Secrets the Pros Use to
Create Room Color Schemes

Deciding on room color schemes might seem easy until you visit your local paint store, at which point you may find yourself asking, “Why are there 329 shades of white paint, and what will the neighbors think if I put Moroccan Delight in my living room?”  Despite the mind-boggling options, putting together the right color scheme is the secret to giving your home a professionally designed look without breaking your budget.

How do you feel when you walk into your living room?  Does it feel the same as walking into your bedroom?  Your kitchen? It’s easy to see how choosing paint color can change a dull room into a warm, inviting space.  By combining paint choices into color schemes, you can make a tiny room seem bigger or a big room seem cozy. 

Rather than asking yourself what colors you like, start designing your room color schemes by asking how you’d like the room to feel.  Should the kitchen feel bright and sunny, or would you like it to have more of a country antique feeling?  Do you want your living room to feel kid-friendly or adults-only?  This approach is especially helpful if you’ll be choosing paint colors with another person. 

Now that you can describe the feeling of your room, choosing paint color starts with a color wheel chart.  Remember learning about primary and secondary colors?  A color wheel chart takes these colors and adds a few more, and sets them in a circle with warmer colors (reds and yellows) on one side and cooler colors on the other (blues and greens).  You’ll be using the color wheel chart to select color hues, not the final paint colors.


For example, if you want a bedroom to feel calm and soothing, you should consider cool hues such as blue, green and even purple.  Once you select the color, the next step is to determine what value, or shade, of that color would be appropriate for your room.  You can narrow your choice even more by selecting the intensity of the color.  The best way to understand value and intensity is to think of value as adding light or dark; and intensity as adding more or less of the color itself.

Room Color Scheme:  Benjamin Moore  AF-490 Tranquility

This may seem confusing, but the real secret of diving into this will put your mind at ease:  You just have to choose a color to start with.  Creating a set of colors that will compliment or contrast with your color choice is now a job for the professionals in your local paint store.  They are trained in choosing paint color and will suggest which part of your room to paint with each color. A paint professional or color consultant can also help you with that original color choice if you aren’t sure how to relate a feeling to a color.

Once you’ve decided on Bermuda April Sky Blue # 4, your room color schemes will come together quickly with the addition of another color of the same hue and perhaps a contrasting color from the other side of the color wheel chart.  Before you know it, each room in your house will come alive with color!

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