Artwork, like this floral painting over the sofa in SMU’s new Kappa Alpha Theta house in Dallas, is a great opportunity to add a burst of color to your room.
Although bold colors have been trending the last few years, many homeowners wonder, ‘how much is too much?’ In my own design work in Dallas, I’ve been including more color in projects lately. I thought that readers would appreciate some tips on how to work with bold colors in a balanced way.
Starting Small
If you’re new to using bold paint or wallpaper colors, try them in a smaller space like a powder room first. For powder rooms, however, I suggest staying away from bright green. Green casts an unflattering hue on you or your guest in the mirror.
We used a metallic butterfly wallpaper to give this powder room a “jewel box” feel.
Brightly colored accessories such as throw pillows, stools, artwork, ottomans, and blankets can be easily swapped out if you get tired of them. If you’d like to add some boldly colored furniture, consider having the furniture you own repainted rather than buying new furniture. Other easy ways to introduce color into the room include buying fresh flowers, getting new lampshades, or putting books with colorful covers on your shelf.
Picking the Dominant Color
The size of your room determines how much color you can comfortably accommodate. In a large room, it would be overwhelming to use a bold paint color on all four walls. In small and medium rooms, however, you can get away with a bold base color.
Some colors can function as neutrals even if they aren’t traditionally thought of as such. For example, navy blue and moss green are soothing to the eye and often used as base colors. The location and architecture of your home can also affect what colors look best in it. Rust red and navy typically look best in traditional homes. Blue-and-white rooms are often associated with coastal style (although you don’t necessarily have to live on the coast to use these colors).
This bedroom is an example of how you can use different shades of the same bold color—like light blue, cobalt, and navy—to create a balanced color scheme.
Picking Your Secondary Colors
Before you commit to a bold color, pick out your secondary colors to go with it. One good formula is to have sixty percent of your room be in a neutral color, thirty percent in a stronger color, and save the last ten percent for your boldest colored accessories.
Usually the brighter a bold color is, the more challenging it is to work with. Bold colors that are toned down just a notch are a safer bet. For example, consider using burnt orange instead of pumpkin orange, soft yellow instead of highlighter yellow, and brick red instead of fire engine red.
The shades of orange we used in this north Dallas guest bedroom are just bright enough to give the room personality without making it too energizing.
The blue and white tiger wallpaper in this Preston Hollow powder room shows how bright colors can give small rooms more impact.
Blue-and-white is a classic color combination that never goes out of style. You can get away with very vibrant shades of blue by pairing them with white. After all, it’s a color combination that our eyes are used to seeing—think of white clouds in a blue sky. If you want your room to be really energizing, decorating with one bold color and lots of black and white will give you the high contrast look you need. Placing bright artwork and accessories against a mostly white backdrop is another appealing combination.
For balance and depth, use different, less-intense tones of your boldest color throughout the room. When it comes to patterns, choose either a bold color in a subtle pattern or a busy pattern in a muted color. Chaotic patterns in bright colors are the most difficult to work with.
Coordinate the Rest of Your Home
While not every room in your home needs to have the same color scheme, it’s important that the colors flow naturally. So, if you have one room with a bright pink and teal color scheme, don’t decorate the next one with navy and red. One way to ensure the colors in your rooms flow together is to invert your color combination for adjoining rooms. For example, if your sitting room has green walls and white accents, the next room over could be mostly white with bright green accents.
Vivid colors can be beautiful in both contemporary and classical homes. We decorated this traditional cottage in University Park with bright pink colors.
Although every year sees new colors come into fashion, try not to focus exclusively on what’s trending. A room with a well-balanced, aesthetically pleasing color scheme will always look great no matter the year.
By following some of the tips outlined above, you’ll hopefully have the knowledge you need to start incorporating bold colors in your home. However, if you’re still not confident that you can integrate your favorite eye-popping fabrics, wallpapers, and paint colors, consider giving us a call. As you can see from the photos of recent projects featured here, we have a lot of experience working with color. Call our Dallas office at 214-232-9501 or send an email to info@chambersinteriors.com to schedule a free consultation.
