The story below is from our September/October 2019 issue. For the full issue Subscribe today, view our FREE interactive digital edition or download our FREE iOS app!
Get bold with these color tips and trends for the home.
Remember elementary school, when the art teacher stood before you with a color wheel and explained primary, secondary and tertiary colors?
To refresh your grade school memory, the color wheel is divided into twelve pie slices of vibrant color that can be used to create and understand color schemes. As a child, you probably dipped your paintbrush into regal violets and cheery yellows (a complimentary scheme, see below for others), adding them to your artwork with giddy abandon.
Then you grew up, and maybe you’ve shied away from using color in your home in that same fearless, experimental way. The last decade in popular home design has ridden a wave of monochromatic neutral tones—with beiges, whites and greys leading the charge.
“I think people embrace neutrals because there’s a safety factor to it. They don’t fear growing tired of it. It’s easy to like years from now,” says Roanoke-based interior designer Sean Doherty. “But we’re seeing more color offered up in the wider marketplace now, and people seem more willing to take a risk with color … they’re more relaxed about their options.”
The right color can have a profound effect on how you live and feel in your home, even energizing you for life outside your door. If you’re interested in experimenting with color but aren’t sure where to start, try asking yourself these questions:
Question #1
What’s my favorite color?
Back to grade school again. When you were a kid, you probably knew the answer without hesitation. But what’s your favorite color now, without thinking about what it “should” be?
If it’s orange, try orange accessories in a room. Artwork with orange elements and orange pillows can give you a lift from seeing your favorite color on the daily.
Is aubergine your hue? Lemon yellow? There are options in colorful fabrics, wallcoverings and rugs now to suit any color whim. Grounded with neutrals (vibrant pillows on a quiet sofa, or a vibrant sofa on a quiet rug), color feels intentional instead of overwhelming.
Question #2
How do I want to feel in the room?
If you’re refreshing an office, do you want to feel creative? Brighter tones can set the mood. But if you’re designing a restful retreat like a bedroom or bath, you can still call on color in muted tones for interest.
“We are largely still using colors in the cooler family—blues, greens, greys, turquoise—however, we are using more pastel versions of them,” says local designer Emily Mangus. “The lighter tonality still allows many color combinations but in a more subtle way. I think this is a happy medium so we don’t all get sick of grey, grey and grey!”
Question #3
What’s my inspiration piece?
When Mangus designs a room, she always uses a jumping off point, which is often a rug, but can be a piece of art or even a fabric.
Start with one thing, and build from there. If you have that anchor to pull you back to a scheme, you can stave off the chaos of going in too many unrelated directions.
If your rug has blue, magenta, gray and orange, you can go in any of those directions with fabrics and other elements. This allows the versatility of switching up color when you do tire of it.
Question #4
Could I flip the wall and trim paint?
Love the idea of turquoise walls, but fear it’s too much? Paint the walls a neutral, like designer favorite BM Decorator’s White, and paint the trim a turquoise hue (points for high-gloss). It’s less to take in when the color arrangement is flipped, and this wall/trim treatment feels current.
The color wheel informs decisions, but understanding color scheme guidelines means you can determine when to ignore them.
Maria O’Driscoll, a Roanoke artist known for her color-saturated paintings, derives inspiration from the vibrant landscape of her native Columbia.
“There are colorful fruits and blooms all year, so I’m inspired by that natural beauty but I take a lot of liberties with color,” says O’Driscoll, who will weave hot pink into a mountain landscape. “My favorite thing is to experiment with color, how it goes together…what makes it pop.”
Important:
Consider your home your canvas and experiment like a fearless artist.
Color Schemes 101
Four common palettes from the color wheel.
Monochromatic: Create shades (adding black) and tints (adding white) of a single hue for a subtle palette. An example would be navy, medium blue and light blue. These tone-on-tone color schemes can be soothing and serene.
Analogous: An analogous palette is made up of colors found side by side on the color wheel, such as blue, blue-green and green. While more colorful than a monochromatic scheme, analogous palettes can still lend a relaxing vibe.
Contrast: A contrasting palette uses three hues that are evenly spaced on the color wheel, such as orange, violet and green for a jolt of balanced colors.
Complementary: Two colors that are directly opposite on the wheel are complementary—think red and green, blue and orange or violet and yellow. These dynamic combinations command attention.
… for more from our September/October 2019 issue, Subscribe today, view our FREE interactive digital edition or download our FREE iOS app!
