Express Yourself!

You’re probably asking yourself “how does color factor in with furnishing my home?” Your furniture, your accessories and all the colors in between describe you. It tells your “hidden” story. It expresses you in the most comfortable setting. It’s who you are!

Before furnishing your home, learn these basic steps on how to mix and match your colors properly.

Step #1 – The Pros & Cons of Color

Prior to shopping for your furniture, DO NOT choose a paint color for your walls first! You could do that first, however; your walls could be one unique color, but your furniture could be difficult to match.

Maybe you decide to change the color of the wall last minute and now your furniture doesn’t match. Or maybe you picked out your wall color, but because nothing matches, you just stick with the neutral colored furniture.

Did you know that colors affect our daily lives? Every color impacts our personalities and moods. Always bring in a few color swatches for your walls when shopping for your furniture. This simplifies the kind of atmosphere you’re trying to create.

Take a look at the Pros & Cons Chart.

Step # 2 – Color Cues

There are 6 basic colors: red, blue, yellow, green, orange and purple. Three of these colors are your primary colors (red, blue & yellow). The last three (green, orange & purple) are your secondary colors, which are created by mixing your primaries. Tertiary colors are the colors made between both primary and secondary colors (yellow-orange or blue-green).

Now that these colors are broken down in groups, we can use them to pick out our furniture! Huzzah!

As mentioned before, you have to keep in mind the setting you want in the room(s) you are furnishing. Thus, we have what is called “color schemes.”

Color schemes help us determine how much of a certain color to use and how to apply it throughout the given space. The best way to choose color for your furniture is by what we like to call “The Bucket Rule”.

The Bucket Rule

The Bucket Rule establishes a dominant color, a secondary color and an accent color. This allows you to measure out the colors within your furniture. Also, try using some neutral colors for accent pieces. These colors are brown, white, grey and black. Neutral colors really help make your dominant color stand out.

You DO NOT have to follow the bucket rule when shopping for your furniture; mix it up! Here’s an example of the schemes and the “The Bucket Rule.”

Monochromatic Scheme – The same color, but different shades and tints of that color (light blue & dark blue).
Analogous Scheme – The neighboring colors (red & purple).
Complementary Scheme – The opposing colors (blue & orange).
Split Complementary Scheme – The neighboring colors and one of their opposing colors (yellow & green + red).
Triadic Scheme – The equally spaced out colors- forms a triangle (green, purple & orange).

Example A – Using a monochromatic scheme is the easiest.

Example B – Using an analogous scheme is second easiest.

Step #3 – The Vibe

It’s all about that comforting vibe when you walk through your front door; it’s good to be home! And now having a little knowledge on how color works, you can finally express yourself!

Rhythm is the way the vibes flow within your home. The types of patterns, colors and The Bucket Rule are all factors in creating a rhythm within your furniture.

Balancing the rhythm can be done in three different ways, depending on the space you have to work with.

• The first arrangement is symmetrical, where everything mirrors each other on both sides of the room.

• The second arrangement is asymmetrical, where you balance your furniture and its rhythm visually. Dark colors tend to have more visual weight than light colors, keep this in mind. Think of an asymmetrical balance as a ship. You want to keep both sides equally afloat regardless of how much is on either side.

• The last arrangement is radial, where you use a center focal point and create a circular ambiance with your furniture.

Scaling is the most important of all. It’s always good to know what your biggest piece of furniture is and your smallest. Just like the ship mentioned earlier, it doesn’t matter how much is on each side, but it does matter how heavy the furniture is or visually is. Solid furniture takes up space!

Emphasis is all about that pizazz reflecting off your furniture to your wall colors. It should start off with your dominant feature in your room (your sofa or your bed) and extend to the rest of the room.

For example, a green ottoman and chair with purple pillows. The emphasis would be the purple pillows because they create that pizazz off of the green.

Harmony is formed by all these factors unified together. Harmony establishes function, mood and personality.