When looking at redecorating your home it’s difficult to know where to start. You often start with the room you spend the most time in or the one that needs the most ‘TLC’ but without really considering how it will fit into the decor of the rest of the home. It’s important to try and plan how the rest of your home will look, so here are a few tips on how to create flow in your home.
Pick a set of neutrals
Whilst this may sound obvious, most people don’t do it! Whether the end finish you are going for is ultra neutral or bright and colourful, having a set of neutral colours that repeat throughout your home will create a sense of calm – even as the rest of the colours in each room change.
You can use lighter neutral colours in your kitchen or bathroom, warmer neutrals in living areas and darker neutrals in the hallway and smaller rooms.
Wait, what?
Yes. Darker neutrals in places like your hallway can make every room leading off it feel larger and brighter. This helps to create a sense of space throughout the rest of your home.
Accent colours
When choosing accent colours try to ensure the colours compliment each other from one room to another. You can do this by picking colours from the same pallet, or choosing completely different colours which have the same ‘tonal-weight’ as each other. This can create more harmony in your home and ensures that your colours work well together. You don’t want to choose a dark, dramatic colour in one room followed by a light and airy colour in the next. If you stand in your hallway and look out towards each room they should harmonise with each other rather than clash.
You may wish to have one accent colour used throughout your home but use different neutrals in each room. This can still work well, but you should still ensure the neutrals you use share the same tonal-weight.
Feature walls
Once you have chosen your accent colours you may wish to have feature walls to to help showcase a room. You can use feature walls to change the feel of a room. If you have a uniquely shaped room, feature walls can help to show this off. For instance, painting a long wall in a dark colour will draw towards you and make the room feel even longer. Or, if you paint a short wall in a dark colour, this will make the room feel more square.
If you choose a long wall as your feature wall, then be careful if this is in a bedroom or living room it may make you feel ‘unsettled’. To keep things calm, consider putting your feature wall behind a sofa or a bed.
Unify with your hallway
Finally, whatever you decide to do with each room, you should try to ensure the colour in your hallway compliments each other room. This helps to bring everything together and create that finished look.
If you want to use a neutral colour, then try your darkest neutral in the hallway. Or, you could have a colour in the hallway that is then used as an accent colour in your other rooms.
So, get painting!
