Planning a Whole House Color Scheme

My heart is full of glee whenever I find free short courses like the School of Decorating’s Planning a Whole House Color Scheme. This is a preview of their Create a Cohesive Home with Color full course. I love how non-designers like me get to understand the concept of deciding a color for our home. 

I did not enroll to the full course as I’ve hired an awesome interior designer and I got the right color scheme for my tiny home. However, it’s nice to learn the right way of planning the right color scheme for our house. Thanks Jackie Hernandez for sharing great tips about the topic!

As always, sharing my notes:

Some people can relate to the struggles with choosing colours for their home, having colors that are not coordinated and doesn’t have a flow within the rooms. Worse, not having a color palette that is not cohesive. It’s time for a new approach. It’s time to pick out a color palette for the whole house versus doing it room per room. It makes sense that way as it makes them cohesive.

The Whole House Philosophy

• choose all your wall colours at the same time
• choose colours that coordinate well with each other, even if they won’t be used in the same room
• choose colours that can be repeated in different rooms (think of the big picture not each individual room)

Benefits of Whole House Colors

• Create a cohesive home
• make color decisions once and never think about it again
• feel confident in your wall color choices

3 Parts of a Whole House Color Scheme

1. Accent Color – used for home decor art & accessories
2. Fixed Finishes – used for elements you don’t want to change
3. Main Colors – used for walls, upholstery, etc

Accent Colors

• more fluid and can easily be changed, don’t let it dictate your main color
• limited palette throughout your house
• three places rule – each accent color appears three or more times
• echoing (repeating the same colors in different ways)

Fixed Finishes

• permanent finishes in your home that aren’t easily changed
  • wood floors, cabinetry, tile and stone, wall to wall carpets
• affect how wall colours look (neutrals are colors too and they have color undertones)
• must consider the dominant undertone of fixed finishes before choosing wall colours or other finishes (e.g., warm undertones – yellow, orange & red)

Decide if you want your undertones to blend or contrast

• Option A (Blend) – red undertone, white paint
• Option B (contrast) – red undertone, grey paint

Main Colors

• covers large surface areas such as wall paints, upholstery, rugs, beddings
• needs less colours than you think
• myth & truth
  • myth – you should choose wall colours last
  • truth – you can choose all your wall colours first (and never have to pick paint colours again!)
• five-color system
  • white
    • use on any trim, cabinetry or home decor accents.
    • choose between a warm white or a cool white
    • choose to complement your undertone
  • neutral
    • open floor plan, hallways, closets
    • choose between beige, grey and greyish
  • bold, 2nd & 3rd colors
    • need to be carefully coordinated to create a cohesive look
    • before choosing colours, decide on a color harmony to follow
      • monochromatic – varying shades of same color
      • analogous – neighbouring colors with subtle contrast
      • complementary – higher contrast, one color is opposite the other colours in the color wheel

Once you have chosen your 5 main colors, you can decide on your accent colors and so on.

If you find this very helpful and would like to know more, you can click this link to enroll for the Create a Cohesive Home with Color class.  Apart from what I shared above, other lessons include color choice (basics of color theory for decorating), identifying undertones in fixed finishes, how to choose your main colours, how to choose decorating accent colors, proven plan to transform your home with color and a lot more.