If you have a favorite color, there’s a way to bring it into your Madison home.
Are you tired of looking at your bland walls and accent décor? When you remodel do not undervalue your interior color choices. Color punctuates the overall interior design plan. It provides the backdrop for exciting furniture and finishing. And, it is the No. 1 accent element.
Do you remember the “color wheel” from grade school? It shows all the colors in family groups – red, blue and yellow primary colors plus green, orange and purple secondary colors. These are often blended as well, forming yellow-orange, red-orange and so on. There are so many variations it can make your head spin. That’s why experienced interior designers combine theory with applied science. Tapping into years of experience and training makes sense, doesn’t it? You don’t need to be comfortable with all the details of color theory. You need to be comfortable with what you like and what you want for your home. An ability to explain your thoughts is essential.
Start forming your plans with a few simple steps:
- Decide upon the mood you want to establish in your room. If you can, take a picture of a space where you feel comfortable and at ease. Maybe a hotel, friend’s home, Parade Of Homes site or even a restaurant.
- Note details – what colors, shades and textures in these places make you feel good?
- Apply color theory to your goals – different colors and shades of color have a big impact. Calming “cool” colors like purple, greens and blues are soothing. “Warm” colors including oranges, reds and yellows are energizing. Neutral and pastel colors are calming for bedrooms and office, study areas.
- Understand the light and space – colors have impact but it changes with the size of a room and the available light. Red is a high-energy color but in a small room with no windows its impact diminishes. Understanding the light you’re working with before you make a change saves time and aggregation. Time spent planning is well-invested, don’t you agree?
Interior Color Choices Can Reinvent Space
When you’re planning to knock out a wall – or add one –or rebuild cabinetry you create a new canvas on which designers work their magic. And, in the era of the open concept floor plan, mixing and matching colors that work together adds another challenge.
Skilled interior designers combine experience with color theory and science to make designs come to life.
The skilled interior designers at DC Interiors & Renovations understand color. They create efficient, elegant rooms that remain relevant and stylish year after year. They apply the principles of color theory combined with proven science. As you move ahead with a home remodel consider these suggestions:
- Coordinate with a thread of color – Pull rooms and spaces together with compatible colors. When you use a color in one area, continue with at least a small amount of the same color nearby. Think keeping the overall design cohesive even though the design is difference from one room to the next.
- “Bold is beautiful” – for a while.Reserve boldest colors for walls or accents that you can repaint or replaced if you get tired of them. You’re changing for a reason now, right? As trends come and go and your lifestyle changes you might change again in a few years.
- Don’t try to match everything exactly.Colors that share a color tone but don’t match exactly are often more interesting. Exact matches on different materials can be difficult.
- Balance the accent colors – Complementary colors look best when they are of equal intensity to main colors. Match bright to bright, pale with pale, and dark with dark.
- Think of contrast –Choose one predominant color accented by a selection of contrasting colors.
- Light up the space – Introduce plenty of light from new fixtures or new windows. Let light and shadow blend to separate the basic colors from more vivid accent colors.
A Room-by-room Color Review
Step back and take an objective look at your home. What do you want to accomplish with a renovation? Is your top priority, like many, a new more efficient kitchen? If you already have an open floor plan, how will it dovetail with the rest of the living space? Do you really want a country-style kitchen when the rest of the house is more modern? There’s a lot to keep in mind, isn’t there? That’s where a professional interior design team earns its keep.
Where do interior color choices come in? There’s a lot going on in the design world. White kitchen cabinets are falling out of favor. Stainless steel appliances are getting color coating. Often overlooked elements like sinks, faucets and cabinet hardware are more colorful than ever.
Consider the impact of interior color choices on the most remodeled rooms in Madison and across the country:
- Color in the kitchen – the kitchen plays a more critical role in daily life than ever before but its role has evolved. From cooking and dining room to study area, meeting place and jumping-off point for daily routines. It may be “party central” when guests arrive. Classic cabinetry and utilitarian designs are enhanced by texture, style and colors. White, gray and real wood is stylish and remains popular but don’t rule out bold colors and more decorative tile work.
- Brighter bathrooms – developments in decorative tiles bring an expanded palette of colors to the bathroom. Cabinetry, fixtures and accessories reflect color options, too. Natural textures complemented by bold colors are top choices in everything from powder rooms and guest baths to spa-like master suites.
Less Demand But No Less Important Rooms
National surveys are clear, the kitchen and bathroom are the two areas you look at most critically. However, even though they are less likely to be the focus of your renovation plans, other rooms come under scrutiny. All the living spaces in the house are prime candidates for a serious makeover. Consider the impact of color theory on these spaces:
- The “living room” – call it your living room, family room or whatever fits the spot where the family gathers most often is primed for an infusion of energy. After the year of Covid-19 homeowners are interested in more separation. The age of the formal living room may be coming back. Eye-popping interior designs are possible with separated living areas. When there’s an open floor plan you can blend space and use complementary colors to create separation where there isn’t a physical barrier. Color livens up a boring room or provides a comfy resting place.
- Bring back the dining room – on the same track as formal living rooms, formal dining rooms are making a comeback. They’re ideal for family meals, guest dinner parties and the holidays. Combining strategic base colors with colorful accents and décor items makes a dining room elegant and memorable.
- Welcoming bedrooms – if there’s a room to keep soft, neutral and warm it’s the bedroom. A splash of color can inspire you as the day begins but too much makes it hard to unwind at day’s end. Consider bringing color in via wallpaper and décor accents. Provide plenty of light for daily chores but make it dimmable for relaxing.
Basically, your interior color choices come down to whatever makes your home into the family’s “happy place.”
Rely Upon Pros For Best Interior Color Choices
When you peruse the popular media you’ll see a lot of trendy interior color choices
s. They might be supplemented by some with extreme choices. After surfing the Internet, flipping through magazines and watching popular remodeling TV episodes you may think your choices are pretty limited. Auto-inventor Henry Ford said “you can have any color… as long as it is black.” Sometimes you feel like “you can have any color kitchen as long as it’s white or gray,” don’t you? Well, nothing is further from reality.
Don’t worry. If you have a favorite color or favorite wallpaper pattern there’s a way to fit it into your home. Help is just a phone call or email away. The interior design team at DC Interiors & Renovations meets challenges like this every day. It has been providing colorful solutions to Madison area homeowners for years. See what we’ve done. Review our online portfolio completed projects. For additional ideas, make an appointment to visit our newly expanded showroom in Fitchburg. Join us, in person or electronically. The DC Interiors & Renovations designers are available to apply color theory and science to interior color choices for your Madison WI home.
American Society of Interior Designers
