Choosing a colour scheme feels daunting because there are so many options. It gets much easier when you work through it in order: find a starting point, build a simple palette, then adapt it to each room. This guide takes you through those steps, with examples of how accessories can carry colour from one space to the next.
Step 1: Find your starting point
Rather than staring at paint charts, start with something you already love. It might be a rug, a painting, a fabric or a wallpaper design. A pattern is especially useful because the designer has already chosen colours that work together. Browse our wallpaper and fabric collections and pick out a design that makes you smile, then use its colours as your palette.
Think about the feeling you want too. Warm colours such as reds, oranges and yellows feel cosy and sociable. Cool colours such as blues, greens and lilacs feel calmer and more restful. Neutrals give you a backdrop that lets everything else stand out.
Step 2: Build a simple palette
A reliable formula is to split the room roughly into three. A main colour covers about 60% (usually the walls), a secondary colour about 30% (curtains, upholstery, a rug), and an accent the final 10% (cushions, lamps, vases). Most homes look best with one palette that runs throughout, with each room using the same colours in different proportions.
Check the light before you commit. Paint large samples and look at them at different times of day. North-facing rooms make colours look cooler and greyer; south-facing rooms warm them up.
Step 3: Adapt it room by room
Living room
This is where you can be most expressive, because it is used day and night. Choose a main colour that works under both daylight and lamplight, and use the sofa and rug for your secondary colour. Cushions are where the accent comes in. The Melagranata Cushion from Mind The Gap is a good example: a sunny yellow background with a pomegranate in the centre and pale blue motifs around it, so it could link a yellow accent with a blue scheme in one go.
Bedroom
Most people sleep better in softer, calmer shades, so take your palette's quieter colours and save the strongest for small touches. Bedside lighting matters here as much as paint: warm light flatters most colours at night. A cordless lamp such as the Bellboy Lamp from Fatboy, with a warm LED you can dim by holding the touch button, is easy to move from bedside to dresser as you try different arrangements.
Kitchen and dining room
Kitchens have a lot of fixed colour already, from units, worktops and flooring, so build your scheme around those rather than against them. Bring in your accent through tableware, blinds and chair cushions, which are easy to change.
Hallway
The hall connects everything, so it is a good place to use your main colour or a slightly deeper version of it. Because you pass through rather than linger, it can also take a bolder wallpaper.
Garden and terrace
Do not forget outdoor spaces you can see from inside. Repeating a colour on a terrace links it with the room beside it. Sturdy pieces such as Fred's Table from Fatboy, made from weatherproof aluminium and inspired by the classic picnic table, give you a place to bring cushions and tableware outside in your chosen colours.
Step 4: Tie the house together with accessories
Once the walls are settled, accessories do the joining up. Repeat your accent colour at least three times in each room, in different objects and textures: a cushion, a vase and a print, for example. Then let the same accent turn up in neighbouring rooms so the house feels connected as you move through it. Our cushions and throws and home decor ranges are the easiest places to experiment, because they can change with the seasons.
When you are ready to start, browse our furniture and accessories for pieces in your palette, or visit the shop in Somerset and the team will help you build a scheme around something you love.
