Your Guide to Decorating With Color the Fun Way
Revive your interiors with colors that speak to you!
Whether you're fond of neutral color palettes or enjoy bold color schemes, every room needs a little bit of color. You can use anything from pastel shades to saturated jewel tones to help add depth and personality to your space. Wall art, table vases, decorative objects, wallpaper, area rugs, accent furnishings, throw pillows, and blankets are just a few examples of decor you can use to add a pop of color to any room. Follow these steps for decorating with color to fall in love with your home all over again!
1. Consider Your Current Color Palette
When decorating with color, it might be helpful to pull from a room's current color palette to determine which color(s) work best for decor. You may benefit from throw pillows or blankets that have a whimsical color palette (think light and breezy pastels) if your bedroom has whitewashed furnishings and walls. Or, you can shock the system in neutral spaces by incorporating rich-hues (think magenta, teal, emerald, sapphire, or ruby red) through throw pillows or blankets.
Tip!
Check out these Color Palette Ideas for Living Rooms, Bedrooms, & More to learn more about choosing a color palette for decor and furniture.
2. Start With a Few Simple Swaps
Ease into and play around with colorful home decor to get more comfortable with adding vibrant shades to neutral spaces. Start simple with one or two colorful decor swaps to build your confidence. A red area rug and a few colorful abstract art prints may be just what you need to liven up brown leather and traditional wood trim.
Another method for decorating with color is to go all out in smaller spaces like powder rooms, linen closets, laundry rooms, hallways, or home offices-turned guest rooms. This will help you build up your confidence to experiment and decorate with color on a bigger scale in areas like your living room, kitchen, bedroom, or dining room. This powder room incorporates blue, orange, and yellow tones through stunning wallpaper and artwork, towels and countertop accessories, waste bins, and ceramic planters.
It's also helpful to use colorful decor as a way to highlight a specific part of a room. This could mean elevating a cool architectural feature or brightening up a neutral corner. Examples include incorporating color on or around your fireplace mantel, on your coffee table, on the entryway table, around your breakfast nook, or on your sofa. Accentuate a fireplace with a multicolored display of decorative books and a fashionable abstract print. Bring your wooden coffee table to life with a colorful decorative tray and a beautiful floral arrangement, a bold-colored vase, or both!
Tip!
You can also use bright pops of decor in the form of artwork or area rugs to hide imperfections on your walls and floors!
5. …Or Add Color At Every Visual Level
Once you get more comfortable decorating with color, it's time to step it up a notch. Think about how you can add and layer color throughout the room for a cohesive look. We highly recommend starting with a patterned area rug to ground the color scheme. Add color at mid-eye level with a vase and floral arrangement on the coffee table and throw pillows and blankets on the sofa. Draw the eyes upward with floral paintings on the walls.
This living room works so well because each decor piece’s color ties into the artwork on the wall. The red and purple notes from the area rug and the floral arrangement have the same hues as the painting. Similarly, the light pink throw pillows and the seafoam green throw blanket also reflect the colors in the painting.
When in doubt, incorporate decor in shades of the same color as statement furniture pieces like sofas or bed frames. This bedroom uses blue floral wallpaper to lift the rich blue tones of the headboard. Opt for a slightly lighter shade of blue wallpaper to really make the headboard pop. You can also do the same with a lighter blue area rug, table lamps, artwork, or vases.
Tip!
Get inspired by these 16 Monochromatic Rooms: Easy Ways to Achieve Monochromatic Interior Design to learn how to decorate within the same color palette.
7. Play With Complementary Colors
Opposites attract, and so do complementary colors on the color wheel (think orange and blue, purple and yellow, or red and green). These color pairs sit directly across from one another on the color wheel, which makes them go-to combinations for decor color schemes. Each pair provides a combination of warm and cool tones to brighten and warm while also grounding and relaxing the space. This living room uses a combination of blue and orange throw pillows and a blue-and-orange patterned area rug to pair complementary colors. You can also play off of furniture or wall colors with your decor. For example, you can toss a pair of green throw pillows on a red velvet sofa or hang up purple curtains to balance yellow wallpaper.
Tip!
Explore even more possible color combinations for decor with the help of these guides:
What Colors Go With Red
What Colors Go With Yellow
What Colors Go With Green
What Colors Go With Navy Blue
What Colors Go With Purple
What Colors Go With Pink
What Colors Go With Brown
8. …Or Pair Similar Colors
Still deciding how to pick a color palette for home decor? Pair colors that are right next to each other on the color wheel for less of a contrast. This could be yellow and green or yellow and orange, blue and green or blue and purple, purple and blue or purple and red, and red and purple or red and orange. These color combinations share the same undertones, which allows them to seamlessly blend together when incorporated through decor. The result is a well-decorated space that just works! The living room above uses yellow curtains to offset the cooling green effect of the wallpaper. A rich yellow throw blanket warms up the sofa, while a well-placed houseplant lets its dark green foliage do the work. A green vase and yellow-white floral arrangement are the stars of the coffee table.
Inspire relaxation, happiness, creativity, or elegance with the right decor colors! Colors like blue and green evoke feelings of relaxation, which makes them perfect for bedrooms, living rooms, and other lounge spaces. Colors like yellow and orange promote feelings of happiness and creativity, which works well for decor in home offices or anywhere that your energy needs a boost. Red and purple are both great decor colors to add a luxury look and feel to any room because of their rich tones. Decorating with bright colors like hot pink or spring green in your entryway helps create an energizing feel, whether you're getting ready to head off to work or welcoming dinner guests.
Tip!
Reference these guides for more guidance on which decor colors work best for different rooms.
What Colors Are Calming? A Guide to Creating a Relaxing Space
How to Choose Living Room Colors: 17 Color Palette Ideas
The Best Bedroom Colors to Enhance Your Sleep Quality
10. Introduce Colorful Decor That Matches Your Home's Design Style
Enhance your interior design scheme with the right decor colors. Blue throw pillows, blankets, table lamps, artwork, and area rugs help elevate coastal-inspired spaces where blue color palettes are a must. Mid-century modern spaces benefit from teal, olive green, burnt sienna, navy blue, or mustard yellow decor. Boho interiors benefit from decor in a range of saturated jewel tones like sapphire, magenta, ruby, and citrine. Farmhouse style prefers relaxed colors like sage green, blush pink, and pastel shades of blue or yellow for decor.
Tip!
Interested in decorating in accordance with your design style? Review How to Decorate With a Tropical Color Palette to get inspired on using colorful decor to convey a certain style.
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Upgrade your home with colorful decor, now!
