Have you ever wondered how come that some people’s houses look much better than yours? Generally, when we fantasise about a perfect style for our furniture and combination of interior colours, it always somehow stays a fantasy. We usually have a bunch of furniture given to us as a gift or we do not have enough money to redecorate the whole house, so we end up with a home that isn’t stylish. Having too many furniture can sometimes be pretty stylish and sometimes it can overcrowd the room. Messy home is never a pretty place to live in or to visit. However, if we can see it in other houses, it must be possible, even without hiring a designer. You just need to learn a few tricks and you’ll be well on your way to having a house everyone admires.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BT2yXCQFpP_/
Australian International Furniture Fair 2017 Exhibitor – ARIES TRADING (Stand L26)
The 60-30-10 rule
One of the most common problems in colour matching while decorating is deciding how many interior colours to use and in what proportion. If you are an amateur, stick with the classic 60-30-10 rule. That means choosing three colours, one of which will be the main colour. It should fill out 60% of the space in the room. This means a large percentage of walls, sofas or big floor rugs should be in this colour. After that, choose your secondary colour that should take up twice less space than your main colour. For example, you can paint a small portion of the walls, a few chairs and cupboards in this colour. Finally, finish up with 10% of your third colour. You might want to save this one for decorative pillows or tablecloths.
Color schemes
Another critical issue is choosing the right interior colours. How can we learn to do this? Well, knowledge is the key and by knowledge, we mean learning the relationships between colours and some basic colour schemes. For instance, a monochromatic colour scheme consists of only one colour and using different lighting and saturation. You need to understand how colours work together and which one do not go together. This is not something you cannot learn or search online in order to find some good colour combinations. Neutral colours are great candidates for this colour scheme. Triad and analogous colour schemes are great for applying the 60-30-10 rule, while a tetradic colour scheme is for older members of the audience as it involves choosing two sets of complementary colours.
Psychology of colours
Before starting anything, you need to get yourself a good colour wheel where you can find which colours are complementary, warm or cold. After that, simply decide on one colour scheme for every room. Using this wheel will make the whole process much easier. Plus, the chance of you making a mistake is almost eliminated since you’d be using a safe method, the magical wheel. You can break this rule sometimes and make a bold decision to combine interior colours you usually would not. New trends are always changing and the thing that changes the most is the colour of the year. People are often afraid of bright colours that start small and incorporate a small detail to see how it fits.
Cold or Warm Tones
How do we decide on which rooms should be warm, cold or combined? This is entirely up to you. However, the general opinion is that the bathroom is ice, the kitchen is fire, while the rest of your house can be a mixture of warm and cold. Of course, this doesn’t mean your kitchen should be painted all red and the bathroom blue, but choosing a colour scheme that is predominantly like this is generally a good idea in this case. When it comes to creating a mixture of warm and cold, a complementary colour scheme is a great idea as it guarantees the presence of both because they are on the opposite sides of the wheel, which means one is cold and the other is warm.
As you can see, choosing colours while decorating doesn’t have to mean trouble. Simply follow some of the rules that were invented by professionals and you won’t be making any mistakes. Later on, as you become more experienced, you’ll be able to experiment, but for now, you might want to stick to the safe strategies first.
Join 2017 AIFF International Seminar Series & Workshops with Wendy Rennie, Colour & Concept Manager, Haymes’ Paints and Andrea Lucena-Orr, Colour & Communication Manager, Dulux Australia – who will show you how to translate global colour trends into a local palette that considers uniquely Australian factors such as the light and the elements.