“I want to have a cohesive look in my home – my entire home. How can I do that without being boring?”
Most people like the look and feel of a home with flow and cohesiveness. There are a number of tricks and tips to help you achieve a cohesive space but the easiest way to create a cohesive or fluid look in your whole home is through colour.
Creating a colour palette or colour concept for your entire home will make your decorating choices much easier but also you will connect each room to the next, so even if the style varies a bit in each room you still have a common thread pulling it all together.
Think about the magazine images and model homes that you have seen (and likely fallen in love with) …sure, they are full of beautiful and brand new furniture but one of the big reasons why they feel so good is the colour choices.
We can’t all live in a ‘model home’ that’s not realistic but we can take inspiration from these showstoppers. Here’s how: by using a limited number of colours and using them in different ways in each space to create a fluid and cohesive home.
Let’s get started:
1. The colors you use in your home are completely up to you.
Do what makes you feel fabulous cause no one ever gets sick of that right? So you don’t have to paint your entire home white or beige – pick a colour that you like. It could be grey, green, beige, taupe, blues even bolder choices like yellow or purple.
2. Stick to 3-5 colors for your color palette.
For those of you who love color, this may feel limiting, but I promise you will still end up with a colorful home. For those of you with a fear of color, go with more muted shades of color so that you add color into your life without it being too in your face.
We personally recommend a neutral in that palette if you want some bolder colour, for instance if you want some yellow we like mixing in a neutral like grey. But you don’t have to.
3. We are not talking about redoing your entire home tomorrow
– that may not be in your budget and that’s OK. We are talking about setting up a color plan so that over time it will guide your decorating decisions and eventually you will have a beautiful home that is totally you and flows nicely from one room to another.
So be sure to write your plan down somewhere and include the names, brands and formula codes of the paint colours you have selected.
Starting with your favorite color means that you won’t be getting sick of it any time soon. Now I’m not saying that if your favorite color is cobalt blue to go paint all of your walls that color, but you can most definitely use it as a starting point. Use that bold blue as your inspiration.
Remember your ‘colour plan’ isn’t just about paint, it is about creating a cohesive look using colour – so think about your paint but also think about furniture, accessories, rugs and more.
See the image below – that bold cobalt blue is part of the decor scheme using accessories. Only you can determine the amount of bold colour you can handle or want in your space.
Still not sure on which colour direction to head in because you like all colour?
Think about the feeling you want to create at home. Do you want your home to feel calm and spa like? Or lively with lots of contrast?
Or how about uber modern? Color will help achieve the feeling you want.
So, in summary, here’s how to get the perfect colour concept for your entire home.
1. Pick a white.
Not all whites are the same, they have various undertones. So put your white paint swatches up against your main space elements like flooring, cabinetry, and the furniture that you will be using/keeping. If you know what kind of palette you want – cool or warm, look at your whites. If a white looks a bit blue-ih or grey-ish, that’s a cool white. If your white looks warmer even with a touch of yellow, that’s a warm tone. You can choose either – it’s up to you but you want those undertones to be consistent throughout your colour palette.
2. Pick a neutral.
This will be the main colour in the home, some called it the ‘field’ colour. This will be the colour that really connects all of the rooms. Now using the term neutral doesn’t mean you need to pick beige or beige – you can get more creative with greys, taupes, even soft greens, yellows or blues. you will see a lot of this colour in your space – which is why we recommend something softer and more subtle, many of us tire of deep and bold tones after a while.
3. Pick a saturated colour.
Because you have neutral tone so far this is where you can get a little more adventurous, if you like; and you can choose any colour you like! If colour isn’t your thing, we suggest opting for a deeper neutral like a charcoal grey or perhaps a deep brown. Keep in mind this colour may not necessarily be on your walls – it might be used as an accent (remember the bedroom image above with the cobalt blue accents). If you really want this colour on a wall, an accent wall would work.
Typically for smaller and more open concept spaces, like a condo-apartment we recommend stopping at 2-3 paint colours and the rest be used for accent colours – so for accessories, bedding, art etc…
This room is playing with various neutral – really only 3. White, tan and charcoal. This is an easy neutral palette but the mix of timeless neutrals and adding some texture – see the wood framed mirror, the glass end table and pops of gold- they follow the colour palette plan and create this very sophisticated space. Neutral doesn’t mean boring.
4 and 5. Pick accent colours.
You have lots of choices depending on the look and feel you want. These colours will be used in decorative accents and they will compliment the above 3 colours – so everything works nicely together to get you that designer look and feel.
If you want a calmer feel and a monochromatic look – add some neutrals in various shades. If you want more ‘pop’ add some complimentary colours, so if you have blue already think about adding some orange and/or yellow to really make things bright and fun.
Take a look at the image above, there is a 5 tone palette – with a white, a neutral and 3 pops of colour. The soft aqua is the main colourful element and the blush and coral and secondary. there are some various tones in this image but they all work together to create a cohesive look because there is a plan.
So now that you have your palette or colour concept what do you do next?
Use these colours as your guide which means it is all about using the colors (or variations of the colors) you chose differently in each room. Remember this is just your guide. Going up or down a shade or 2 to make it work in the space you are doing is great. The idea is to stick to your palette as a guide. So when you are shopping for some art and accessories keep the palette in mind but don’t panic if you don’t have exact matches.
When you plan ahead instead of ‘making it up as you go along’ – you really see the difference and you get that designer look. But it’s never too late, so work with what you’ve got and pull it together using these tips!
