How to Pick Color Combinations for Walls

Match your wall color to your existing decor.

It's a lot easier and cheaper to pick your wall colors to fit existing furnishings, instead of trying to replace furnishings to match your wall color choices. This is especially true if you are planning to use more than one wall color. Find harmonious colors for your walls that will fit your current decor. If you want to go the extra step and add an accent wall in another color, the color harmony is more complex and should be selected with care.

Instructions

1. Find the existing dominant color in the room you are picking wall colors for. You can safely ignore a minor color on a pillow. Focus on large items, like sofas, or intense items, like a lampshade in a brilliant color.

2. Examine the color wheel to find colors that will go with the dominant color. Work on finding one color if you want a single color for the room; find two for a room with two colors. The easiest way to do this is to think of a main color for the three walls and an accent color for one wall.

3. Use color similar or identical to the main color for a simple solution that can't go wrong. If your dominant color is red, a pink will always work. For a second wall color, you could select a red identical to the dominant red as an accent wall.

4. Select colors in the proximity of the dominant color on the color wheel for more complexity. These colors, called analogous colors, will work together nicely without being harsh. A dominant color of blue, for instance, could be matched with a light blue-green pastel wall. For an accent, go to the other side of blue for a medium mauve.

5. Pick complementary colors for maximum impact. Complementary colors, effectively opposites, wow the retina and produce strong impacts. For a dominant color of orange, use its complement, blue, as a single color. For two wall colors, try splitting the complement and using the colors on either side of blue, blue-green coupled with blue-purple.

References

• Color Matters: Color Theory
• Indiana University Southeast: Color Schemes
• Apartment Therapy: 5 Classic Color Harmonies Defined