How to Match the Right Paint Colors When Decorating
- 1). Analyze your surroundings and look at items in your home that you find appealing. Find a photo frame, window dressing, rug or furniture pattern that you currently own and admire. Use the lightest color in the pattern, or palest solid, as your dominant base wall color.
- 2). Create a decorating budget. This will greatly influence your color scheme decision. For example, if you currently do not own many accessories in various hues of one color, avoid a monochromatic color scheme if your budget does not allow for it.
- 3
Use an interior design color wheel to help choose a color scheme.Primary Secondary & Tertiary Colour Wheel image by Sophia Winters from Fotolia.com
Using a color wheel, look again at the furnishings and accessories that you currently own. See if their colors fall directly across from your dominant color on the color wheel. If so choose the complementary color scheme. For a bold look, paint the ceiling, borders, molding or an accent wall in the complementary color.
If you have accessory and furnishing colors that fall next to each other on the color wheel, paint moldings and borders white or off white and use your furniture and accessories to complete the analogous look.
If many of your furnishings and accessories are neutral or tend to be various shades of one particular color, then choose the monochromatic color scheme. Paint moldings, borders and an accent wall in a shade either deeper or lighter within the same color. Accent in the same way.
