Color Me Delighted! Using Color in Interior Design

By Dawn West
dawn.west@interiordesignprogramreview.com
Interior Design Program Review Columnist

Color is an interior design heavy hitter. It's amazing what a bucket of paint can do. Paint a wall red and the look and feel of a room is transformed. Change it to pale blue, and voila, transformed again. If you're looking to update your space or are starting from scratch and want to control the feel of a room, interior design color is a great place to start.

When it comes to color and interior design, here are a two basics that will help you avoid pitfalls and instead come out pleased as punch.

Tip #1 - Personal Taste is More Important than Current Fashion.

Colors in interior design go in and out of vogue. That stunning avocado can turn to that ghastly avocado in the time it takes to say 1978. If you want to make sure you aren't choosing an interior design color you'll hate tomorrow, pick a color you love, not one that your neighbor and Sherwin Wilson's special of the month love. Is there a purple that makes you think of your grandma's irises? Do you just love a mild mannered taupe? Go for it. When in doubt, start slow, one wall rather than the whole room, or throw pillows and an accent chair rather than bigger ticket items like couches and rugs.

Tip #2 - Light Changes Everything.

A brown wall in a room that's drenched with sunlight is going to look different from a brown wall in a room that gets little natural light. Same goes for rooms with fluorescent light versus incandescent light. If some of your rooms get lots of sunlight and others get little, you might try to balance the feel of the interior by using cool colors in the sunny rooms and warm colors in the darker rooms. You could also go the other way and play up the imbalance, turning your bright spaces into warmth-drenched hubs and your darker spaces into cool retreats. Just make sure you consider color in the interior you're designing, not in the showroom.

About the Author

Dawn West is an avid gardener and freelance writer. When she's not gardening, her previous experience includes working for the Community Development Venture Capital Alliance, a not-for-profit in New York City, developing programming for a business news radio station in Boston and serving as the director for several educational programs for at-risk youth. Dawn holds a B.A. in English from Harvard University, but was also educated in the yard by her green-thumbed father.