How to Choose a Color Palette for Interior Design: 10 Tips

Color is the main aspect that sets the mood for the entire interior, so you should approach its selection with special attention. This task often puts people in a dilemma, but our ten tips will help you make the right choice.

1. Pay Attention to Your Wardrobe

Your wardrobe is a great source of inspiration for choosing colors. When we prefer a certain color in clothing, we try to highlight our strengths and show our character. We unconsciously choose colors that improve our mood. Therefore, your favorite colors can be safely transferred to the interior.

2. Use the Rule of Three Colors

Feeling lost in a vast variety of colors? Remember the golden rule of three colors: choose three shades and repeat them in different elements of decoration.

3. Remember the 60/30/10 Ratio

The color ratio in space should correspond to the 60/30/10 formula, where 60% should be taken up by the main, dominant color, 30% — secondary color, and 10% remains for color accents. Usually, the dominant color is the walls, secondary — furniture upholstery, and accent — accessories and decorative items.

4. Add Variety with Similar Tones

An interior using only three colors can be too bland. To avoid this, yet not create color chaos, add lighter or darker shades of the colors already used.

5. Maintain Balance Between Warm and Cool Tones

A harmonious interior always combines warm and cool colors. A saturated warm color should be complemented by two cool, light tones, and vice versa: a bold and vibrant cool color should be softened with sunny warm tones.

6. Use Proven Color Combinations

If you're afraid of making a mistake in color combinations, refer to the color wheel. You can be absolutely confident in several options: complementary, equidistant, analogous, and monochromatic schemes.

7. Remember the Weight of Different Colors

The choice of color depends on the size and layout of the room. Soft, muted tones and simple patterns make space appear more spacious and open because they have less visual weight. Therefore, they are ideal for small rooms. Conversely, bolder, brighter, and more saturated colors, as well as large patterns, suit spacious rooms because they add visual weight.

8. Don't Forget That Any Material and Texture Has Its Own Color

Wooden floors, brick walls, chrome hardware, and gilded mirror frames — any detail in the space has its own shade that should be taken into account.

Too much variety in colors can turn an interior into a true chaos, and the final drop might be such a seemingly insignificant detail as the color of cabinet handles that don't match other metal elements.

9. Remember Harmony

An interior becomes harmonious when darker tones are placed lower, and lighter ones higher. Even in light Scandinavian interiors, the floor is darker than the walls, following nature where the earth is always darker than the sky.

10. Create a Color Swatch Catalog

Collect your own catalog of color swatches when selecting paints, materials, furniture upholstery, and decorative items. It’s quite hard to remember the right shade, but with swatches you’ll always be able to easily navigate in stores.

Text: Lana Zolotar

Photo: Cover design by Olga Moiseeva