Creating a color palette for your home

Have you ever entered a space that feels so cohesive? Like everything is meant to be there and nothing is out of place? If so, color likely has a lot to do with it.

Alternatively, without thought put into a broader color palette, homes can feel jarring and abrasive. Ultimately, like they weren’t well thought out.

A home color palette is functional as well - it allows you to move furniture and decor from room to room which can help save money! I’ve redone full sections of my home with items I already own because it all goes together.

I’m fortunate that my husband, Brian, and I agree on about 90% to design decisions. We both gravitate to muted colors and a clean, modern design. We also both love a flair of dark bold colors. If we were on our own, his space would likely have more warmer colors (like burnt orange) and mine would likely have more pink. But where we meet in the middle works for us.

So, how did we come up with a color palette for our home?

Nothing in isolation.

We don’t change a color without thinking about how it flows with the rest of our home. Specifically, what is the view from outside of the room?

What will the view be from the hallway? From a different room completely? All of these are important to take into consideration because the view into another room impacts the room you’re in. The view into our guest room from our hallway was the driving factor in my finishing this room.

I started thinking about this a lot during a recent trip to The Met. Art museums have been moving away from white walls and embracing color. Farrow & Ball curated the wall colors perfectly here - we see 6 different colors on the walls and trim but they are so complimentary they appear to flow together.

Where to start?

If you are working with all white (or the realtor craze of light grey everywhere), it may be hard to get started. I recommend meeting yourself where you are. Pay attention to what you currently have - what colors do you gravitate to in your wardrobe? What color art work do you own? What colors do you like in other’s homes?

When I painted my powder room recently, I realized while describing the color to a friend that it was almost an exact match to my bag. We are creatures of habit. Start with what you have and build a palette that makes YOU happy.

Make technology work for you

There are some great online resources that can help you figure this out.

Canva’s color palette generator let’s you upload a photo and auto creates a palette for you. From there, you can color match or find something similar.

I follow along to the @colorpalettecinema Instagram which can give you some gorgeous inspiration.

Brian even created his own paint color by finding the hex code of a color he liked and created the paint with myperfectcolor.com. It was shipped right to our door and he gets a ton of compliments about it.

Overall, the opportunities are endless. I prefer muted colors and neutrals - but bold, bright colors can look amazing with the right overall palette.

Have fun creating!