it. The item usually has at least 90% of this color in it. Once I find the perfect item I then add it to my room and go on another search.
The next thing I do is connect the dots. I seek out a second item that has a related (green) color that compliments the color in the first item I chose. The second item usually has around 50%-80% of this color in it. But this usually happens naturally. Generally I find that if I just come across the perfect item, the rest takes care of itself.
The third thing I do is connect the dots again. I seek out the last item with a similiar (but different shade) that I need to compliment the other two items in the room. This item tends to have around the same percentage of green in it (50%-80%). I add it to the room, and then voila! My color scheme is complete. This creates a very subtle but charming look.

Keep in mind there are always exceptions, but generally I don’t combine any more than 3 items of the same color in a room. Anything more than 3 items of similar shades is usually overkill.

Choosing The Right Zones to Create the Perfect Balance

Also, when I create a color scheme I usually choose items in different zones…

Floor
Wall
Ceiling
Furniture Surfaces, such as tables, beds and sofas

For instance, my green artificial tree is a floor plant, so I didn’t choose another object that sat on the floor to offset my color scheme, but rather something that I could hang on the wall or from the ceiling.

In short, I generally coordinate with zones furthest apart from one another.

High –> Middle –> Low

Ceiling –> Wall or Furniture Surface –> Floor

Although it’s not always bad to hang things in the same zone, zones such as walls and ceilings are very close together which can sometimes create an imbalanced look, depending on what you get and where you put it.

So if that ever turns out that things look wrong, you might want to consider hanging an item a good distance away from the other.

Let’s use a green hanging lamp and wall print as an example…

Say I own these two items but both are in very close zones. I don’t like the looks of them close together. So I hang my picture some distance away from my lamp.

In order to balance out the look, I decide to hang my print on a parallel or perpendicular wall. Preferably perpendicular, so that the colors would be seen within the same frame when someone walked in the room and looked around. That way they would still serve the purpose of complimenting one another.

It would then provide the room with the balance it needed to create a harmonious look and feel. You would still get the look but with less intensity.

But let’s say I wanted to correct this problem using a different decorating tactic. What other type of item would work that would balance out the room?

How about using something like a set of green pillows instead of a print with green colors?

Placing green throw pillows on a bed would be a wonderful way to compliment a hanging lamp. It would result in a choice that was a bit more subtle and one that also provided less “visual clutter.”

And that’s really all there is to it.

It’s the simple way I create a harmonious color scheme using what I enjoy having in my home combined with gut instinct.

I connect the dots by choosing three items with neighboring colors to compliment each other. Consciously, I don’t really bother too much over whether an items has 30 percent, 50 percent or 80 percent of a specific color.

Mostly, everything comes together naturally based on what I like and what I want to include in my home.

That’s it. No fuss. No hassle. No problem.

It’s as easy as 1-2-3!

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