Many people love color and wouldn't dream of living in a home decorated with boring white or beige walls, furniture, or accessories. If you want to decorate your home with many colors, you need to be careful that the decor does not look juvenile or overpowering. Here are some tips for decorating a room with many colors.
photo courtesy of Katedubya flickr.com/photos/websterkate/3192317564/Jumping Off Point
Instead of just picking many colors for your room that you like, start with a color jumping off point. The jumping off point should be one item that has many colors in it. You will use all or many of the colors in the item for other items in your room. The jumping off point item could be a colorful rug, colorful artwork, or a colorful fabric used on a large furniture piece or curtains.
Avoid Primary Colors
Using only primary colors (basic red, blue, and yellow) can look juvenile. Decorate your home with unique colors like turquoise, aqua, sea green, cranberry, emerald, coral, lavender, navy, eggplant, fuschia, teal, indigo, mocha, copper, and/or nectarine instead.
Have a Few Dominant Colors
Instead of having all of your colors used in equal amounts, select one or two colors to be the dominant colors. The dominant colors can be used in around 60% of the room (such as the wall paint color, bedding, rug, and/or sofa). The other colors can be used in smaller quantities on such items as accessories and smaller furniture pieces.
Pastels Over Bold Colors
Too many bright and bold colors can be jarring, so decorate with pastel or toned down versions of your favorite colors instead.
Add Black and White
To ground your colorful room, add accents of black and white. When looking around a room, your eye should be able to periodically rest on a neutral object or wall before being stimulated again with color.
Avoid Busy Prints
Since you are using many colors, you can use one large item with a busy print, but try to stick with solid fabrics or fabrics with basic medium and large scale geometric prints for the other fabrics. Small scale fabrics with many colors can make the room feel too overpowering and uninviting, especially when using several different small scale colorful fabrics.