The Colors in Your Home Should Make You Feel Good

Do you love the colors in your home, or if I asked you, would you even know what colors are sprinkled throughout your home?

This step in making your house a home is often overlooked. Picking the right color scheme for your home can initially seem like a “fun” task, however, it’s one that is important! Your colors set the tone of the home. In fact, there is a lot that goes into picking the right colors. I know that’s not what you want to hear, but I like to be honest here.

It’s easy to look at a Pinterest board, or scroll through Instagram and see what’s trending. When you’re constantly seeing similar designs, furniture, and colors, it’s easy to start thinking that that’s what you like. I challenge you to make sure it’s what you actually like. You want to make sure that you’re not just picking on trend colors and patterns but ones you genuinely like (maybe even love) and won’t get sick of. The goal is that you want to pick colors that make you feel relaxed, joyful, and happy.

Can you get behind that? Okay, you’re like “Well if I can’t look at Pinterest anymore where should I start?” You can look at Pinterest, in fact you should look at Pinterest. I just want your main staple items and colors in your home to feel timeless for you.

If you are unsure of the color scheme that you want to go into your whole house, I encourage folks to go look in their closet. That’s step number one. Why, you may ask? It’s amazing, it might even blow your mind, how often you already have a color palette that you are drawn to. It shows up almost every day in the clothes that we lean toward, wear, and buy.

For instance, when I look in my closet I personally wear a lot of black, white, and tan. There isn’t much brown, a little bit of blush, and every now and again a pop of a wild pink in a blazer or pair of shorts. C’mon you know I gotta make a statement every now and again, and the bright dramatic touch is a good one! Overall, I’m all about the monochromatic look. If you’re unsure what monochromatic is, it’s using one color in many shades to add depth to your color palette but without adding a million different colors that could feel chaotic to you. For example, my house has many shades of creams and whites. 

Loving the colors in your home matters, and it’s important to note that with everything you buy, you’re investing money into your home. Whether that’s a paint color, a colored couch, or a decorative pillow, it all can get expensive if you don’t choose wisely. Think about an article of clothing you bought solely for the reason you didn’t own that color in anything. You most likely don’t own anything in that color because you just don’t like it. Maybe you don’t like it with your skin tone, or maybe it doesn’t go with anything else in your closet. However, eventually you realize you wasted money on the item of clothing because you never wore it, and it still has the tag on it or you wore it once years ago. Don’t let this happen in your home! It takes a long time and is way too expensive to repaint, buy a new couch, or get a new bedspread and pillows. I promise you’ll be defeated if you do this.

This is all to say, it’s always good to have about five colors in your home that you always go back to. Five colors, that’s it. You can do it! The majority of my house is called stark wool. I personally think it’s a nice white soft color, layered with a special walnut trim, and white kitchen cabinets with black handles. This is the staple throughout my home. My fifth pop of color is an emerald green. I have this a lot throughout my house through greenery such as plants.

Once you have a solid foundation, you should start to add texture with different colors for other rooms. I do this based on how I want to feel in a room. I wanted my master bedroom to feel romantic, so I added caramel and blush. My office has caramel with a pop of green because it makes me feel productive. My girls room is black, white, and pink because I wanted it to feel playful.

Notice how I pick a feeling I want to have and create that feeling in the colors and textures based on the foundation that has been built through the rest of my house. 

Pro tip: if you have an idea of the colors you want to use but are scared to commit, take your time. I know you don’t want to take more time, but trust me, you’ll appreciate it in the long run. Run to your local paint store, find the colors you gravitate towards, ask for the sample paint and put it on the walls in various rooms. When you do this, you can see what it looks like with different light sources you have in your home. Light makes a difference and can change color very quickly. You want to make sure you like the color with natural light, overhead light, morning light, night light, etc.

So often I see people fall in love with a color at the store, then they end up hating it on the wall but feel guilty, so they continue to paint a wall they hate. This doesn’t have to be you!

First, ask yourself what colors you’re already gravitating towards. Then remember in time you can dress up the rooms with paint, pillows, decor, baskets, and rugs. Remember the foundation can be there for a long time, but you can always change out the little pieces if you’re feeling called to.