Decorating? How to Choose a Colour Scheme

Decorating your home can be exasperating if you don’t prepare all surfaces properly. The recipe for success includes: washing all surfaces down, sanding and filling in cracks in walls and woodwork, using masking tape and then add lots of patience.

“If a job is worth doing, it is worth doing right” as my grandma would say.

I have learned the hard way over the years having made many mistakes.So I can definitely speak from experience.

Where to start? I would suggest that you consider putting a mood board together.

What is a mood board?

An inspiration board where your thoughts, ideas and colour schemes will come together. Obviously if you have existing fixtures, fittings and furniture, these will somewhat dictate the colour scheme.

Paint: A paint colour chart is a good place to start and paint samples are a must. Paint a swatch of 2 or 3 colours on the walls. Be sure to paint the sample colours on more than one wall, as both natural and artificial light will play an important part in getting the scheme right.

For colour inspiration check out this amazing blog Design Seeds

Examples of mood and sample boards.

Now, normally I am a neutral kind of person.  But after painting a wall in a Cinnamon colour in our previous home, I felt that I wanted to add some colour to our current home.

The open plan living and dining area in our previous home and “The Wall”

Our current home

This is our living room that looks out onto the patio and back garden. Decorated and finished. I am thrilled with the way it has turned out.

During the day this room has a sunny side, in the evening or at dusk it gives off a warm golden glow.

We opted for floor and table lamps as opposed to a ceiling light fitting, which adds to the ambiance and coziness of this room.

The colour scheme chosen for the Living Room;

Over the fireplace I choose Glidden Aztec Gold GLY28 satin finish paint. The other three walls were painted with the same finish but the colour was slightly lighter - Carton MSL079 by Martha Stewart.

The floors my husband painstakingly sanded down with the aid of hired equipment from Home Depot. We decided in the end not to stain the floors after a practice run! So we applied a high gloss polyurethane finish.

What do you think of the colour scheme?

Share your decorating tips with me!