Today's open floor plans are great for hosting parties, but they can be a challenge to decorate. No one wants to use all the exact same colors in their living areas, yet completely different color schemes can sometimes make the home seem disjointed and stuck together. How can we bring these joined rooms together into a comfortable, harmonious whole?
The most important thing that the rooms must share is a common feel and style. The rooms in your home will not flow - even if everything's the same color - if your kitchen is modern, your dining room and living room are traditional, and your family room is shabby chic. Remember this... there are plenty of famous homes - like the White House - with a green room, a red room, a blue room, etc. But only an art gallery will have a Traditional Room, a Country Room, a Victorian Room, and a Contemporary Room. If you like more than one style, then go for an eclectic look and mix them up in each room instead!
There are several ways that color can be used to help your rooms flow. The first choice you must make is whether to use soft muted colors or clear vibrant colors. These two general types of colors each give a totally different effect to a room, so it's usually best to stick with one or the other.
Muted colors can be any shade, from a light grayish pink or blue, to a dark burgundy or navy. What makes them muted is the amount of black or grey mixed in the color. Mauve, sage, dusty blue, navy, olive, and violet are all color names usually given to colors with gray mixed in to soften them.
Clear colors, on the other hand, are pure colors - they do not have any gray mixed in. They too, can be any shade. They can be pale, with just a hint of pure color like a ballet pink or lime green, or intense and strong like fuchsia, royal blue, or bright orange.
Once you're settled on the type of colors you'll use, you need to decide how you're going to make sure they flow. There are three main ways to achieve this. You can alternate main colors and accent colors between rooms. You can choose one or two common colors for all your rooms to share. Or you can let each room's color scheme be a slight variation of the adjoining room's color scheme.
Alternating colors is perhaps the easiest method to use, if you get to start from scratch. Choose a color pallet for all of the rooms which you want to tie together. Let's use yellow, blue, and white for an example. Each room will have one of these colors as the dominant color, and the others as accent colors. You could make the kitchen white with blue and yellow accents, the living and dining rooms blue with white and yellow accents, and the family room yellow with blue and white accents.
If you want to use pre-existing furniture and decor, then you'll probably want to find a common color that your rooms can share. To do this, review ALL the colors in each room's basic furniture. First note the neutrals used, and find one that they share. If they don't share one, then choose white as your unifying neutral. Contrary to what many people think, white and off-white colors, such as ivory, cream, or beige CAN be used together in one room. The trick is to use them purposefully so they don't look like an accident. Next, find one or two other colors that they all can share. They might already share one, or you might have to take a color from one room and introduce it in the other rooms. Once you've chosen one, be creative in how you use it with your neutral in EVERY room. Throw pillows and blankets, picture mats, and trimmings on valances and tiebacks are all small accent pieces that can often be changed without spending tons of money.
The third method is ideal for 'side' rooms, such as a powder room or den. Choose a color scheme that is similar to the adjoining room, but still completely different. Often a lighter or darker shade will be what you're looking for. Let's go back to the example we used for alternating colors. Let's say the blue and yellow being used are medium shades. A lighter yellow would be a great choice for the powder room to make it feel larger and sunny. You could leave out the blue altogether if you want. Then in the den, the blue could be deepened to navy, and gold could be used instead of yellow for a more masculine look. You could also introduce accents of wine for interest.
Finally, don't be afraid to combine these methods. If you really want your whole home to flow, then try using the first method in your main living areas, the second in your bedrooms, and the third in your bathrooms and guest room or office. Be creative!
Have fun!
