Design Tip Tuesday: Color palettes
Tuesdays are now Design Tip Tuesdays! (Trumpets blare here – Yippee!). Each Tuesday I’ll be offering up some advice on design that you can apply to your own projects. Do you have something you’d like me to write about? Send it along by either posting a comment or emailing me. Include a photo if you like.
So let’s get started with a tip about color and proportion. I’m always advising clients and friends that scale is one of the most important things to pay attention to when it comes to interior design. Believe it or not, this applies to color as well. There are proportions in space and color that just seem right to the human eye. This is traditionally called the Golden Ratio. But I don’t want to get too technical. To learn more about that go here.
Anyway, for color using the proportions of 60/30/10 is a good place to start. Basically, 60% of your room is one color, such as the walls. The upholstery is the 30% and the 10% is an accent color used in accessories. This can be flipped around and used in all kinds of ways, but you get the general idea.
Here’s and example of this idea. Generally speaking,the room is 60% brown, about 30% is blue and 10% is red.
Where to start? Select a fabric for the upholstery and draw a paint color from the pattern. The upholstery’s overall color is the 30%. Or, if it’s a solid, it could be a shade or tint of the upholstery. That becomes the 60% paint color. Use a complimentary (opposite) color, a monochromatic scheme, whatever you like. Another color from the fabric is used for accessories such as pillows.
Here you see the window treatment, which was the starting point.It’s a Jim Thompson linen. The brown fabric, from Pindler & Pindler,
was chosen to go with the curtains and the lamp, while not red,
plays off the Thompson colors.
I recommend that you get swatches and play with them. There are so many ways to pull a room together, but what I want to get across is that if you’re new to decorating, using this proportion is a safe way to go about pulling things together. It can also be useful in working up a color palette for an entire house. You can play with your color proportions by changing them room-by-room.
Here’s a view showing a bit of the red chair with fabric (also from Pindler & Pindler).You can see how the Drapery fabric works with the red and
brown and blue in the room. (BTW, the room is not yet done,
so these are working photos. I’ll unveil the completed project when its complete.)
I firmly believe that rules are meant to be broken. But, if you start with a good rule and understand it, then you’ll know that you’re breaking it, why you’re doing it, and what you risk by doing so. How do you go about combining colors for a room?
2 Responses to “Design Tip Tuesday: Color palettes”
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Posted by Jennifer on July 13th, 2007 at 5:23 pm
I’ll address that on Tuesday! Can you email me with more information? Does the door open on the 13′ side? Email a photo, if you’ve got one.
Question for Design Tip Tuesday. How to create an attractive entry to your home when the front door opens up directly into your living room. The challenge being that the room is small to begin with, say 13 x 20.