Four Ways To Utilize Paint Colour Intuitively

One could argue that colour is one of the most basic elements of home decorating and giving your space a quick, inexpensive face lift. Colour is an essential element in any home renovation, no matter how big or small. If you alter your way of thinking to see colour as an architectural and decor element, the possibilities become much more vast.

1. Change The Proportions Of The Rooms In Your Home

Colour is your friend when you are trying to achieve a spacious look in a smaller space or cozy up and make a large space feel more intimate. It is also helpful if you have awkward structural design elements like oddly placed pillars or slanted ceilings.

Imagine your space completely empty, no furniture or art. Throughout the course of the day, take note of what walls or areas are highlighted and when; is it a single wall or is the whole room illuminated by natural light. Determine what you want to be your main focal point in the room and what part of the room you want to retreat a little. Bright colours and pale tones open up a space making it seem large and spacious. If you want to promote an intimate and cozy feel in the room, choosing dark colours is the way you want to go. Choosing a different colour pallet will change the proportions of your space.

2. Soften Angles and Hard Lines

Hallways and intersections of rooms often break up the overall look of a home and interrupt the the flow with harsh angles. Masking and softening these angles is easy with a smart use of colour and will create a better flow and feel to the overall space.

Angles in your home can create dramatic shadows that can be undesirable. Fortunately you can soften the appearance of those shadows with choosing shades of grey as your colour pallet. Choosing a coordinated flooring colour, including area rugs in similar shades and tones, to smooth the way throughout the interior of your home. Using contrasting colours will focus your eye to different architectural, design and decor elements. This way your favourite piece of art or your feature wall will be the visual focus instead of the angles in your home.

People are attracted to the flow of a space that makes sense and utilizing colour to downplay harsh or awkward angles can help make your home feel much less jarring.

3. Manipulate Your Light

There are ways to embellish or imitate natural sunlight or reduce glare. Luckily, one of these ways is built right into the finish of the paint colour. If you are getting less natural sunlight in your space than you’d like, picking a paint colour that has a reflective finish, or simply even picking a shade of white, will help increase the appearance of more light. On the flip side, if you want to reduce glare in your space, picking a shade of grey is the way you want to go.

In a windowless room with no natural sunlight, creating that outside on the inside feel is able to be achieved using a light golden colour. This helps simulate that sunshine feel when you use it in conjunction with reflective surfaces.

4. Downplay Features or Make Them Shine

There are situations or budget constraints that don’t always allow us to have the exact furniture that fits your home’s architecture. Maybe your couch is oversized and too big for the space, making it feel cramped and smaller than it is, or there is a small bed in an oversized bedroom making it feel disjointed and uncoordinated. Choosing the right colour is an inexpensive fix for these sorts of issues.

For an item that imposing, that you want to have blend in better and play down, match that items colour with the surroundings. If your couch is green, choose a wall colour the same or a similar shade. By making the couch and wall blend together, it takes the attention away from the fact that it is too large for the space. Shades of grey give our eyes the impression decreasing size because they absorb light instead of reflecting it. Using these shades will help minimize the look of large windows and doorways.

To have the opposite effect and make something appear larger, use a bright and contrasting colour. A lime green or teal bed frame in a neutral toned room will immediately make the bed seem larger than it is. This is a good way to make your awkwardly large spaces feel more cozy.

Solving Problems With Colour

If you don’t have the budget to do a large, timely and pricey renovation, changing up your wall colour is a great solution to fix the undesirable angles and proportions of your home, while giving it the face lift it needs to make it exactly like you want.