Painting Rules - Mood Continued

Establishing a mood with your wall color is as important as what you put in the room!  Here are more palettes that set a tone for how you want people to feel when they visit.

  


Often seen in children's rooms, the whimsical palette uses bright colors with accents in bedding, floor coverings and accessories that are equally as lively. 

  A neutral palette consists of colors "stripped" of their vibrancy, not just browns, greys or off-whites as many people think.  These combinations are useful when attention is wanted on artwork and furnishings without a lot of drama. Neutral pallets are often used when selling a home so potential buyers don't have a strong reaction to any room.

Regardless of what kind of mood you want to evoke or whether your colors are vibrant or neutral, you can choose them in the warm spectrum of reds, oranges and yellows or in the cool spectrum of blues, green and purples depending on what appeals to you.

Painting Rules - Establish Mood

There truly is systematic way to pick the perfect paint colors for your home. Before plunging the brush into a bucket of "acceptable" or "bargain" paint, you should think about some basic requirements - how do you want the paint to work for you?  The first step is to determine what mood or tone you want to convey.  While mood is an emotion and not something you would expect to address in a systematic approach to choosing paints, it is one of the first things your guests will sense when they walk into your home if you do it right.  Study the swatches below to get a feel for how to deliver a particular ambiance. Of course there are additional moods or tones that can be evoked: romantic, masculine, feminine, etc., but these should give you a good starting point. 

 Rooms that draw you in and make you feel warm and cozy are ones that have a dominant color in the warm spectrum: red, yellow, oranges.  Accent colors in geens and blues also contribute to the feeling as long as they have red or yellow undertones.


 

To set a restful, tranquil mood, use hues that are light and cool.  Blues and greens tend to calm the mood.  Monochromatic color schemes in the paint, upholstery and carpeting help to achieve a serene environment. Notice the largest chip in each strip is the palest.  This means that the dominant color (walls) should be the palest while upholstery, floor coverings can be slightly darker.

Dramatic moods are achieved with combinations of bold, saturated colors or a single bold color with grays, browns, blacks or whites.  These colors choices are used more in contemporary homes where an energy is desired to set the stage for dramatic artwork, furnishings, or architecture.

More mood palettes to come!