Tapping Into Your Color Intuition
What color should I paint this room? This is perhaps the most often asked question in decorating groups on social media … and the one question that sends me over the edge! It would be like asking a group of strangers - or even a paid professional - what should I eat for dinner? Your color preferences or palette (combination of colors) is as individual and unique as your palate (your sense of taste). If you love hot, spicy food and someone recommended that you eat a piece of unseasoned grilled chicken and plain white rice, that probably wouldn’t resonate with you and you’d reject the idea in favor of something more flavorful. It’s the same with color.
Nobody, not even the highest paid interior designer, can tell you what colors you like, the ones that make you FEEL good and resonate with your own color intuition. And yes, we all have color intuition - you just might not be experienced at tapping into it, but you do have it! It’s that inner guidance, that feeling you have when you look at a color and it makes your heart smile, or it gives you that ‘ick’ feeling you can’t quite describe but you know it doesn’t make you FEEL good!
So how do you tap into your color intuition to find your perfect color palette? First you need to do a deep dive into what makes you feel good. This may take some time as our society has conditioned us to follow the trends, buy what is in style and conform to whatever ‘they’ tell you are the latest and greatest colors! Forget all that. Again, nobody can tell you what color(s) will transform a house into YOUR sanctuary.
Various shades of blue, turquoise with pops of pink and orange. This is a good starting point to create a custom color palette and design plan.
Spend time paying attention to the colors you’re drawn to - get a stack of magazines and tear out pix that light your inner spark, the ones that make you feel good! It doesn’t have to be a room pic, it could be a scene in nature, an item of clothing, a piece of art or pottery, or scraps of wrapping paper. Just start collecting pix that you love - and yes, you can do this on the computer but it’s much more satisfying to be able to spread out all of the pix in front of you. Get a bulletin board and start tacking the pix up, don’t THINK - you aren’t creating a mood board, you’re honing your color intuition. At some point you’ll start to see a pattern emerge, there will be groups of colors that you consistently choose. Those are YOUR colors.
Next, take a little field trip to a paint or hardware store, grab every color chip that strikes your fancy. Once more, don’t think, this is a time for play! Be like a child opening a box of crayons and pulling out your favorites! Have fun! Once you have a good stack of color chips, take them home and look at each one, close your eyes and tune into how it makes you feel. If you have even the slightest ‘ick’, discard that color. Take all the color chips that feel good and put them on the board with all of your pix.
At this point you should have a fairly good idea of your own personal color palette - and not to confuse you, but you could have multiple color palettes. For instance, I love the colors of the Mediterranean - deep blues, turquoises and pinks … but I also resonate with warm earthy colors! This is where it helps to have some guidance in creating a design blueprint and finalizing your color palette!
The next question you may ask is, “what if I realize that my current home and furniture/accessories doesn’t reflect my true color palette?” Don’t despair, there are ways to use and repurpose things you’ve already got to create your dream home without having to start from scratch!
If you’re still uncertain about creating your perfect color palette or how to incorporate it into your existing home, let’s chat! You may decide that all you need is an hour consultation to fine tune your color intuition or you might feel you’d like help in pulling it all together, either way, I’d love to assist you in transforming your house into your sanctuary! We’ll start with a complimentary virtual chat and you can show me your space and we’ll take it from there.
Above all, have fun and play with color! Life is not meant to be beige - and neither is your home!
Blessings,
Melissa