In this edition of Home Zone, designer Sally Marbry answers a question from our readers.
Dear Sally,
All of the walls in my house are white and I want to liven them with some color – multiple colors. What should I do to make sure it doesn’t end up looking ridiculous or too random?
Color Confused, Redding
You can make multiple colors easy to live with by choosing them in the same “value,” meaning the lightness or darkness of the tone. For instance, choose a medium tone green with a medium toned peach. ( Pairing a pastel with a deep value can get tricky.) See in the above photos that colors of the same intensity relate well.
The above illustrates how the same color in different values work well together.
You can also work with “accent walls”, which is a method of just accentuating one wall by choosing a very strong color.
cool tones vs. warm tones
The colors you select should be of the same color family. Try to understand the difference between a “cool” (or blue undertone) and a “warm” ( or yellow) undertone. For instance, a green that has yellow in it blends nicely with a peach that has a yellow base, not a blue base. Am I making sense?
Also, your overall floor color needs to be considered in selecting several colors. Your floor color is a given, so choose colors that look great with your floor and you can’t go wrong.
Sally Marbry is the owner of Superior Interiors. For the past year, Sally has been the host and writer of “Home Zone,” weekly on KLXR. Send Sally your design questions. She will answer them online in an upcoming edition of Home Zone. Send questions to Earth2Sal@charter.net.
