color ideas for home decor, room by room

Choosing the right colors to paint your living room, bedroom, kitchen or bathroom is easier said than done. Bright colors can grow tiresome, while neutral colors might make an interior seem dull. The best advice is to choose a relatively light base color - a pastel, beige or grey - that can easily adapt to your taste, existing décor, and desire for change. Next, combine this color with a vibrant or subdued complementary color.
These color combinations are interchangeable from one room to the next. Three-color combinations will result in a classic look, while four colors will give a more modern feel.

Living room
1/ beige - grey - cinder






Beige and grey hues are an inexhaustible source of inspiration. Used in a monochromatic scheme, as base colors or tone-on-tone, they suit any room. Beiges, which are more complex than they seem, can be enhanced with color, or toned down with black or white. Resulting colors include coral, sand, lichen, cinder, pearl, taupe and clay. Greys, too, should not be underestimated - they can be used plain, combined with white or black, or nuanced into more subtle blends with bluish, purplish or greenish undertones. These color combinations create a refined look.

2/ khaki - kiwi - taupe - lavender






This modern range, jazzed up with a dynamic shade of kiwi green, will look great in an "environmentally friendly" interior with wood, plants, wicker and light-colored fabrics.
Trichrome blacks (made by blending three primary colors) can also make a handsome modern or contemporary decor. The resulting slate grey and granite hues can be varied into different shades of khaki and olive by dosing the amounts of color.

Bedroom
3/ eggshell - pink - clay






This combination of soft, modern colors, with its strawberry milk and tangerine hues, is ideal for a child's bedroom. Emphasize the pink for girls, the orange for boys. For an adult's bedroom, opt for more neutral and soothing sand tones.

4/ chocolate - azure blue - grey - khaki






This more contemporary, masculine color set will complement exotic, dark wooden furniture or steel-based decors.

Kitchen
5/ olive - antique grey - pale yellow






These are timeless, mineral hues that will enhance both traditional and modern kitchen styles.

6/ beige - cherry red - grey - teal






These are happy colors for a punchy yet casual atmosphere. These color blends go well with white or light-colored wood furniture.

Bathroom
7/ turquoise - aqua green - lichen grey






Create a spa-like ambience with these variations of blue, evoking the invigorating and relaxing qualities of water.

8/ orange - charcoal grey - magenta - antique rose






This combination is inspired by Morocco, where beautiful combinations of faded hues with bright bursts of color abound. Suitable for bedrooms with a Moroccan Riad feel.

To get the most of this room-by-room color guide, determine the base color of your furnishings. Your couch is grey? A tone-on-tone scheme might work well; a brick color for the wall behind the couch can also produce a harmonious effect. To tone down this strong color, the best solution is to only use it for one wall or part of a wall, and to paint the rest of the room a neutral color such as taupe, beige, grey or cappuccino. Gentle, light-filtering colors bring a soft, soothing effect. For overall harmony, baseboards, woodwork or even an entire piece of furniture can be painted in a complementary color.

For ecological, natural paints, visit the following manufacturer websites: green planet paints and ecospaints

January 2007 [toolbox]
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