How to Use Color Like a Pro

1. Welcome and Introduction: A. Hi. I'm Erica Fogelman and I want to warmly welcome you to my course that will cover nearly everything you need to know about how to use color successfully in your interior design. Why am I doing a course just focused on color? I cannot nor can any designer likely underscore just how important color is to your home. F. As you may know, each color can have a significant psychological effect on how you feel from blues and reds to lavenders and grays. Whether you are consciously aware of it or not, color does impact our mood and even how we feel about ourselves. Color can also be used to fix awkward spaces, make rooms appear larger or smaller, and of course, can completely change the mood of a room by simply changing its color scheme. So in short, your color selections can really make the difference between a boring or just okay room and a beautiful, well pulled together inviting room. With that said, my goal for you today is to help you become confident in how to use color skillfully in your own rooms so that you can create your ideal space. Before we jump into the course content, I think it's important to give you some information about myself. I own my own residential interior design business called Erica Dawn Interiors. Not only do I have a passion for creating beautiful spaces for my clients, but I also love to share my knowledge in a very practical way with others who have an interest in this topic. Whether they are looking to work in this field themselves perhaps, or they just want some help on how to pull together a room on their own. Now, with that said, thank you so much for joining me and let's go ahead and talk about what you'll specifically learn in this course. 2. Overview of the Course Content: Over the next couple of hours. Here is what you'll be learning. First, I'm going to start by showing you what a dramatic difference color can make in a room design. Then moving into section two, I will first teach you about basic color theory. Then we'll talk about how color theory is translated into practical application through the color wheel. You may be familiar with the color wheel, but I'm going to show you how to use it skillfully to create beautiful color schemes on your own. Additionally, I'm going to be walking you through an exercise where we examine the color blue and look at how the color changes based on the other colors that we pair it with. Also in this section, we will be talking extensively about the psychology of color. And looking at each main color individually to discuss what effect each color has on our mood and how each color has the ability to make us feel. Besides quizzes, activities are an important part of learning. That's why I've created activities along the way. Starting with an activity that will allow you to create some color schemes for rooms in your own home, or just for practice based on what you've learned in this section. Section three is all about the ideal color schemes for various types of rooms. First, we will be talking about some beautiful color schemes for north and south facing rooms, which may be an important consideration if you have north facing rooms that may be receiving little light. And or south facing rooms that will typically get quite a bit warmer than the rest of your home. Of course, I'll cover east and west facing rooms as well. I'll also share with you great color schemes for some of the main interior design styles. Everything from contemporary to traditional, and mid century modern to Bohemian. As well as ideal color schemes for the various types of rooms in your home. From bedrooms and dining rooms to offices and kids rooms. You'll learn what exactly is part of a color scheme. And you'll finish this section by creating a comprehensive color scheme for an entire home. In section four, we will talk about how to use color for mood and effect. Specifically, to use color to create a certain mood in a room. How to use color to make a space appear smaller or larger than it is. And how to use color to balance out awkwardly sized rooms. We'll then talk about how colors can change based on how they are used in the various textiles and materials we find in our home. And I'll show you how to mix patterns. Like a professional, you will then have a chance to solve two interior design color scheme dilemmas to increase your confidence in doing this in your own home. And finally, before we dive into the final section of the course, I will be pulling together all of the information you've learned so far to walk you through how to create your own perfect color scheme using the tool I've created specifically for you, which I know you'll find helpful. Finally, in section five, I will be focusing entirely on one of the main color sources in our rooms. The paint colors for your walls. Specifically, we will cover how many paint colors you should use in your home. How to narrow down your paint color choices. How to select the right sheen, the best white paint colors as nearly everyone has white somewhere in their home. The color difference between paint chips and the actual paint. How to test out paint colors effectively on your walls before you commit. And finally, how to successfully transition paint colors in your home like a pro. Because we will be covering a lot of technical information in this course. I've included a blank outline in the resources section that you can print out and use to jot down notes as we move through the course. I hope you are as excited as I am to get started. Remember, choosing colors for your home should be a fun and exciting experience. Despite all the technical information I'm going to be giving you today, let's not take ourselves too seriously. 3. 1 Easy Paint Hack to Take Any Room to The Next Level: Before we dive into color theory and the psychology of color, I want to first show you how you can use paint in perhaps an unexpected way to dramatically change the way an entire room looks and feels. What I'm going to share with you is a common technique that we designers use all of the time in our room designs. And it has to do with the fifth wall of a room, or as people commonly refer to it as the ceiling. Now, unless you're a designer, it's pretty common to not give a second thought to our ceilings. Instead, our ceilings are often left white since the day they were installed. But this is such a missed decorating opportunity. Let me show you why. Go ahead and take a look at this formal living room that I've put together. This is definitely a pretty room all on its own. But you'll notice that I've left the ceiling white, which as we now know, is pretty typical. But let's see what happens when we change the ceiling color. My first recommendation to consider is to paint the ceiling two to three shades darker than your walls, assuming your walls are not white. In this case, the room has light gray walls. So let's take a look at what happens to the room when we paint the ceiling a dark gray color. I love it. It's definitely more dramatic without it being too dark. Would you agree that said black is also a fantastic ceiling color? Not for every room, of course, but for many rooms. Black works well in rooms with high ceilings. And I also love to use black in dining rooms, formal living rooms, and home libraries as long as you have black somewhere else in the room. Because with black being such a strong color, you need to make sure the color is repeated throughout the room to properly balance and harmonize it. Otherwise, it will simply feel jarring and out of place. In this design, you can see that we have plenty of black. So look at what happens to the room when we paint the ceiling black. Wow. Completely different and definitely dramatic. So now that you've seen what happens to the room when we paint the ceiling a few shades darker than the wall, and also what happens when we use black. Now let's look at a room when we paint the ceiling using an accent color from the room. In this case, blue is a color we see in the rug, the ottoman, the pillows, and this accent vase. Let's look at the room with a similar blue ceiling that is a beautiful, I love the blue ceiling. What do you think? More importantly, do you see how simply painting this one element in the room changes the entire look and feel of the room? So simple and so under utilized. But now that you know you can use this fun designer technique as well in your own home. That said, there are a few guidelines I would like to share with you. First, as you might intuitively know, I would recommend that you not use a non neutral color, like blue. For example, for every ceiling in your home, Reserve these bright hues for just a certain room or rooms where you really want to make a strong impact. Use a neutral color for the majority of your ceilings. Second, if your walls are already a darker color, then I would not recommend using another dark color on the ceiling, But to avoid the standard white, a color that is two to three shades lighter than your wall color, this still creates fantastic visual interest. Third, I would keep the ceiling color the same throughout most of the home and only vary the ceiling color in a few rooms at most. Finally, apart from paint, consider using wallpaper on your ceiling in lieu of paint, as this can be equally dramatic and beautiful as well. My hope is that you now never forget about the amazing fifth wall design potential in each of your rooms, and that you use one of these techniques that you just learned to help take your room to the next design level. 4. Basic Color Theory: Color theory. I know that when some of you hear the word theory, you may be prone to flashbacks to high school or college, not in a good way. And you may notice that your eyes start to glaze over, but I promise that this won't be too long or too painful. Please know that it's important for you to become familiar with some basic color terms that I'll be using throughout this course. In addition, by learning these terms, you will feel more comfortable discussing color with anyone. One commonplace that people find this color vocabulary helpful is when they visit their local paint store. These terms can help you to explain exactly what kind of paint color you are looking for. Okay, so let's go ahead and start with some basic color vocabulary. You may have heard the word hue. Hue is simply another word for color. So these are interchangeable terms, hue and color saturation. Saturation refers to the intensity, brightness, or purity of a hue. For example, this red is more saturated than this red. Value refers to how light or dark a hue is. A darker value means a darker hue. This blue has a darker value than this blue. Temperature. Temperature simply refers to whether that color is a warm color or a cool color. Warm colors include red, orange, and yellow. And cool colors include green, blue, and purple. You may be wondering, are neutrals warm or cool? Well, it depends. In general, whites and grays are more on the cool side of the spectrum. But there are some warm whites and some warm grays, but in general, they read more cool. Brown is generally more warm, but if you use a really dark espresso brown with other cool colors, it will read more cool. Black is nearly always a cool color. Now let's talk about how you can lighten or darken a color to get that perfect shade. You may have guessed that by adding white to a color, it will lighten the color. This is called a tint. For example, pink is a tint of red. Tints are often the colors used in larger amounts throughout a room, precisely because they are not so intense and overpowering. Conversely, adding black to a color darkens the color and is called a shade. The more black you add, the darker the shade becomes. Most people use darker shades as accent colors in a room. When you add gray to a color, it creates a muted version of that color and is called a tone. Another way to mute a color is to add that colors complimentary color to it. For example, if you add green to red, then it will create a more subdued version of that red and vice versa. Did you know that if you add equal amounts of red and green to each other, they will essentially cancel each other out and will create a muddy brown color? Definitely good to know if you decide to mix your own paint colors, that is your basic color theory. Not too long, and I'm confident you will find it helpful. 5. Use the Color Wheel in a Very Practical and Useful Way: As many of you know, this is a color wheel. It may seem like a color wheel is all theory, but it's really not. It's hands down one of the most practical tools that you can use when deciding on a foolproof color scheme. It's definitely one of the tools in an interior designers toolbox. Now, let's do a quick review of how to read the color wheel. You might remember from your high school days in our class that there are three primary colors. Do you remember what they are? You are correct if you said red, blue, and yellow, and that they are considered primary because you can't mix any other colors to achieve these colors. Rather, you use these colors or hues to make other colors by mixing them together. So do you remember what the main secondary colors are? You got it right. If you said purple orange and green. Purple is achieved by mixing red and blue. Orage is achieved by mixing red and yellow, green is achieved by mixing blue and yellow. Now, for you advanced students out there, you might remember that apart from primary and secondary colors, we also have tertiary colors, which you achieve by mixing a primary color with a secondary color. These colors include colors like blue, purple, yellow, green and red orange. Now, apart from the main colors in the color wheel, we also have our neutrals, which are primarily white, black, gray, brown, and beige. That said, you can use some other dark hues as neutral. For example, you'll see many designers using navy blue as a neutral, which is softer than black and is more complimentary to many people's skin tones. So, now that we know how the color wheel is laid out, let's talk about how to use it from a practical standpoint. While there are many different types of color schemes you can derive from a color wheel. Let's begin with the three most common, and then we'll discuss some lesser use color schemes as well. First, to the most common three, we have monochromatic color schemes, analogous color schemes, and complimentary color schemes? Whichever color scheme you choose, I recommend choosing one primary or predominant color and then ideally two accent colors. Now, for you analytical types out there and you know who you are, you may be wondering, Well, is there an ideal proportion in which these colors should be used? There actually is. But please know that you don't have to do it this way. But if you do, it will generally create a color scheme that is naturally pleasing to the human eye. So, here it is, for your predominant color and more than 50% of your space, so maybe 50 to 60%. This could include your wall colors, the main color in your rug or rugs, and perhaps a piece of furniture or two. For a bedroom, this would include your bedspread. Your main accent color should be roughly half that amount. So about 25% to 30%. This would likely include some furniture, some artwork, and perhaps window treatments or accessories. The second accent color should be used in roughly half the amount that you use for your primary accent color. So say 10% to 15%. This can be utilized in your pillows as an accent color in your rug, other accessories in a room, and perhaps a small piece of furniture like a side chair. But again, you don't have to use these percentages. Just try to have one color be your primary color and then use roughly two accent colors for a pleasing color scheme. Let's tackle the monochromatic color scheme first. You savvy color students likely know that monochromatic just means that you are using different shades and tints of the same color. So if you have a blue monochromatic color scheme, this means that you would use various light and dark blue colors in your scheme. This is generally pretty easy to do, especially for someone who doesn't feel comfortable mixing colors. Now, to keep the scheme from feeling flat or boring, make sure to use at least three different shades or tints of the color and incorporate a lot of different textures and details into the room. One note about this color scheme is that you need to make sure that you're using lighter and darker values of the same color or hue. For example, let's say that you want to use various shades of green with emerald green as your primary color. Then be sure to stick with the green family and don't introduce colors that have other colors in them like a blue green. You can do this from a design standpoint, meaning it can look good for sure, but then just be aware that you've deviated from a true monochromatic color scheme. Truthfully, most people don't choose to do a monochromatic color scheme, and I wouldn't recommend doing your entire house in a monochromatic color scheme. I mean, after all, how boring would that be? But it can be a unique and beautiful approach for one or two rooms in your home. Now, let's move on to the analogous color scheme. An analogous color scheme refers to the approach where you use colors that sit next to each other on the color wheel for your color scheme. When using this type of color scheme, I recommend just using two or three colors and use either all cool or all warm colors for an approach that will work every time. Also, be sure to pick just one predominant color, such as blue for a cool color scheme. And then use green and purple as your accent colors. Conversely, if you want a warm color scheme, you may choose orange as your predominant color and use red and yellow as your accent colors. Finally, I find that cool analogous color schemes, particularly blues and greens, often create a more restful, relaxing feeling than other types of color schemes that I'll be discussing. And for the third main type of color scheme, we've arrived at a complimentary color scheme. This color scheme refers to using colors that sit opposite each other on the color wheel. Interestingly enough, when you use a complimentary color scheme, you create a mood or a temperature that is more neutral because one of the colors is cool and one of the colors is warm. For example, blue and orange, blue is cool, orange is warm. Let's contrast this neutral mood with the mood you get with an analogous color scheme. When you use an analogous color scheme, you end up with either a cool feeling or a warm feeling in the room. Okay, now back to complimentary color schemes. First, there's no question that if you are going for a dramatic mood, a complimentary color scheme can be a great choice. This color scheme definitely gets your attention. However, this color scheme doesn't have to be this dramatic or attention getting. Let's talk about how we can tone this down. First, just like with the other color schemes we've discussed, I recommend picking one of the colors as your dominant color, let's say orange, and then use its complement, in this case, blue as an accent color. Second, a complimentary color scheme works well if both colors are in their muted or less saturated forms as either tints, which you'll recall as a lighter version of the color or as shades, a darker version of the color. However, if you really love a brighter blue and want to use a complimentary color scheme, that I would use a muted or less saturated version of orange. The other rooms where you will often see complimentary color schemes used is in children's bedrooms and playrooms. In this case, using the colors in their more saturated forms is a fairly common design choice. Apart from these three primary color schemes, now let's discuss two other slightly more advanced but often less utilized approaches in interior design color schemes. These include a split complimentary color scheme and a triadic color scheme. A split complimentary color scheme occurs when you choose one base color, for example, green, and then you coordinate it with the two neighbors of its complimentary color. This is a little less dramatic than a true complimentary color scheme. A triadic color scheme is when you use colors that are spaced equally apart from each other on the color wheel like yellow, red and blue. Just like with a complimentary color scheme for both a split complementary and a triadic color scheme? It is best when you choose one color as your main color and then use the other two as accent colors. So what's great about all of these color schemes is that they are tried and true color schemes and will work nearly every time for you as well. All that said, let's say you know that you'd like to go with a monochromatic color scheme. How do you choose what color you want? There are many approaches which will help you narrow down your choices and which I'll discuss later in this course. But one thing to always keep in mind is that at the end of the day, a color scheme is about personal preference. One quick tip that I give to my clients is to look at the clothing colors you have in your closet. Often, these are the colors we are drawn to instinctively. So using these preferences for your home will result in you being happy with your final color scheme. One note about all of these color schemes is that it's important to recognize that many colors, if not in their purest form, can be cool or warm, depending upon what other colors they are mixed with. For example, a yellow green color, which contains blue in it may read as more cool than warm as they pose to a true yellow color. Another example would be gray. While gray generally reads as cool. It will read as more warm if it has brown or bag in it, such as top or gray. The same goes with white. You may know from experience that there are warm whites, those that have yellow undertones, and there are cool whites, those that have blue undertones. So if you are trying to create a distinctly warm or cool mood in a room, be sure to choose the corresponding colors in their purest forms, including the particular tints or shades of that color. Finally, you may have noticed that there are other colors in these rooms, apart from the colors mentioned in each color scheme. To learn more about what's in a complete color scheme, see my lecture called what's in a color scheme. Okay. 6. A Case Study of Blue: 7. Use the Psychology of Color: Welcome to The Psychology of Color. Honestly, this could probably be a chorus on its own. But I'm going to distill the information down for you so that you walk away with having a good understanding of how each color affects us on a psychological level. Because make no mistake whether we are aware of it or not. Color does affect our feelings and our moods, so we need to be thoughtful in which colors we use in our homes. First, let me just be clear that the psychology of color refers to the mental and emotional effects that color has on a person. So that's said, one of the best ways to decide on a color scheme for a room or home is to decide what type of mood and feeling you want for your room or home. As I mentioned in the beginning, each color does have a psychological value and will elicit a feeling or emotion. Everything from calm and relaxed to upbeat and energetic, but even angry and restless for some individuals. Therefore, knowing what psychological values each color can have will help you to ensure that you pick the right color scheme for your room or home. For example, if you are looking to warm up a space and create energy in a room, then choose a warm color such as red, orange, or yellow. Red is a fiery color that evokes passion, so it can be a great choice as an accent color for a bedroom. Orange is an upbeat color that is great for conversation. Yellow is a cheerful color. The cool colors such as green, blue and purple evoke calmness and serenity. Perhaps because of this, it's not surprising then that the majority of people prefer cool colors, particularly blue to warm colors. Perhaps its universal popularity helps to explain why blue is one of the most enduring colors of all time. Making it a safe bet that if you like blue today, you likely won't tire of it in the future. It's the warmer colors that people tire more quickly of. If you are going to use warm colors, the safe approach would be to use warm colors as accents only on items that are easily changed out, like pillows, throw blankets, inexpensive curtains or artwork, rugs and accessories. You can even use a bright warm paint hue on an accent wall as paint is relatively easy to change. As we'll discuss, paint really has a dramatic effect on the overall feeling of a room. Now that's just a quick overview. Let's go ahead and dive deep into each of the main colors and their respective psychology. Red, As many people intuitively know, red evokes strong intense emotions, including love, passion, dominance, strength, courage, power, and sometimes fierceness and anger. Because red is associated with love and passion, some people think that it would be a good paint color for the bedroom, but too much red in the bedroom can actually disturb your sleep. If you want to use it in the bedroom, keep it as an accent color. Think throw pillows, vases, flowers, et cetera. Some interesting facts about red. Because this color is so vibrant, it really catches your attention and makes someone more likely to pay attention to detail. This hue also is known to stimulate conversation, increase confidence, increase your heart rate, and increase your appetite. The latter is probably why major food chains like Mcdonalds and KFC use it in their color scheme. Because red has such a strong psychological value, I would recommend using it as an accent color unless all members of your household absolutely love this hue. In short, use this color when you want to evoke feelings of love, strength, power, or to increase your appetite in rooms like your bedroom, kitchen and dining room, Orange. Not surprising. This hue is a lively color that elicits excitement, enthusiasm, activity, innovation, endurance, socialization, and can even increase hunger. Clearly, orange is an attention getter, and because it is, it's probably the reason why we see orange used in traffic signs. Did you also know that orange can aid in decision making? Too much orange though, can result in feelings of insecurity or even arrogance. Oddly enough, people who love orange are often drawn to it because they have a positive association with it, such as a beautiful sunset or warm summer days. To sum it up, use orange when you want to really bring energy to a space or to draw attention to an item or architectural element in a room. And this hue can work really well in family rooms, kitchens, and home offices. Yellow. Yellow is a cheerful, warm color that is probably considered one of the happiest colors. It definitely brightens the space and is associated not only with cheerfulness but also with hope and wisdom. Did you know that this hue can also increase your metabolism and provide a surge of energy? However, on the not so positive side, this bright hue can cause eye fatigue, particularly in its most saturated form. Another interesting fact, yellow is known for making babies cry. Given how many nurseries get painted yellow, this seems like an important piece of information that all parents should know. Gold. A deeper form of yellow evokes feelings of wealth, success, and extravagance. No surprise there. As happy and cheerful as yellow is. Some people may be inclined to go overboard with it, but I would recommend that you use yellow as an accent color only. Meaning, don't paint your entire room in yellow unless it's a muted or pale yellow as a little does go a long way. So in short, use yellow to add cheerfulness and positive energy to a room, in rooms like a family room, kitchen and home office. But don't overdo it. Green. Green is known for evoking calmness, balance, clarity, and tranquillity, which makes it a great choice if you want to help people relax and stress. This color is also associated with healing and good health, which is why I'm sure so many organic and natural food companies use it in their advertising. This color is also associated with rebirth, youthfulness, and creativity. Finally, did you know that green can make you enjoy your workout more and make you feel less tired? Given this, green would make a great addition to a home gym color scheme. In summary, use green to bring a feeling of calmness, peace, and tranquility to any room of your home. But I particularly like it for bedrooms, formal living rooms, home offices, and home gyms blue. This color definitely evokes calmness and serenity, Much like looking at the ocean typically evokes similar feelings. This probably helps to explain why oceanfront property is so expensive. Although this color is most preferred by men in many surveys, this is also women's favorite color in the cool color family. In fact, it also happens to be my favorite color. Blue is one of the colors most often used in home offices. Because of this color's ability to encourage creative thinking and boost performance, and given that blue is associated with intelligence, this becomes another good reason to use this in a home office. Blue is also associated with strong communication skills and telling the truth. Interestingly, blue also tends to curb people's appetites. So not a great color to use in a dining room. Well, unless you are looking to eat less, then definitely incorporate this color. Also, too much blue may increase sadness for some people. So it's important to be aware of this. And while it may be your favorite color, you may want to see how the other people in your home feel about it as well. In short, use blue to create a feeling of serenity in your home or to boost creative thinking. While this color will work in any room of your home, it's a particularly excellent choice for home offices, bedrooms, and bathrooms. Purple. Historically, this color is associated with royalty, and today it creates a feeling of wealth and success. Purple is also often associated with spiritual awareness, creativity, wisdom, and self knowledge. For some, purple is a very sensual color. Conversely for others, it can just be a very calming color. However, for some people, purple can evoke feelings of loneliness and depression. Much like blue lavender, this colors tint generally creates a calm, tranquil feeling. In summary, purple can elicit a number of different feelings, such as success, calmness, and creativity. Depending on how purple makes you feel, I would consider this color for bedrooms, dining rooms, and home offices. Now, apart from the main colors of the color wheel, let's talk about some other commonly used colors, Pink. This color evokes feelings of love, both romantic and platonic, nurturing and femininity. With those attributes, Pink can also evoke feelings of caring and thoughtfulness. Many people also report having feelings of safety and security. And as a result, Pink can definitely have a calming effect, particularly in its lighter, more subdued forms. Pink can also make you feel youthful and care free. However, it's important to note that pink in its more vibrant shades. Think hot pink often have the same psychological effects as red, Meaning an increase in heart rate and high energy stimulation. In short, use light pink when you want to create a caring, safe, and care free environment, such as in bedrooms, family rooms and nurseries. And use vibrant pink as you would use red black. While historically, this color signified death and mourning. Today, this color lends an air of sophistication, luxury quality, formality, and elegance in both fashion and interior design. This color also represents power, strength, dignity, mystery, and intelligence. Which may be why every man feels the need to have a suit in this hue, and every woman wants to have that perfect black dress. Obviously, a lot of black can feel heavy and evoke feelings of depression. As a result, most people end up using black as an accent color. In short, use black when you are looking to evoke feelings of sophistication, luxury, and formality. But be careful in how much you use in a room. Definitely be thoughtful with the application of this color. I love using black and dining rooms, formal living rooms, and home offices. White. White signifies purity, goodness, integrity, and innocence, and creates a peaceful, clean feeling in a room, Which likely explains why hospitals have used this color so abundantly. White is a color of possibility and hope. Just think of a clean, crisp, white piece of paper. So many possibilities. That said, some people, when surrounded by too much white feel that the space is too cold, empty, sterile, and even unfriendly. So in short, if white resonates with you, use it in rooms such as your bedrooms, kitchen, and bathrooms to create feelings of peace, hope, and purity. Gray. Traditional color psychology states that gray creates a feeling of passiveness, conservativeness, dreariness, and a lack of energy. But I do think it's all in how you use this color. If you create a room that utilizes various shades of gray and a ton of texture in detail, then the room will read as calm and sophisticated rather than bland, boring, or depressing. Gray can work well in most rooms of your home, but I particularly love it for dining rooms, formal living rooms and bathrooms. And finally, brown. This hue, the color of wood, evokes feelings of stability, peace, strength, sincerity, responsibility, and reliability. For many, the color Brown evokes a variety of positive images. Think coffee beans, chocolate, and beautiful trees. Brown also reads as a practical color, again underscoring the feelings of reliability and responsibility. Like green, brown also has an association with health. Not surprising, since Brown, like green, is a predominant color found on Earth. However, on the less positive side, for some, brown is a very boring color lacking sophistication and quality. In short, though, I would use this color in spaces where you want to evoke feelings of calmness, strength, good health and nature, such as bedrooms, family rooms and home offices. As a final reminder, when selecting colors, be sure to check with those who live with you to ensure that certain colors do not evoke any negative feelings or emotions. 8. Activity #1 - Create Your Own Color Schemes: Now, given your new found knowledge in how to use the color wheel and the psychology of each color, I want you to create your ideal color scheme for a family or living room, a dining room, and a bedroom. Here is a color wheel, once again, with the common color schemes we discussed and brief descriptions of the psychological effects of each color. I hope you have fun with it. 9. Popular Color Schemes for North and South Facing Rooms: One consideration that interior designers use when selecting a color scheme for a room is to look at the orientation of the room. Meaning, are most of the windows facing more towards the north or more towards the south? If the main windows are facing more towards the north, which generally means that this room will receive less light, then designers will sometimes use a warmer color scheme to help visually warm up the room. Remember, warm colors go a long way. Specifically, I would very likely not paint an entire room in a bright red color. Instead, I would either use a warmer muted color of that hue on the walls, or I would use a warm neutral on the walls, and then add in the bright warm colors as accents. Deeper and more muted warm colors also pair extremely well together in a northern facing room. Conversely, if the main windows are oriented more towards the south, then a cooler color scheme is often utilized, as these rooms generally receive much more light and heat than other rooms in your home. As a result, you may want to visually cool it down with cooler colors. Now let's say that you do have a southern facing room that receives a lot of light. And you want to make it feel more dramatic and sophisticated. I would recommend using a deep rich color, like a navy blue or charcoal gray as a main color in your color scheme. Now all that said, I believe more important than which way your room is oriented. You really must first and foremost consider the geographic location of your home. For example, if you live further north, like in Scandinavia, you may still want to use a warm color scheme, even for your south facing rooms. Because overall, it is cooler in this part of the world and you may want a warm feeling throughout your entire home. Conversely, if you are decorating a home in the Caribbean, you may want a cool color scheme, even for your north facing rooms given this area's year round warm climate. 11. Popular Color Schemes for Different Interior Design Styles: Another easy way to choose a color scheme is to consider what interior design style you are using in your design. In this section, I will discuss popular color schemes for some of the main interior design styles today. First, let's start with contemporary. While I think most people associate contemporary rooms with cool color schemes, you can also create beautiful contemporary designs with warmer color schemes. Large scale artwork is also a great place to bring in warmer colors to warm up a cool color scheme. The important point with contemporary color schemes is that they predominantly use neutrals, not only for the main colors, but for the accent colors as well. Although it is not uncommon for contemporary designs to use non neutral accent colors, some of my favorite color schemes for contemporary designs include different shades of warm gray and beige. Different shades of gray, white, and black. Black and white is a favorite combination in contemporary design. Here they used gray as an accent color, but any color works with this pairing. Gray, white, and a light, non neutral color like aqua. Now let's move on to traditional interior design. This is a style in which warm colors are nearly always used in the color palettes. Some excellent color schemes for traditional rooms include cream, beige, brown, and a muted red orange, deep red, white, and a muted green. An excellent example of a complimentary color scheme, pale yellow and various shades of blue and cream, olive green, burnt orange, and deep gold. A beautiful combination next up is transitional. Transitional, nearly always uses neutrals as a major component in its color scheme. Think white, cream, beige, warm gray or grays, charcoal gray, and chocolate brown. Other colors are generally used as accents. Only some beautiful transitional color schemes include gray, white, and light blue beige, dark gray and white, light gray, dark gray, and various shades of blue and white, brown and teal. Moving on to mid century. Modern mid century Modern often employs neutrals for its base colors, but frequently uses a variety of non neutral colors as accents. Fantastic color schemes for mid century modern include warm gray brown, deep green, brick, red and muted orange, white beige, avocado green and gold, white, blue, orange and red and white, gray and yellow. Now let's talk industrial. This style typically embraces cooler color schemes composed mostly of neutrals. However, by using warmer elements such as exposed brick, leather seating, and reclaimed wood, visual warmth can definitely be added to the space. Popular color schemes for industrial style rooms include various shades of gray, black, and camel. Here's an example of a warmer color scheme. Grays, warm white and muted green. Although other muted non neutrals would work. As well as an accent color, gray, white and black. Or the classic black and white. Following industrial, let's go to urban modern, its design cousin. The goal of this style is to create a cool New York style loft feeling with elements such as brick walls, concrete or wood floors, and low profile furniture. Common color schemes for this style include white gray and a non neutral accent color such as yellow beige, deep brown and red, white, gray, burnt orange and black and white, gray and black. Now let's move in a different direction altogether to coastal chic in the United States. If you live on either coast, you have likely seen this beautiful interior design style. Its goal is to bring the outside beach life in. No surprise, blue is commonly used. Some of the more popular coastal chic color schemes are white, beige and various shades of blue. One of my favorite palettes for this style, white and navy white gray beige, and various shades of blue and white and turquoise. However, various shades of green in lieu of blue, or in addition to blue, is a beautiful combination. To infuse a little more energy into a design, I would incorporate orange blues, complimentary color from coastal chic. Our next stop is Scandinavian. Much like coastal chic, color schemes for Scandinavian styles are often more limited with a heavy emphasis on neutrals. And nearly always have white or cream in the color palette. Common color schemes for this style include cream, beige, and black, white, various shades of gray and black, black and white. Or black and white with a non neutral accent color, Which looks great when brought in through large scale artwork moving south on the map from Scandinavia. Now let's move into the French country style. This is a style that typically employs non neutral colors, such as blue, green, and golden, yellow in its color schemes inspired from the beautiful French countryside. What are some beautiful color schemes for this style? Try white, beige, green and blue, muted yellow, olive green, warm pink. And coral is a beautiful combination. Gold, white, deep red and blue, or cream, blue and dark brown. Next up is Zen. Because Zen is all about achieving a calm, relaxed, meditative feel. You'll see mostly neutrals being used, such as white, beige, brown and gray. A favorite accent color is green because of its association with nature. Therefore, some great Zen color schemes include brown, white and green, beige, brown, black and white, beige, warm grays and white, which is most definitely a soothing palette. And white, various shades of gray, black and blue, which is another excellent accent color in this style, Bohemian is next on our style list. Bohemian, also referred to as Boho, has traditionally been one of the most colorful interior design styles with bright colors and bold patterns. However, in recent years, Boho has been leaning more heavily towards light neutrals and more muted non neutral colors, while still maintaining classic Boho style elements. Some of today's beautiful Bohemian color schemes include white beige, burnt orange, gold, and avocado green, various shades of blue and white, white beige, warm gray and rich brown, and black and white with terra cotta brown. Let's move on to the farmhouse style. Like French country farmhouse is about creating a casual, relaxed vibe in the home. Typical farmhouse style color schemes include a heavy amount of lighter neutrals, such as white and beige, with blue, green, and yellow commonly being used as accent colors. Great choices for a farmhouse color scheme include white and light blue, white, black and beige. White and yellow or white, light gray and blue. Finally, we have the Western interior design style. While some color schemes are nearly always cool, Western is nearly always a warm color scheme. The western interior design style incorporates lots of warm wood tones, beige, deep red, orange, and turquoise. Some popular color schemes for western rooms include brown, deep red, and beige. Deep red terra cotta and cream brown, muted yellow and deep red or beige with various shades of brown. 12. Popular Color Schemes for Different Types of Rooms: The final way that can help you to easily choose a color scheme is to consider the function of the room. Because of the psychology of color, there are certain colors that are traditionally better suited to certain rooms. So let's go ahead and go through the main types of rooms in the home and discuss some well suited color schemes for those rooms. First, we have the hub of the home. The kitchen kitchens are generally lively places where the family enjoys gathering and because of open floor plants, families are often eating in the kitchen area as well. That said, what colors do you think might be best suited for kitchens? Well, from a psychological standpoint, you may want to include accent colors, like red and orange, as these are lively conversation inducing colors and as you might recall, are known to increase your appetite. Of course, as we know, a little goes a long way with these colors. If you want to incorporate one of these vibrant hues, think of using it in places like the kitchen island base, an accent wall, a backsplash bar stools, lighting, or any unique architectural elements. Green is another great non neutral color for a kitchen, given its association with good health and tranquility. However, for many people, neutrals are what they desire for their kitchen design. While white is a classic timeless choice, other neutrals are commonly used as well. If it's an open floor plan, then you will likely draw on the neutrals in the adjoining rooms. But if that is not a consideration, then here are some beautiful color schemes to consider for your kitchen. White, beige and blue. White with light gray or with dark gray teal, Or any shade of blue or green with white and gray. Or for something warmer, cream, beige, and various shades of brown. For finishes such as hardware, faucets, appliances, and lighting, warm metals look beautiful, such as brass and copper, but so do cool finishes such as black stainless steel and chrome. It really depends on your preferences and your interior design style. Various finishes also go in and out of trend quickly, so choose something that you love and are happy to live with for a while. Now let's move on to the family or living room. Again, starting from a psychology of color standpoint, I would incorporate some orange or red if you're looking to up the activity level in that room. Yellow, if you want to brighten it up and infuse some cheerfulness. Or blue, green, or pink if you're looking to create a calm, relaxing vibe. Some beautiful color schemes include gray, yellow, green, and white, beige, brown, deep red and black beige, charcoal gray, brown, and a muted blue green. Various shades of beige, white, dark gray, and a muted gold. Next on our list is the dining room. Dining rooms are one of these rooms that seem to go in and out of vogue. We all know that typically dining rooms are one of the least used rooms in a home, often being reserved for large family get togethers and holidays. If you have a formal dining room in your home, some colors I would consider incorporating from a psychological standpoint would be red for increasing the appetite. Purple to create a luxurious, opulent mood. Gray or black for creating a more formal, sophisticated mood. Some beautiful color schemes for dining rooms include beige, red, white, and olive green, gray, purple, muted, green and white make a stunning combination. Various shades of gray, white, and black, various shades of beige and brown make a beautiful combination as well for a dining room. Moving on to the primary bedroom, where we typically go to unwind, excellent colors to create a relaxing environment include blue, green, lavender, pink, white, and gray. Earthy brown can also be a great color from a psychological standpoint, as remember, this color makes us feel grounded, stable, and supported. Some fantastic color schemes for your bedrooms include white, blue, gray, and light gray. Various shades of beige and brown with blue, white, blush, pink, teal, and dark gray. Various shades of gray with black and white. While these softer palettes are great for our primary bedrooms, they are not what little girls and boys typically yearn for in their own bedrooms. Now I'd like to share some fun and exciting color palettes for your children's bedrooms. First, let's start with little girls. Pink, of course, in all its shades, is a common choice and pairs beautifully with so many different colors. I particularly love it with green and with blue. It's also lovely with a gray and white color palette. Coral is another excellent choice and looks great with most shades of greens and blues. Purple and fuchsia are good alternatives to softer pinks and work well for all ages of girls. If you prefer neutral colors in your home, consider cream beige and various shades of gray. And bring in the feminine with sheer fabrics, tufting, and classic feminine lines and patterns for boys. Blue is not surprisingly, a top choice, and pairs well on its own with white. But I also love it with its complement orange to add energy to the design. Alternatively, orange looks great with its neighbor. Yellow and gray is an excellent neutral to pair with these colors. Yellow also works well with green or blue. For a more subdued approach, choose a neutral like white or gray, and add accents of muted blue and or green for a boy and girl shared bedroom. One fail safe approach is to choose a primary neutral, in this case white. And use your children's favorite color as the accent color for their individual items, such as bedding pillows, and any artwork or decor above the bed. For color schemes that will please both children, consider white and gray with an accent color like yellow, green and orange. Or create a soothing space using a variety of warm neutrals. And personalize their beds with their favorite stuffed animals. The last room I'll be covering in this section is home offices. Looking at color psychology, I would consider incorporating blue because as you might recall, this color encourages creative thinking and boosts performance. To evoke feelings of calmness and clarity, use green and for feelings of strength and responsibility, incorporate brown into your color scheme. I would also consider using gold for eliciting feelings of success. And this can be easily incorporated into items like artwork, LED light strips, furniture, lighting and accessories. 13. What's in a Color Scheme?: 14. Activity #2 - Create a Whole House Color Scheme: 15. Use Color to Create a Certain Mood in a Room: Given everything you've learned in the psychology of color section, you now know that color is one of your best interior design tools when trying to create a certain feeling or mood in a room. So obviously, deciding on what type of mood you want for a room will greatly impact your color scheme selection, which is a good thing, because it will help you to narrow down your color choices. Said, another way, with just the use of color, you can greatly impact the mood of your room. You can make it feel dramatic or casual, happy or subdued. Active or calm. So let's talk about how you can do that. If you want to bring energy and activity into a room or to create a warm inviting space, then make sure you incorporate some warm colors into your color palette, which includes all colors on the color wheel from red violet to yellow. Let's look at some examples. In this living space, they've not only incorporated beautiful shades of orange in the throw pillows and rug, but they've added a number of other fabrics and materials with warm tones, which definitely creates a warm inviting room. In this cozy little space, the yellow chair and pillows visually pop and add some great energy to this design. I love how they use bright colors in this design to accentuate strong architectural lines. Imagine if this were simply painted all white. It would obviously lose that eye catching, highly memorable look. If you want to create a feeling of understated warmth to a space, use darker shades of warm colors like red and orange, like we see in this design. Conversely, if you want to create a calm, relaxed feeling like in a bedroom or a primary bathroom, use primarily cool colors. On the color wheel, this includes purple to yellow green. In the neutral family, I would use white, gray, and beige to help create that calm, relaxing feeling that you are looking for. Let's look at some examples of how color is used to create a calm, relaxing feeling. In this bathroom, the blue tiled wall is beautiful and definitely the focal point, but the general color scheme creates an overall, calm, soothing feeling. Here the white, green, and gray color palette work to create an overall relaxed mood. That said, the gold accents add some subtle vibrancy to this design. This bedroom design is the epitome of tranquility with its simple white and gray color palette. It's also a smart, understated choice for a color scheme, given that the view is the focal point of this space. Finally, we have the striking primary bathroom. The overall white and gray color scheme creates the relaxing feeling you want for your bathroom, but the black hearing bone tile floor adds just a bit of drama. Speaking of drama, if you are looking to create a moody or dramatic space, be sure to incorporate some dark hues, such as black, navy and or charcoal gray as your neutrals. Other colors that help to create a sense of drama include red and gold. A moody and or dramatic mood is a great choice for rooms like your formal living room, dining room, powder room, and entryway. Let's look at some examples of rooms that have a dramatic feeling because of their skillful use of color. Here we have a bold dining room design that has used both red and black. Notice that overall, it's a simple color scheme, which is all you need when you use such bold colors like this. This black and white living room is dramatic for two reasons. One, because it's using a heavy dose of black, but also because using color contrast is another great way to add drama. More on that in a minute. This bedroom utilizes both black throughout, as well as gold lighting to create a dramatic mood. This design is a great example of what happens when you select just darker paint colors for your walls. We would lose this room's moody feeling if the walls were painted in a light beige, for example. We've seen a lot of black and charcoal gray being used, but here's a dramatic design using a deep peacock blue on the walls for a beautiful contrast with the light flooring and Chase lounge. Dark walls are also an excellent backdrop for a dramatic light fixture. So, what if you want to create a dramatic mood, but you don't like dark walls, which is primarily what we've been seeing in these designs. That's where heavy contrast comes in. Just look at this entryway. It's light and bright, but that flooring is not only dramatic, but also becomes a natural focal point for the space. Black and white are highly effective. But as we saw in the last design, other dark colors can be used as well. In addition, it's not just the contrasting colors, but the bold checkered pattern as well that accentuates the dramatic. The rarely used monochromatic color scheme can also be quite dramatic when you use a non neutral color. This design is dramatic, not only because of the various shades of blue, but also because of their choice of materials such as velvet and chrome. If you are looking to create a casual and relaxed space perhaps for your family room, I would use white, gray or beige as your neutrals and incorporate blue, green, and or orange as well. Because orange is such a vibrant color, here they've used it just as a minimal accent color, which really stands out against the white and warm gray color scheme. In this space, the orange pillows really add energy and vibrancy to these blue gray sofas. Contrast this living room design with this living room design where we have a very similar color scheme, but because they've omitted high energy colors like orange, it has a different mood. The white Began blue gray palette create a calm tranquil mood. A white gray and blue color palette will create a similar mood. A will, a white gray and green palette. But what if you don't like white paint? Can you create the same relaxing feeling with non neutral paint colors? Yes, provided that you go with a tint of a cool color, such as blue, green or lavender. Now, compare this tranquil mood with the mood of this room where a darker value green has been used. This design feels more dramatic and energetic to me. Is it the same for you? It's a great comparison because in both cases, they've used a similar style, similar materials and the same warm neutral, although granted, it's a lighter beige in this room. But the main change they made the color. This comparison allows you to more easily see what a significant difference color will make in the overall mood of a room. Finally, in a space like a home office where you want to feel focused, creative and productive, I would use white and or beige from my neutrals and incorporate any of the cool colors of green, blue and purple. This warm, muted green as a primary color creates a beautiful and tranquil space. This work area uses a variety of plants to create a similar effect. A primarily white color palette creates a feeling of peace and tranquility, but also a possibility, which is an excellent mood for a workspace. If you want to feel creative and energetic, use a highly saturated color like blue as we see in this design. 16. Use Color to Make a Space Appear Smaller or Larger: Color is amazing for so many reasons. One of those many reasons is that it can actually trick the eye and make the room appear larger or smaller than it actually is. This is extremely helpful when you are trying to right size a room in your home. So let's talk about how to do this. If you want to make a space appear larger than it is, use a lighter, cooler paint color as this will make the walls appear as if they are receding. Another trick you can use to make a room appear larger is to paint the walls and the trim, including the crown molding, window casings, and baseboards all the same color. This will keep the space from feeling chopped up and in effect smaller. The same concept applies to window treatments. To make the room feel larger, match the paint color to the color of your window treatments. Creating this type of color cohesiveness results in your space feeling larger than it is. Now, if you want to make a room appear smaller and more intimate, use a darker and or a warmer color. However, to keep the space from feeling too visually heavy, keep your ceiling light and your flooring light or mostly light like we see here. Another way to minimize the visual heaviness of a dark color is to use a laquer finish or a high gloss paint, which will create a reflective finish that will allow light to beautifully bounce around the room. Be aware, though, that a high gloss finish will change the way a color reads, which we will talk about more in the next lecture on textures. Another technique to help make a room appear smaller is to paint the moldings, for example, your crown molding, window case and baseboard, in a contrasting color to your wall color so that you are visually breaking up the space. While this technique works with cooler wall colors, it's even more effective with warmer and or darker wall colors. Wainscoting in a contrasting color to your walls is a similar technique you can use. Contrast is also a great technique when you want to accentuate the smallness of a space for a more intimate feel. This little dying area is a great example. While they kept the overall color scheme light, they added a lot of contrasting color throughout the space, resulting in a smaller, more intimate feeling, but without feeling too dark or cramped. Now let's talk window treatments for a minute. If you are trying to make a room appear smaller, should you go with a darker color window treatment or a lighter color window treatment. You can actually do either, and here's why. Whereas the darker window treatment color will help to advance the walls, a lighter color used on darker walls will provide that contrast that helps to break up the walls. What about color choices for the other finishes in the room? Well, it's really only the wall color that you want to use a darker and or warmer color for. For flooring, you don't need to feel like it's advancing so the flooring can be light or dark. Okay, so now we've talked about how to make smaller rooms appear larger and large rooms appear smaller. But what if you have a lop sided room, meaning a narrow room? How do you balance it out? You apply the same color principles, of course. For example, I would use a dark paint color on the shorter walls to make them feel like they are advancing. Then I would use a lighter paint color or wall treatment on the longer walls to make them appear as if they are receding. This will help to balance your room out. Darker wallpaper in lieu of paint also works equally well. Another alternative to light paint is to use large mirrors on one of the long walls as this will also help to make that wall recede. 17. How to Use Textures and Patterns Effectively: As we know, color and interior design does not exist in a vacuum. Meaning, color is utilized on finishes and furnishings, like walls, floors, rugs, furniture, pillows, et cetera, and each have a unique texture to them. Texture will impact how a color reads, so it's important to be aware of how color can change based on the texture it's being used on. So in this lecture, I'll cover what you need to know about how texture impacts color. I'll also be spending a good amount of time talking about patterns. Many people shy away from using patterns in their own homes because they are afraid of making a design mistake. For example, can you mix patterns, and if so, how do you do it? Well, I'm here to break it all down for you so you feel comfortable and confident incorporating some great patterns into your own home as patterns can really elevate the overall design of a room from good to great. With that said, let's go ahead and tackle the world of texture. While having a variety of textures in your design is important regardless of your color scheme, it's extremely important if you prefer to use an all neutral color scheme. Adding a variety of textures is key to helping your room feel warm and inviting rather than cold and unappealing. Here we have a simple white and brown color scheme. But with so many different textures from a wide variety of materials being used, this design is anything but cold and unappealing. The picture frame molding is also an excellent way to add strong visual interest to these white walls. Here we have another simple neutral color scheme of white and gray. But again, the combination of smooth and rough textures creates a lovely inviting design. When it comes to seating, I love mixing materials like we see here with the velvet sofas and leather armchairs. The polished marble coffee table also provides excellent contrast to the rough stone fireplace. They use the concept of contrast extremely well to create a beautiful design, not just in the variety of materials, but also in this neutral color scheme. Finally, here we have a white and warm gray color scheme that demonstrates the art of layering with a variety of textures to create a truly warm and inviting space. Now, when you use a wide variety of textures and add in non neutral color, well, the results can be truly stunning. As I mentioned at the beginning of this lecture, it's important to be aware that texture will change how a color reads. Let's take red, for example. Red, if applied in a glossy laquer finish on a chair, will read differently than red on cotton drapes. Specifically, any high gloss surface like laquer will result in the color looking more intense because it is light reflecting. Interestingly enough, it will also read a slightly cooler. The color will read darker and warmer when used on heavy fabrics or textiles as these types of materials absorb light. Okay, now let's move on to patterns. For all you pattern lovers out there, I'm going to share with you how to mix patterns with confidence. There are really two main ways to mix patterns well. The first option is to use the same color palette in your patterns. So you can mix geometric with floral or floral with abstract as long as you have the same hues in each of the patterns. In this example, they've used different patterns of yellow and gray. The second option is to stick with the same pattern. For example, all geometric, all floral, or all damask, like we see here. Whichever option you choose, here are some tips to ensure that the room looks well put together and not chaotic. First, the safest approach is to choose one bold pattern as the focal point. For example, in your rug, but don't use other bold patterns that will compete with it. Instead, introduce more muted or subdued patterns that will complement the main bold pattern in either color or style. There's another example of a design that uses this technique well. Second, if you introduce a bold pattern, while an area rug is a great choice, you can also use a bold pattern in wallpaper or a large piece of art, your window treatments, or on a piece of furniture. Speaking of wallpaper, a bold wallpaper can make an excellent focal point for a room. Third, if you love the idea of having multiple different patterns on your throw pillows, then it generally looks best if you vary the scale of the patterns in your pillows. In addition to either having the same color scheme or the same pattern in your throw pillows. Another great way to use patterns and create harmony in your design is to repeat the same pattern in more than one area. For example, here they've repeated the same pattern in their window coverings and a throw pillow. Finally, one of the easiest ways to pick a color scheme for a room is to find a pattern you love, then use the colors from that pattern to create your room's color scheme. This is a common interior design approach that you two can use easily and confidently. 18. Activity #3 - 2 Design Dilemnas: 19. Pulling it All Together: Okay. At this point, you may have a little bit of information overload going on in your head. And you may be wondering, how do I pull all of this information together to create cohesive color schemes in my own home? Well, that is exactly what you will learn how to do in this lecture. Specifically, I will be walking you through a tool that I develop to help you easily create beautiful color schemes on your own by asking you a series of key questions. You can find this document in the resources section. Feel free to pause this lecture now to download it, or you can just follow along and download it at a later time. The best way for me to show you how to use this tool is to walk you through a design consultation for a hypothetical client. We'll call him Mr. Craig. Mr. Craig lives in Los Angeles, California and he has hired me to design a primary bedroom for him. Obviously, as part of the design, we need to select a color scheme, but he has no idea what colors he would like to use. Through a series of questions, I would be able to propose an ideal color scheme for a space. These are the questions that you will find in this tool. Are you ready? Great. Let's go ahead and dive in. The first question asks, what type of room is this? The second part of the question is, what are good colors for this type of room. Well, we know that this is a primary bedroom, and great colors for a primary bedroom include blue, green, lavender, pink, white, gray, brown and black. The second question asks, what interior design style would you like in this room, and what colors work well for this type of style. During my conversation with Mr. Craig, he has told me that he prefers contemporary interior design. We know the colors that work best in contemporary style rooms include gray, white, black, warm, gray, and different shades of blue is a popular non neutral choice. The third question asks, what kind of mood do you want to have and how do you want to feel when you are in this room. As you can see, it also asks, based on the mood you want, would it be better to use cool colors, for a more calm, relaxing vibe, or warm colors, for a more energetic and exciting feeling? When I ask Mr. Craig what type of mood he wants for his bedroom, not surprisingly, he tells me that this is his retreat from his hectic life, and he wants a calm, comfortable, sophisticated space. The next question has to do with the orientation of the room. Even though this is a north facing room, let's remember that Mr. Craig lives in Los Angeles, where it is warm year round. In addition, he has a number of windows in his bedroom, so light really isn't a problem. Therefore, I've written in NA for not applicable as this really is no longer a consideration for choosing a color scheme, since he gets plenty of light in this room and it stays fairly warm year round. Question five and six have to do with Mr. Craig's favorite and least favorite colors? These are questions that I always ask my clients, as I'm sure most designers do. After all, we want to try to incorporate a client's favorite colors to help them feel happy, relaxed and comfortable in their home, and we definitely do not want to include any colors that they really dislike. In this case, Mr. Craig's favorite color is dark blue, and his least favorite color is pink. The final question, Question seven asks us, Are you happy with how large the room feels, or would you like to make it feel larger and more expansive or smaller and cozier? Mr. Craig tells me that he would like the room to feel a bit smaller as Mr. Craig is a man of means and has a nice sized bedroom and a large home. Okay, so that's it for the questions. Now it's time for some analysis. On page two, the first question says, Look at questions number one and two above, which colors appear in the answers to both questions? The answer to that is gray, white, blue, and black. These are the only colors that appear in both answers for questions one and two. The next question asks, based on your answer to question number three, which colors from the ones you listed above in a correspond with the temperature that you would like for your color scheme. This means of these four colors, which ones are cool colors, and therefore will help to create a calm relaxing vibe. Fortunately, all of them are cool colors, so these remain great options for this space. The next question question C asks, based on your answer to number four, if it's relevant to you, which colors that you've listed in B should be excluded, if any. I've written an NA, since this isn't really a consideration given the location of the home as we just discussed. As a side note, unless your room is particularly hot during the day or conversely receives little light, the orientation of the room is one of the least important criteria for selecting a color scheme. So do not feel the need to change your color scheme if you are happy with the colors selected based on the type of room and the interior design style that you are using. Moving on, Question D asks. Look at your answer to number five. Does your final color selections include your favorite color? If not, can you include it in as an accent color? Mr. Craig indicated that his favorite color is dark blue. And yes, fortunately, the colors that we selected in C includes blue. Fantastic. Question asks, review your answer to number six. Does your final color selections in C exclude your least favorite color? If not, remove it. You might recall that Mr. Craig's least favorite color is pink, and fortunately, pink is not one of the final colors listed. If it had been, I would have simply removed it. Question F now asks you to write down the final colors based on the previous answers. In this case, the color scheme has not changed. So we'll go ahead and write in again, gray, white, blue, and black. Question G states, look at your non neutral colors in question F and evaluate possible color schemes, meaning monochromatic, analogous, complimentary, split complementary and triadic color schemes, keeping in mind the mood that you want for your room. Is there a color scheme that you would like to use? Okay. So remember that, in general, if you want a more relaxed mood, you should stick with monochromatic or analogous color schemes. Because the remaining three color schemes also use warm colors, this will create a more energetic mood. Now, for Mr. Craig, who wants a more calm, relaxed mood, this means that we could consider using a monochromatic or an analogous color scheme. Because his favorite color is blue, I definitely want to incorporate that color, but I don't think a blue, monochromatic color scheme is the right fit, as we saw in a previous lecture, how dramatic that can be, which is not the mood that the client is going for. Additionally, I don't think I'm going to use an analogous color scheme. Why? Well, because purple is too close to pink, and that's his least favorite color. I could use green, but I think focusing on blue is the right choice for this design. Question H says, Look at your neutral colors in F and decide which ones you're going to use. As you can see, our neutral options are gray, white and black. So, based on the mood he wants and the fact that he wants his room to feel a bit smaller, I'm going to incorporate various shades of gray, but I will also include some minimal accents of black and white. Question asks us to list our final color scheme, which in this case, remains gray, white, blue, and black. And finally, question asks, based on your answer to number seven, should you paint your walls a light color to make it feel larger or a darker color to make it feel smaller. And it asks you to consider whether a non white ceiling would work well in this design. Again, because Mr. Craig told us that he wants to make his room feel a bit smaller, I'll recommend that we paint the walls in a striking, dark blue gray color to help the walls feel as if they are advancing. This color will be an excellent backdrop for the blue and gray furnishings I will use. And finally, I think I'll use one of the shades of gray in the color palette as a beautiful ceiling color. And here is the completed design, a calm, comfortable and sophisticated bedroom retreat. And that's it. What do you think? Do you feel like this tool will help you to create ideal color schemes in your own home? I hope you do. As I mentioned, these are essentially the questions I use with my own clients, and it definitely works. So I encourage you to give it a try. Okay. 20. How Many Paint Colors Should You Have in your Home?: Interior designer, a common question I'm asked is, how many different paint colors should I use in my home? While there's no hard and fast rule on this, from experience, I personally try to limit it to three or four different paint colors for your average sized home. This would include both your neutrals as well as your non neutral colors. However, there are some caveats to this. For example, if you have a small home, then I would limit your colors to two, maybe three colors. Also, if you have a small home with an open floor plan for the main living areas, then I would recommend using one color in the main living area to make the whole area appear larger. You might remember that technique from a previous lecture on how to make a room appear larger. If you were to use different colors in each of these different areas, it would make the area feel more cut up, and as a result, smaller. Conversely, if you have a large home, you could potentially use more paint colors, but it's still important to make sure that the colors work well with each other and are pleasing when laid next to each other. Because even though your paint colors are in different rooms, the home will likely feel disjointed if they don't work well together. This is because we will still have the memory of those colors as we move from room to room, whether we are consciously aware of it or not. When I've worked with clients and we've developed a whole house paint palette up front, I've never had a client second guess their decision. I've only seen clients second guess or repaint when they painted rooms in isolation, not considering the colors used in the other rooms, which is one of the reasons they ended up hiring a designer so they could rectify the issue. So now you know not to make the same mistake. In short, do think of your house as one giant paint palette. Dally, you would create the whole house palette at one time. But if you're like many people, you are probably going to be painting one or two rooms at a time, so be sure to keep in mind the other colors you already have when choosing your new paint colors for neighboring rooms. Later in this course, I'll give you an easy, nearly foolproof method for testing out paint colors before you commit. You'll want to use this technique when choosing the rest of your home paint palette, if you already have colors on the walls that you want to keep in other rooms. One important point about your whole house color palette is to ensure that you include at least one neutral in the color scheme. Your eye always needs a place to rest visually. So incorporating a neutral on some of your walls, which is one of the bigger color areas in a room is a way to keep your home from feeling too busy or chaotic. So how do you choose the colors for your whole paint palette? I'm glad you asked. That's what I'll be covering in the next lecture. I'll see you there. 21. How to Narrow Down Your Paint Choices / Which Paint Sheens to Use: Let's talk about how to choose the perfect paint colors for your home. I'm going to break this down in two different ways. The first way is to create a whole house paint palette. The second way is to select a paint color for a single room. First, the whole house paint palette approach. Let's say that you've decided you want a fresh look for the inside of your home. Maybe you purchased a home that has a lot of different colors from the previous owner. I once saw a house that had bright shades of red, blue, green, and purple throughout the whole house. Needless to say it was pretty overwhelming and likely wouldn't work for most people. Or let's say you purchased a new construction home, and the builder decided to use white throughout the whole house, but you love non neutral color. How do you go about choosing a new paint palette for your home? Well, first, it depends if you are keeping most of the furniture in your home for the foreseeable future or not. Let's say you are not. Rather, you plan on redecorating most of the rooms. In this situation, I would look solely at the hard finishes in your home, such as your flooring, cabinetry, countertops, et cetera, and determine if they have primarily warm or cool undertones. Here is a kitchen that uses primarily warm undertones. Here is a kitchen with primarily cool undertones. Now, let's get into the details. As I mentioned in the previous lecture, make sure at least one of your paint colors is a neutral color. A neutral is best used in the main areas of your home. Think your entryway, family room, kitchen, and hallways. A neutral is also a great place to start your color palette. Select a neutral that works well with the hard finishes in your home. For example, if you have cool undertones, find a neutral with cool undertones, so you know that this will work well. Let's say that you want to pull out the gray we see in this marble, find a cool gray that you like. Once you've selected that color as one of your main colors, you then have a couple of choices from here. First, you can choose a color that is on either side of that paint chip color on the paint strip, either directly next to the color, or even two colors up or down. You could easily choose three of these colors on the paint strip, and that becomes your entire house paint palette. This is a great approach because not only is it easy, but it ensures that you keep the same undertones. Speaking of undertones, one simple way to see what undertones a neutral has is to look at the most saturated color on the paint chip strip, which you'll find on the bottom of the strip. This typically will make it much easier to see if the neutrals in that color family are cool or warm colors. This strip clearly uses cool grays. Another approach is to choose one or two of these neutrals on the paint strip and then choose one or two non neutral accent colors in your favorite hues. For example, you could go with a light gray and a mid tone gray and then add blue as your accent paint color. Or perhaps you can use a mid tone gray, a dark gray, and then add in green as your accent color. Now, let's say that you want a whole house palette, but plan on keeping most of the furnishings in your home. How do you select a palette very similarly? I would find one or two neutrals that work well with the hard finishes in your home, but then choose a non neutral paint color that most often appears in your home. This paint color scheme approach will help your home to feel harmonious and well pulled together. One note on using a non neutral paint color. Be careful with vibrant saturated colors like this yellow. Often, bright saturated colors like this don't make great paint colors. Instead, choose a tint of this color or a more muted version. This will not only be more pleasing to the eye, but will add nice depth to the design. That said, this doesn't mean that you can't use saturated colors as a paint color. You can, I would just choose highly saturated colors that have a darker value. Now let's talk about the second way to pick paint colors. That is for a single room that you are redecorating because you either don't want to select the whole house palette right now or you already have one neutral in your home that you're happy with. To the latter point, if you already have a neutral in your home that you are happy with, be sure that this new paint color pairs well with this neutral, especially if it's another neutral. Okay, let's get back to selecting the color. This is where you want to focus on what furnishings and finishes you have in your room. Remember, you should always choose your paint color last when you are redecorating. Why? First, because it's much more cost effective and efficient to purchase all of your furnishings for a room first, and then pick your paint color. Second, to create a cohesive design, it's important to coordinate your paint color with the other colors you have in your room. You don't have to match the paint exactly, but it should be a similar color to one of your colors in your color scheme. And it should also be a similar temperature to the main finishes or furnishings in your room. Let's look at some examples. In this first example, they've chosen a muted yellow paint color, which goes perfectly with the main accent color in this design, yellow. Additionally, you can see that the majority of the soft furnishings and hard finishes have warm undertones. So this color is an ideal choice. In this second example, they've chosen a lavender paint color which really elevates the overall design of this room. They obviously chose it by coordinating with some of the soft furnishings in this bedroom, including the bedspread. An excellent choice given that the bed is the natural focal point of this space. This is a great example of using a muted version of the vibrant, saturated purple. Can you imagine how different the room would feel if they match the paint color to the bedspread? This space certainly wouldn't have the same calm, restful mood that we get by using this lavender color. In this final example, you can see that they've chosen a beautiful aqua color, the main accent color that we see in this design. Note that when you are using a bright neutral white as the main neutral in the design, you can easily pair it with either a warm or a cool paint color. Another advantage you have to selecting a paint color from the existing color scheme in your room is the fact that you've already greatly narrowed down your choices from the thousands of paint colors that are available. Additionally, as I alluded to earlier, it's much easier to match a paint color to furnishings you already have in your room than the other way around. Rugs, sofas, chairs, window treatments, and other furnishings do not have the selection of colors available as you find with paint. So definitely pick your paint color last. That being said, if you are trying to match a paint color to your sofa or your rug or some other item that you can't easily take with you to the paint store, I would consider buying a fan deck from the store of your choice, such as Benjamin Moore, Sherwin Williams, or Don Edwards. They are relatively inexpensive, and it will allow you to more easily select some paint colors to test. Finally, it's essential that we spend a few minutes talking about paint sheen. As I discussed previously in an earlier lecture, a paint sheen can greatly affect how a color reads. A higher sheen, such as gloss, will reflect light and brighten a room, whereas a flat finish creates a more subdued look. In general, I prefer to use high gloss paint on pieces of furniture like built ins and side tables rather than on walls. Gloss is typically not the first choice for walls for a couple of reasons. First, it creates a dramatic look that people often don't want in rooms that they spend a lot of time in. Also, a high gloss sheen or a laquer finish will show any imperfections you have in the wall. So if you want to go in this direction, you will want to ensure that your walls are nearly flawless by sanding and prepping them ahead of time. Now, let's talk about flat sheens. I'm not a fan of using a flat sheen for walls as they tend to mark badly. This is especially challenging if you have children or pets. But what is great about flat paint is that it is very forgiving of flaws in the walls or ceiling, which is why flat paint is the most common choice for ceilings. You may know that semigloss is highly recommended for kitchens and baths. I agree with this recommendation. You should also use semigloss for your baseboards and moldings, given how easy it is to clean. Finally, eggshell and satin are the most commonly used sheds for all other areas in a home as they are not too reflective, but can also be more easily cleaned. I hope you found this lecture helpful. 22. Best White Paint Colors: It may seem a bit odd that I am giving a lecture on just white paint colors, but given how classic of a color it has always been, it's not uncommon for designers to be asked by clients for the ideal white color. They often ask for advice after they have walked into a paint store and become overwhelmed at how many different whites there are. As you now know, most have a cool or warm undertone to them. Many love warm whites because they create a warm, cozy mood in a space, and because of this, they are typically the preferred choice for walls. Unless the finishes in your home have cool undertones, in which case, it's typically best to go with a white that has cool or more neutral undertones. To help you get started, I thought you might be interested in hearing about my list of go to white paint colors, most of which are frequently used by my fellow designers as well. When discussing white paint, it's very helpful to know the colors LRV or light reflectance value. This refers to the percentage of light a paint color reflects. LRV has a scale 0-100 with zero being an absolute black that doesn't reflect any light and 100 being a pure white, which reflects all light. In short, this means that your brighter, more pure white paint colors will have a higher LRV. Does that make sense? Great. Let's start with the whites that read more warm and typically have red, orange or yellow undertones. First on my list in this category is white dove by Benjamin Moore, not only one of my favorite warm whites, but it also continues to be one of their best selling colors. White dove is a clean, classic white, and looks good in nearly any lighting situation. Although many say it works best when you have a lot of natural light. This color is also a popular choice for cabinets, moldings, and trim. White dove has an LRV of 83.16. Also, by Benjamin Moore, we have simply white. Brighter than white dove, this white will give a space a clean fresh look and can work well in a room that receives less light. However, because of its yellow undertones, it may read as a little too yellow in a room with low light. But generally, I find it looks good in all lighting levels. Simply White's LRV is 89.52, which is the highest for my pick of warm whites. Pure white by Sherwin Williams is a beautiful, bright, crisp and clean white that reads very slightly warm due to yellow undertones, which helps the color from feeling too stark. Pure white seems to work well in all lighting levels. It works well with most other colors and compliments nearly any decor. This versatile white is a great color for any surface of your home, including your walls, cabinets, doors, ceilings, trims, and moldings. The LRV for pure white is 84. Next on my list is Alabaster, another beautiful choice by Sherwin Williams. This creamy, slightly off white color is excellent for creating a cozy, inviting mood. This color also looks good in most lighting levels, but, of course, we'll read warmer in rooms with less natural light. Alabaster has also been a popular choice for those with a modern farmhouse style and other rustic styles. This colors LRV is 82. Moving on, we have Cloud White by Benjamin Moore. This sophisticated, slightly creamy white is referred to as soft and balanced by Ben Moore, and I would agree. It's a color that works with many different styles, but I do think Cloud White looks best in rooms with more natural light. Cloud White's LRV is 85.05. Finally, in the warm white category, we have Swiss coffee by Benjamin Moore. This color, which has been around for a long time, has been one of the most requested colors for kitchen cabinets. It's a great, creamy white, more of an off white, which rarely looks yellow on the walls. It's a beautiful warm white, which also works with many different styles, although I prefer it with more traditional or rustic styles. Swiss coffee has an LRV of 81.91. Now let's look at some great whites that read more cool, usually because they have blue, green, or purple undertones. Decorators white by Benjamin Moore is a beautiful, bright, clean, versatile white with the slightest gray undertone. It's a white that feels stylish and modern, and it works well with so many different types and levels of lighting. It's also a great choice for all the surfaces in your home. For these reasons, it's a common choice among interior designers and builders today. The LRV for decorators white is 84.61. Other beautiful cool white is cool December by Don Edwards. This bright white with slight gray undertones is a great choice for modern and contemporary spaces. It's also a good choice when you want to visually cool down a room, especially in parts of the world with year round warm weather. Cool December's LRV is 88. Next, we have extra white by Sherwin Williams. This white, which has subtle blue undertones, is bright, crisp and clean, but not too stark, so don't be put off by its name of extra white. If you want a color that looks more like a true white, but is not too bright, then this may be your color. It also works well with many different styles. Think it looks best in rooms with a lot of natural light because light bounces around beautifully with this color. While it can work for any surface in your home, it is commonly used as a trim and ceiling color, especially by builders. Extra White's LRV is 86, which should further convince you that this white is not too bright. Finally, let's talk about some great whites that read as more neutral. What this means for you is that these colors, often referred to as true whites are highly adaptable. Let's start with Chantilly lace by Benjamin Moore. The company describes this color as a classic go to white that elicits images of fresh cotton and pure silk. It's crisp and bright and works really well in both traditional and modern settings. It looks especially great with blues and grays, since it does have the slightest hint of a cool undertone. It's also the perfect backdrop for artwork. This color works for all applications, including moldings and trim. Chantilly lace has an LRV of 90.04. Now that's white. Next, we have Super White also by Benjamin Moore. Per the Benjamin Moore website, Super white suggests clarity and simplicity, which I completely agree with. Super white is a great choice when you are looking for a high gloss or laquer application, given how clean and crisp this white is, like freshly fallen snow. Like Chantilly lace, Super white also has the slightest hint of a cool undertone, which means it will read as more cool in rooms that receive less light. Super White's LRV is 87.36. Finally, by Pharoh and Ball, we have all white, which just like the name says is all white. According to Pharoh and Ball, this paint has no added pigments. It is truly a pure, clean, and bright white. Also, because it doesn't have blue undertones, it fortunately doesn't read too stark. It naturally makes a great choice for moldings and ceilings, but can also work for walls. This LRV, the highest on the entire list at 91.8. So what about mixing whites? Meaning, should you consider one white for your walls and another white for your molding, trim, and ceiling? You can, but it's tricky. For example, if you pair a warm white on your walls with a cool white on your trim, it will usually make the warmer white appear dingy. So I generally recommend against mixing warm and cool whites. Instead, I prefer to simply stick with the same white color for walls, trim, molding, and even your ceiling. I just use different sheds like we discussed in the last lecture. Remember, when you use a glossier finish like semigloss or gloss, the color will read as more light and bright, so it will provide a bit of contrast for your walls. Now, apart from these 12 white paint colors, there are, of course, many more great white paint colors out there. You may be wondering, with whites being so similar, how do you determine if a white has a warm or cool undertone? All I do is hold the paint swatch against a blank white piece of paper, and the undertone becomes pretty clear, just like we can see on the screen right now with this white background. If you are looking at different whites on a paint strip, be sure to fold the paint strip so only that color is being held up against the white piece of paper. Otherwise, it can distort your perception of the color you're trying to assess. 23. Effectively Test out Paint Colors Before you Start: I had a penny for every time a client or a friend bought a gallon of paint based on just viewing a paint chip alone. Well, you know how the saying goes. Please do not make this mistake. This is definitely not the way to go. It's very important to recognize that paint chips do not look the same as the paint on your walls for a variety of reasons. First, when you look at paint chips in a store, I can almost guarantee that the lighting is going to be different in your home, which will greatly affect how the color reads. Lighting is the reason why you hear some people say that a paint color changes throughout the day. It's based on both the natural and artificial light you have in the room. So testing out your color in the actual room you're going to use it in is imperative, unless you don't mind repainting your room more than once to get it just right. As a side note, you'll see a paint color most accurately under natural sunlight, whereas incandescent lighting will make a color appear warmer than it is, and fluorescent lighting will cast a cool blue tone on your paint color. LED lights with a high CRI or color rendering index will more clearly show the paints true color. Second, it's important to recognize that a paint color on a small chip will almost always look different than a large expanse of that color. Additionally, paint colors can look dramatically different in different rooms of your home. The way paint appears to our eyes is affected by the lighting in the room, the architectural elements like cabinets and flooring, as well as the furnishings in the room. Okay. So now that I've hopefully convinced you to not rely on paint chips alone for selecting a color, I'd like to give you an easy way to effectively test out paint colors before you buy them. First, you may be wondering how many paint samples should you try. Once you've narrowed down the color you want to start with, I recommend getting three to four samples in that color range to try out. Generally, when someone doesn't like the paint color, it's often because it's too light, too dark, or too saturated. So getting samples in various intensities of that gray you love will help you to choose just the right shade of that color for the space. Next, I would purchase peel and stick paint samples. These awesome large samples, which have the actual color painted on them, have an adhesive backing which allows you to easily move the sample around the room to see how the color changes throughout the day. If you're patient enough, I recommend living with the samples on the walls for two to three days before you commit to a final color. If you simply don't have that kind of time for whatever reason, Then you should look at your paint samples in the middle of the day under indirect natural sunlight. This will give you the truest read of the color. Morning and evening light tends to darken the color. Often people may be tempted to paint the samples directly on the wall, but I don't recommend doing this as sometimes you will see the outline of the samples under the final coat of paint, mainly because samples will often come in a different sheen than what you end up choosing. Paint samples are sold in one sheen only, so you don't get to choose the sheen of your samples. Also, this process may take you a couple of days or weeks, and if you're like me and care how your house looks, then I don't want giant swatches of colors all over my walls for any length of time, particularly when guests come over. By using this method, I am confident that you will be able to effectively test out your paint colors so that you end up with the perfect paint for your space. 24. Transition Paint Colors in your Home Like a Pro: Discussion on paint color palettes would not be complete without a discussion on how to effectively transition these colors in your home. I can tell you that this is an often overlooked detail that isn't given much thought until you've opened your can of paint and are about to start painting, or until your painter arrives and wants to know where you want one color to end and another to begin. This is an important question that should be given considerable thought before you jump in as your color transitions will impact the overall look and feel of your home, especially in an open floor plan. First, let me address the common approach that I see. Most people in my experience, often transition the color at the edge of the opening to another room. They will continue doing this from room to room. If you have casing around that opening, this works as the casing acts as a natural stopping point. However, if it's just an opening with no casing, then this approach will not work well. There is definitely a cleaner and more elegant way to transition colors that I'd like to show you. Let's use a bedroom with an attached sitting room as an example. Let's say that you'd like to use a different color in the sitting room. The best way to transition colors is to wrap the color from one room into the other room. To determine which way to wrap the color, simply consider the flow of the space. In this case, because you have to enter the bedroom first in order to enter the sitting room, I would wrap the color from the bedroom through the opening and onto the wall in the sitting room. Result, only the wall that connects the sitting room to the bedroom will be painted the same color as the bedroom, creating a cohesive transition. This means that the colors need to work well together, not only because you'll see the sitting room from the bedroom, but also because you now have a wall in your sitting room, painted the same color as the bedroom. So these colors will be side by side in your sitting room. Now let's talk about where each color should go, using the colors you've selected for your palette. Likely, you have three or four colors you want to use in your home, and at least one, if not two or more of them, will be neutral colors. As I mentioned earlier in the course, a neutral color is best used in the main areas of your home. Think, your entryway, family room, kitchen, and your hallways. For these areas, I generally like to use a lighter neutral paint color. Like to use a darker color, typically a darker neutral in your dining room and formal living room if you have one. Darker neutrals also work well as accent walls, or to highlight architectural details in the main living areas. Use your non neutral colors for areas such as bedrooms, offices, lofts, play rooms, and powder rooms. You can use these non neutral colors for the entire room or as accent walls in any of these rooms. Once you've decided where you want your colors to go, I like using sticky notes to indicate which colors will be going on each wall, so you aren't trying to remember what you decided on when you went through this process. If you are using a professional painter, they will love you for doing this, as it should keep them from making any painting mistakes. One important question about painting is, should you do it yourself or hire a professional? Well, if you have the funds available, I always recommend outsourcing this task unless you really enjoy painting or just don't have the budget for it. However, that said, here are some other key considerations. If you are using primarily light neutral paint colors, this is generally easier to do on your own, because if you make mistakes, such as have one color bleed a little bit onto the next, likely nobody will notice. However, if you are using any bold or dark hues on your walls, then I would hire a professional because any mistakes will be very obvious. Not just from wall to wall, if you are using different paint colors in a room, but also from wall to ceiling or wall to baseboard. 25. Final Thoughts: Congratulations and great job on finishing this course. You should now know nearly everything you need to know about how to use color successfully in your own interior design projects. In summary, you should now have a good grasp as to why color is so important when it comes to interior design. Not only can color have a significant psychological effect on how you feel, but you learn how to use color to fix awkward spaces, make rooms appear larger or smaller than they are. And, of course, you learned how color can completely change the mood of a room by simply changing its color scheme. You also now have at your disposal some great color scheme choices for the various rooms in your home based on a number of different variables that you can use easily. Finally, you should feel quite confident when it comes to making the right paint selections and how to use them in your home to create the best aesthetic effect possible. With your new found knowledge, I hope that you now feel confident in using color skillfully in your rooms so that you create your ideal space. If you have any questions at all, please feel free to send me an e mail. I am more than happy to help answer your follow up questions. Thanks so much and happy decorating.