1. Create Flow with Color
In a house with an open floor plan or one in which rooms connect through wide openings, it’s even more important to choose colors that relate to each other. In this situation, the challenge is to give each room its own identity according to its function and still achieve a feeling of unity. Repeating similar colors or materials in small details, such as window treatments, fabrics, or wall decor, can help form a subtle link between spaces for an overall cohesive look.
2. Use a Thread of Color Between Rooms
To give each room its own color personality while ensuring a united look, try using a single hue as a theme that runs throughout. This trick works even if you love using lots of varied colors. Just choose one color, such as white or a versatile shade like navy, that appears in the color schemes of each room. Consider choosing woodwork as your unifying element and repeat the same color or finish on baseboards, door frames, window frames, and molding at the ceiling. You also can achieve a feeling of continuity by limiting your palette to two or three colors that you use in different amounts and applications throughout the house. Each color can be used in different values and intensities to produce a wide range of effects. For example, paint your lower kitchen cabinets a dark stormy gray, then choose a lighter shade of gray for the adjoining living room’s walls.
3. Define Connected Spaces with Color
Open floor plans, whether in a suburban home, a condominium, or an apartment, allow architects to maximize the feeling of space without increasing square footage. But that doesn’t mean you have to paint all of the connecting spaces one color. Give each area its own personality by choosing two or three colors that work well together and use them in varying amounts (such as on walls, furniture, and accessories) from room to room.
4. Connect Rooms with Flooring and Rugs
You can connect adjoining rooms painted in strongly contrasting colors by using flooring or area rugs that include both colors. For example, lay down a multi-color patterned runner in a hallway to bring the gap between a neutral space and a more colorful one. Remember that the wall and rug colors don’t have to match exactly; one can be slightly darker or lighter than the other, and the eye will still perceive them as closely related.
5. Unify Colors with Trim
Painting all of the trim throughout the house the same shade of white is a simple way to create a sense of flow from room to room. White trim ensures that these spaces look connected and reinforces the effect with subliminal cues that make people feel anchored as they move through your house. Because there are so many shades of white, however, it’s best to select wall colors first, then choose a white that works with all of them. A bright pure white, for example, will contrast crisply with bold colors and harmonize with softer ones.
Other Color Tips for a Cohesive Color Scheme
As you select colors for each room of your house, keep in mind that light changes the appearance of any given color. If you take the same can of yellow paint and apply it to two rooms—one that receives very little natural light and another that’s flooded with sunshine—it will look like two different colors. To achieve a feeling of continuity and still give each room a subtly different feeling, use this effect to your advantage. Choose two closely related hues (such as adjacent shades on a paint strip) and apply the lighter one to the sunniest space, which will help imbue it with a sunny feeling all day long. This strategy works particularly well for L-shape rooms, where one leg of the L is the living area and the other is the dining area.
