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You can get interior decorating color scheme ideas anywhere. They're all around you - and here's how to find the good ones quickly.... to get your mind into ‘color gear’:
- Magazines and catalogs
- Other people’s homes and show homes
- Interiors/lifestyle shops
But hunting for the best color schemes can get addictive! Before you know it, you're on a roll. You start seeing decorating color scheme ideas in unexpected places.
Take for example the little stamp above - you could turn that into a very effective color scheme for decorating:
And there’s more.
If you want to look further and dig up more unusual, new, 'different' color schemes for your home, here are some suggestions.
(Do keep a camera on hand while you’re on your mission. You never know when the muse will strike.)
Museums and Galleries
They're great places to give you ideas for a decorating color scheme. Look for inspiring color in
- Paintings
- Applied arts (ceramics, glass, paper objects…)
- Fabrics/textiles
- Furniture
Anything, even small details, might spark off a new color idea. All you need to do is keep asking yourself questions like
- What do I like about this color (combination)?
- How would this color (these colors) look in our living-room / as cushions on the sofa / down the hallway?
- How would it/they go with...
You'll always get the best results when you follow your heart, so I suggest you just go and explore. (I personally love exhibits from foreign cultures; the more outlandish the better. They can provide interesting, ‘un-Western’ and very exciting color schemes for your home.)
Favorite Things And Places
Places and things you love, or dream of (or want more of!) could inspire you with a decorating color scheme, too. For example:
- a favorite flower
- a bird’s plumage
- the seaside
- the desert
- the mountains in springtime
- Paris in springtime
- a fruit (lemon, peach, plum...)
- a Zen garden
- South Wales
- New South Wales
- a souvenir
- Tuscany (in any season)
- a place where you have spent your holidays
- a place where your ancestors lived
- a place where you’d like to travel ...
And whilst we're on the subject, I thought I'd turn the photo here into a peaches-and-cream color scheme:
Shops
Bookshops (new and used books) are a good source of decorating color scheme ideas:
- Book covers can look awesome – illustrators often come up with inspiring color combinations. This could come in quite handy for you - just take the book along to pick your paint and fabric samples for further testing.
- Books of color photography (not necessarily from the ‘interior design’ section) can provide you with page after page of very effective color scheme ideas.
- Posters and post cards, ditto.
Antique dealers’ can be great places for finding a color scheme, too – an old Italian tile, or a '40s fashion fabric might just catch your eye at the right moment, and give you some new color decorating ideas for your home.
Other sources
- Museum and art gallery websites
- Online catalogs and poster shops
- Thrift stores – look out for ‘accidental’ color schemes, like in a stack of scarves for example. I know this sounds whacky, but it might just spark off the best color schemes. (Good fashion designers do that all the time - unusual color combinations are a great way to create a 'fresh' look.)
The Beach
The pebbles in this picture used to lie around on a beach in the south of England - that is, until my friend Nicole picked them up and strung them together.
They look as if they've been around for a while (I'd like to think they saw William the Conqueror land on the English shore in 1066, to win the Battle of Hastings!)
Well, they're still here (unlike William's army), and now they suggest a rather timeless neutral room color scheme. (On second thought, it might need a punchy accent color to lift it just a bit).
There - this is my list of suggestions for now. If you can think of some more ways of picking up interior decorating color scheme ideas, please contact me and let me know – I’ll include them on this page.
In the meantime you have probably come up with some rather cool, effective color scheme ideas yourself. But you’re not done yet!
What if -
You Love Mediterranean Colors …
… But You Live In Scotland?
You can adapt most color palettes to the context of your home, and in this case you may want to adjust your chosen color scheme a little to the ‘cold’ light of the Northern Hemisphere.
The other issue that might come up is, just because a color combination looks good on a book cover, this doesn’t mean it will look good in your living room. So how can you make your decorating color scheme work in your particular surroundings?
Well, there’s an article on the way (several articles, actually) to address these issues. Meanwhile, you could maybe browse through some more pages in the ‘color’ section – and let me know if they are of any use to you:
How to Create Room Color Schemes (the Basics)
How to Choose Interior Paint Color Combinations (Step-by-Step Guide)
How to Decorate In a Neutral Color Scheme
Ideas for Bedroom Color Schemes
What to Do with a Basic Color Wheel Chart
How to Use Color Psychology in Interior Design
Return from Interior Decorating Color Scheme to Decorating Color Schemes Made Easy
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