Where to start when picking home colors?

savethebees · 2025-04-28T23:18:18+00:00

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I'm super excited to be finally moving into an apartment where I can paint all the walls and even the cabinets. But I realized I have no idea where to start. It's a 2-bedroom, 1 bathroom apartment with a main room that includes a sitting area and kitchen. The floors are a basic walnut wood color and the counters are a darker chocolate brown.

I'd love to actually get some color on the walls in the bedrooms, main room, and kitchen cabinets that looks cohesive.

The only large furniture item I own is a light blue couch like this one.

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Comments

Zephy

Oh, color! Hooray — color is fun!

When I was starting out, I thought there were some rules for home colors, like there were certain shades that were acceptable and others that weren't.

So the biggest lesson for me was that colors for the home are the same as colors for clothes or nail polish or pictures or whatever — the best thing to do is pick what you like. If you're ho-hum about a color but think it's the kind of thing that works on a wall, the truth is that it will still feel ho-hum to you on the wall. Whereas if you pick a color you think is pretty, it will be pretty on the wall too. And that's really about the size of it.

One easy shortcut is to take some object with colors you think are pretty (a scarf, a rug, a painting), especially something that might go into that room, pick 3 or 4 of its colors, and match your room colors to them. For example, you could put the lightest of the 3 colors on the walls, a second color on the furniture and rugs, and use the brightest or darkest colors for accents (pillows, lampshades, a side chair). That's just a suggestion, of course.

Enjoy! Picking colors can be a blast.

lillysomethingsx

Picking colors is challenging but there are ways to simplify the process.

You need to go with a mix that feels comfortable and satisfying to you. If you want something specific, try coolors, it's a handy tool that picks matching color palettes.

Then I'd suggest you play around with the space (colors, layouts) in 3d and try everything there before doing any major renovation.

Hopefully this helps a bit! ☺️

DanielaAraya

I love @Zephy's advice! I agree on the shortcut trick. If you don't know where to start, it's helpful to have a jumping off point. Find an item in your home (whether that be artwork, a statement rug, your sofa) that you love and use that as the thing to pull color inspiration from. I like to use a color sensor tool (mine is called Nix Color Sensor) to scan colors IRL and get matching paint shades. I always recommend testing and using your own eye to choose what works best for you, but it's a helpful place to start!

Zephy

I had another thought (sorry, I'm being irrepressible!) taking off from your light blue couch. Picking home colors is not that different from picking what colors to wear, though the areas to cover with color are larger and you can't change them quite as fast. Most of us have more practice choosing clothes, so we've developed some preferences there. Your couch is about the same color as light blue jeans. So, what tops would you wear with light blue jeans? Running through the spectrum: you could wear some purples. You could wear several different shades of blue. You could wear some greens. You could wear yellow, orange and red. You could wear black or brown or beige or gray. You could of course wear white (with nearly any other color scarf as an accent — lime green?). The light blue color is almost a neutral and could work with lots of different things (good choice on your part!). But some people really prefer to wear their jeans with a classic white T, while others would prefer a bright red sweater, or black cashmere, or a blue-and-green plaid flannel shirt, or a pink-and-yellow floral top. So, all kinds of things could work, but I bet you have preferences. So, just pretend your couch is a pair of light jeans, and create an outfit to go with it! And ditto for the wood tones in your floors (like shoes or a belt?) and brown kitchen counters. Don't get hung up on those midcentury palettes — those are just suggestions, and your couch color isn't really on those palettes anyway. Pick what you like, and have fun!

savethebees

Thank you everyone for your really thoughtful replies! They are very appreciated :)

DanielaAraya

Will you keep us posted on what you decide? Love to see progress pics! ❤️

savethebees

Here are the paint colors I've selected. I'm actually painting the main room white since my possessions are pretty colorful. I was fairly nervous about choosing a really intense color for the walls then having everything else I own be super colorful. The rest of the apartment will be blue (main bedroom) and yellow (office). I'm also considering painting the main room trim and interior doors in a light purple.

DanielaAraya

This color palette is delicious. You absolutely nailed it!