No Fail Paint Color Pairings!! (Part 1-Cool Color Palette)
It is hard to get paint wrong when dealing with gray and beige. Yet, one should not limit oneself to gray and beige alone. Color is the fastest way to give any room a lift! Below are some NO FAIL color schemes to add interest to your rooms. Every great paint palette consists of a dark , medium , light and pop of color. With any of these palettes, the colors can all be used as paint applications. However, most of the time two to three paint colors are used and the other colors are brought in through furniture and accessories using these pops color. As with any changes you make to your home, know thyself! If your threshold for color is low, stick to the schemes in the first half of this post. What you wear is a great indicator for your color threshold. Take a look in your closet. If you own very neutral (black included) clothing and very little color or pattern, you probably have a low threshold for color. If you are looking to dip your toes in the “color pond”, start simple by adding only one pop of color to your room. Painting (and wallpapering) the ceiling is one of my favorite design tricks for adding interest to any room. However, I would recommend starting a little less ambitiously by keeping dark or accent colors to the bottom half of the room.
Part 1 of this post deals with the color schemes using cool colors such as gray, beige, blues and pinks. It is impossible to get it wrong with these schemes. At the end of the post, I will showcase a few bolder palettes for those of you who are more daring. All of the paints used in the first part of this post are Benjamin Moore colors.
In the room below, the throw pillows and blanket are the dark color, the headboard features the medium color, the walls are the light color and the pillows and bench showcase the pop of color.
This paint palette features Chelsea Gray as the dark color, Waynesboro as the medium Taupey color, Muslin as the light, fresh color and Melrose Pink as the pop of color.
This next palette showcases white, gray and blue. The first room is a bold look that uses the pop of color liberally. Painting the ceiling using the accent color creates major drama and visual interest. The second room uses a softer palette with the pop of blue used on the pillows, art and ottoman. The deep color is used on the rug to anchor the room, and the light color is used on the wall.
Below is a gray, beige, cream and yellow paint palette. In these rooms, the pops of color are featured using accessories.
For the more daring, here are some pairings from BHG that will really take any room up a few notches. Notice that all of the colors used are the same intensity. Choose one color to serve as the main “anchor” color, and use the others as accents and pops to add visual interest.
A caveat to using a really bold color palette like the ones above is that any contiguous rooms should feature a neutral more subdued palette. In addition, those rooms should have accessories which feature a few of the colors in your bold color room to create coherence. There is nothing worse than every room featuring a different bold color. It should never look as though Crayola had too many RBVs and came home and vomited all over your home……..not good!! Choose colors like Muslin and Carlisle Cream for the rooms that lead into your bolder rooms.
Next up is Part 2 of this post: Paint Color Schemes using warm colors. STAY TUNED!!! Let me know if there are any colors that you have been dying to use, and need help pairing with other colors.
Thanks for reading!
xo Laurie