Decor and You - Massachusetts Great article supported by great pictures, thanks!

Marie Meko, Allied ASID This is a must save article for me! Thank you and I agree with Decor and You about a wonderful selection of photographs.
Marie Meko

annoulaxeni Particularly good article. May I suggest that since you obviously 'get' color that you follow up with an article or a series of articles about choosing paint colors? There are a number of your readers who do not understand most of the basics, like reflection from other colors in the room or outside the window, differences in light, or even just how to sort through similar chips to determine underlying hues.

Casart Coverings Thanks, Lisa for this timely ideabook. Linking to it tomorrow in my blog post titled Color Everywhere. Check out Slipcovers For Your Walls.

Paintings by Kirsten Elizabeth Gilmore Thank you for this insightful article, Lisa! I intend to share it with my painting students (since how colors work in a room also often echos how they work on a canvas. :)

In my recent painting below, I use some traditionally "taboo" color combinations, but this is what makes the piece eye-catching. I think the phrase, "make your color choices unexpected, but not unpleasant" is a better rule to substitute for banning colors.

sunshinejoetta If you have texture that isn't very good (seams and places have been patched) what is the best paint tone to hide it? Now it is a pale tan in eggshell. Flat? Semi? Darker?

Keller Williams very useful

Jo Allan @sunshine...

From my experience ain't can be used like makeup on walls to cover, mask or play down imperfection...some shine can soften appearance of wrinkles (or wall roughness) and lighter colours can have a similar effect as both tend to bounce or reflect light. I've had success with a semi gloss for this effect.

I'm not a professional just a lover of art and design. There seem to be many professional who comment on these articles so hopefully one will offer some tips. Good luck!

Jo Allan @Sunshine...sorry typo (love the iPad but auto correct is a pain ; ). My comment should say, "...think you can use paint..."

Good luck with walls!

Sandra Though this may seem weird, I have always considered my mostly purple living room to be neutral and I use pillows, rug and art for pops of color.

Architect Urban The style is my favorite ! Support it!

Impeccable Design & Drapery LLC Great article! Thanks!

lyrics1967 I love the suggestion about rather than using different colors from room to room to layer colors of the same pallet. But...what about those little girl rooms where you want to do something prissy and special and to use a variation of the same pallet just doesn't give it the sugar and spice you're trying to create? Seems to me in childrens' rooms, part of the idea is to not make it look like just another room in the house. I'm doing two room now, one for my granddaughters when they come to stay and one for grandsons. One will have pastels and one earth tones with a cabin effect. Are they going to stick out like a sore thumb in my small house?

sjmom Lots of good information provided here.

Sandra @lyrics1967, I think the most important information in your post is that this is YOUR house and I feel certain your grandchildren are going to be over the moon with their rooms !! What's more important than showing them how much you love them? And every home needs some spice !!! I hope you're really having fun with this !!

tmasepohl @lyrics1967 I like to use a whole-house color scheme in smaller homes, especially if you can see from one room to the next. This doesn't necessarily mean you have to use a small color pallet -- just try to use colors that coordinate with each other. The photo shows a color scheme I put together for a friend. The largest colors were wall colors in the main living areas. The smaller colors were accents. When you do this, you can make each room a different color and its own unique design, but the whole house still looks great together. You tie together the different rooms by using coordinating colored pillows, art, accessories, to pull the whole thing together.

What colors do you have in the rest of your house? By choosing some coordinating colors, nothing will 'stick out like a sore thumb'.

Lauren Cottam Is "no blue in the kitchen" still a rule? I've heard that it is an appetite killer, but I think it would look great as an accent to my grey kitchen cabinets.

tmasepohl My kitchen countertops and backsplash are blue-greys and I love them. I used Cambria in Bradford and 1x2 quartzite backsplash tiles in Ostrich Grey by Arizona Tile. They make my natural maple cabinets really pop.

As for color theory meets psychology, a lot of that is found to be very person-specific and culture-dependent. As a design student, I remember reading that yellow is NEVER to be used in a baby's nursery because infants were found to be more restless in a yellow room. After searching high and low for the basis of that argument, I came up with nothing. Total nonsense. (That being said, blue is supposed to be calming. Like my contradictions? :)

Use the colors you enjoy being around. It's your home.

lyrics1967 @tmasepohl. Thanks for the help. I have to think about this. I totally get what you're saying about small houses and the ability to see easily from one room to the next. When you enter my house, a hall t's off. To the left is kitchen and to the right is a long hall that deadends before turning into a clearly visible dainty little girls room. Will be very visible from the end of the foyer and t-shaped hallway. It will be the most traveled hallway as it leads to all bedrooms and baths. Entering the foyer there is a dining area to the right and looking straight ahead is the family room. To the left will be visible the breakfast room with a cushiony cozy booth. All done in a sophisticated craftsman style, if that makes sense? Point is, from foyer stragiht ahead is family room, left breakfast room and down the ways to the right, that girly room. You walk right towards it to get to the guest bath. So upon entering the house, standing in the 4 way stop, you can see family room, breakfast room, dining room and girly room in one turn. And it's not even an open floor plan. WOW! DId I just say all that? I DO want things to be cohesive and to have an order (OCD kicking in here), so I have to think about best colors to integrate with these rooms? Gotta get my color palette going. Guess I should think about scrapping the purple and orange chevron walls I was going to do in the master bedroom with hints of turquoise? Darn! Just kidding.

Anina Lavina Great article! Thanks. Working with colours is like composing music. Challenging, and very enjoyable for some, and a complete mystery for others. Some people have a talent, like "perfect pitch" and can do what is right without thinking, some learn it and for some it is like a mine field. The best composer is nature. There are no "tabu"s in there. I would like to add two thing to it. When choosing colours for a room, or an apartment or a house, I would start with the colours that are already given, and can not be changed, and work with it. I would also use colours to alter an imperfect room's proportions, as you suggested. When starting anew, I would like to use either nature or an artwork for inspiration. Abstract painting is better, because the subject matter does not influence you, Analyse it and translate it to the interior. All colours are nice!

sartarehare In my current very small home (1920s), I've used muted/lighter toned blues and greens as neutral furniture colors and I've called them that. They're such versatile colors that when you lay bits of color on top of them, they appear to fade to background. However the overall effect is very cheery/happy. Green is actually my favorite "neutral."

marilyninv We are finishing an L shaped basement. I have Benjamin Moore vellum, red peanut and agreen with some yellow of the same hue in the rest of the house. I would like some suggestions for the lowere level as 3 spaces intersect but bath, office and pool room are separated by a hall. I like the red and vellum but am looking for a third color (not blue) ro enhance the space. I planned on putting red cupboards with a dark island in the kitchen with a cohesive granite color. Paint suggestions?

PamDesigns 3D While some people seem to have a talent for blending colors in a room, there is much to be said for training. It's not magic or voodoo. Color theory can be learned just like other aspects of interior design. Why are there color combinations that seem to be crazy or off-putting in one setting yet seem to work in another? Even when they are the same exact colors --they may look different from one space to the next for a lot of reasons -from the quantity of the colors in relation to one another to the location, season of the year, time of day and quantity of natural and artificial lighting. Do not discount the advice of a local design professional who has training in color theory ---they could be worth their weight in gold! (Or at least a lot of buckets of paint .)

marilyninv The colors I have in the rest of the house do change with time of day, year and that is what I love about them. They are always fresh. I am looking for a new color to add to the red/gold combo to kick things into a different feel for the basement. I have considered plum or chocolate as the floors are light travertine.

CAROLE MEYER Wonderful article and great examples. I love orange and pink....and red and turquoise!!!

trishaann Loved the article. We're almost ready to paint the interior of our new house. I am using colors from the old one because I love them. However, the great room will be in a light shade of teal. I painted the ceilings in our present house the same color and it looks wonderful. The ceiling in the new room is 13 feet and angled up from there with no lower beams going through. Should I choose a darker shade of white or paint them the same as well? Thanks.

captured_by_love I have a grey/lavendar shade of blue kitchen/dining room with white cabinets and I LOVE it. And we eat plenty. ;)

bjnewcolor1 Thanks for the info! A good article is always appreciated.

jansinteriors This is a great article... thank you!

mbzickler I really love this color. Do you still have the name and company? It looks like the perfect color for a bedroom.

Manashi Basu Always had the impression that dark ceiling will look gloomy.....but it seems that with the walls of ivory shave the ceiling should look magical. Must try in the living room .Shall post a picture as soon as it is done.

sclawson Excellent article! I've been saying green is a great neutral for years. A friend bought a house that had a candy pink carpet in the master bedroom. It was in good shape and she didn't hate it enough to change it, but wanted to tone it down. She was committed to a plain white down comforter on the bed, so I suggested painting the walls a pale green--sort of a celery--and going for a print in the draperies, bedskirt and shams that combined all the colors. It turned out beautifully. She was very happy with the result, and that pink carpet just seemed to fade into the walkways, so to speak.

mcshroff was also planning to go for red in kitchen, but was confused. now feeling like going for it again..thanks