News

One of the most enjoyable parts of moving into a new home is choosing your decor and color scheme. Color can change the way we feel, as this article in Psychology Today explains, so the colors we choose are important.

However, it’s a lot trickier than picking blue or green. Sherwin-Williams, for example, has more than 1,500 colors! You don’t want to get stalled trying to choose between Waterfall and Tame Teal, for example. (Some people might not even be able to tell the difference between those two!) So where to begin?

What Colors Do You Like?

You will be living in these rooms day after day, year after year, so it’s essential to choose colors that make you feel good, even if they’re not this year’s trendiest colors. Paint companies choose a new Color of the Year, well, every year. Trends fade, and why would you want your house to look like everyone else’s, anyway?

Benjamin Moore and Sherwin-Williams both have a color finder tool online that helps you narrow your choices down by choosing your favorite color families or collections, then seeing your top shades alongside some potential accent colors.

Create a Pinterest Board

Find any colorful pictures that are pleasing to you and pin them all on your Color Scheme Ideas board. These might be photos of bedrooms, living rooms, bathrooms and kitchens, as well as nature scenes, clothing, theater sets, advertisements or anything else. After you’ve collected a lot of photos, take a look to see what colors are showing up again and again.

Do a Google Search

Do an image search for “color schemes” and see which palettes are most appealing to you. You can also visit Paletton and play around with the colors and shades to find your favorite hues.

Take a Look at This!

HGTV shared 15 Designer Tricks for Picking a Perfect Color Palette, and these are our five favorite tips from that article.

Look to the Largest Pattern in the Space

HGTV recommends looking at the colors present in your rug or another prominent feature in the room and building your scheme from that. A blue, black and beige couch, for example, might inspire you to paint the walls beige and add some blue wooden chairs, throw pillows, and wall art.

Check Your Closet

As the article says, we tend to buy clothes in colors we like. If your closet is full of green shirts, you might want to choose a shade of jade, forest or kelly to incorporate into your home decor.

The 60-30-10 Rule

When decorating a space, divide the colors into components of 60 percent of a dominant color (walls), 30 percent of a secondary color (upholstery) and 10 percent of an accent color (accessories), advises designer Mark McCauley.

This also ties in with the Rule of Three, another tip found in the article, which states you should limit your palette to three colors.

You Can’t Go Wrong with Black and White

The HGTV article refers to black and white as “timeless” and recommends a little touch of a third accent color to complete the look.

Start with the Main Rooms

After you choose a color scheme for your living room and kitchen, use one or more of those colors throughout the rest of your home. This is key to creating a whole-home color palette. Even if the furniture, style and, of course, purpose of each room is different, color brings the entire home together.

The most important thing is to have fun and choose the colors you love. The time you spend choosing your color palette will benefit you for years to come. And if you change your mind? No big deal! You can easily paint over your choices in a few years if another palette starts to call to you. Read the entire HGTV article for the rest of the designer tricks for choosing a color palette, and enjoy decorating your new home.

Are you looking for a new home in Orange County, Long Beach or the Los Angeles metro area? Brandywine Homes is opening six new communities this year offering a combined 265 single-family homes and townhomes. If you would like more information, sign up for our interest list here.