How to effortlessly uncover your personal color palette.
How to effortlessly uncover your personal color palette.
Does thinking about finding a cohesive color palette for your home stress you out?
I know that this can be overwhelming I hear it from my clients, time and time again!
I want to show you through this article that everyone has colors that they are intuitively drawn to.
I want to reveal how you can uncover these for yourself without much effort at all!
I think there is a lot of scary terminology around color and color theory for normal people not formally educated in art or design. While there is a lot of wisdom in this (and can be fun), there are some tried and true shortcuts that you can depend on that I use in my own design process, and you can use for your own color palette design too!
Paint, Pillows, Sofa Fabrics, Art and Rugs! So many colors so little help and direction. I’m here to save you from that overwhelm.
Just kidding I’m not saving you, you are going to save yourself!
I love color theory and the deeper meaning of color and if you like these subjects beautiful, there are some great books. (and my article here) But… finding a color palette should not freak out people that are just trying to make their house pretty!
By looking at things you already love you automatically weed out all of the details of dealing with all of the colors that you don’t love when working on your color palette ideas.
Instead of getting freaked out and listening to someone give you a pre-packaged color palette, with these tips all you have to do is uncover the color palate that you already love!
By following these tips you get your power back. Instead of selling your style to the whims of someone else, you can have your own autonomy!
If you want to… feel free to fall down the rabbit hole of color theory, but remember… its theory for a reason.
Your gut understands what you love often quicker than your brain does or can even understand. It's time to trust it!
Here we go, let’s figure out your color palette:
Know your design aesthetic
Step one. You have to know what you love! If you don’t know what a design aesthetic is check out my video here or my post on this here!
Within this process you will be looking at your saved social media feeds, photo albums and design inspiration from Pinterest boards and design magazines.
Collect these things and see if you can find any color cohesion. You will often find that some sort of organization comes from your intuitive collecting of images over time!
Make sure you think about the colors you dislike also, so that you can avoid them in your process!
Ground yourself with cohesive inspiration
Now collect those images that speak the deepest to you that really speak to your soul and light you up.
It’s great to put these all together on your computer or on a piece of paper or board to have something to refer to for your next step.
Another great way to engage with this is to create a vision board for yourself, learn how to create one for yourself here.
3. Choose a piece, art or rug that anchors your color story
Now that you have an idea of what colors you gravitate towards, pull a piece of art or a rug that encapsulates a few or all of these colors that you love!
This can either be a piece of art or a rug that you want to actually use in the design of your space or just as inspiration for the room.
The secret here is that your personal design palette has already traveled through two very important gates without much effort from you!
• The first most important gate is figuring out what you are drawn to
• The second gate is the fact that someone well versed in color and composition and probably formally taught in color theory has created that piece of art or rug that you absolutely love.
The hard word of finding a cohesive color palette has already been accomplished!
4. Pick the colors (use a color palette generator)
Now look at your original inspiration and decide what your favorite color out of that is, now turn to your rug or art piece and pull a couple more colors out of that piece. Now you have your very own curated color palette!
A fun thing to play around with is this color palette grabber here.
If you have a digital image of the rug or piece of art you can easily grab the colors directly!
Now don’t forget the neutrals in regards to the physical design of your space. If you are using the palette to design your environment take a cue from the room inspiration you collect from the design magazines etc.
From there, see how they use neutrals and in what ratio so that you can emulate that vibe.
ex. These rooms both have a similar color palette, but very different feelings based on the ratio of the colors!
5. Don’t deviate (unless the act of deviation is your aesthetic!)
Now stick to your plan! Unless your design aesthetic is particularly eclectic, pull colors directly from your inspiration piece. Even styles like bohemian have a color theme, they often stay away from cooler colors and the woods are all very warm too for example. If you feel strongly about adding some other color that is outside of your inspiration check with a designer for some advise! Im always here for a design consultation if you need any specific help!
6. Consider the feelings..
…that are emoted with the inspiration that you chose originally. This is the very important link between your original vibe inspiration and the choosing of your specific art or rug. How can you use these colors to reinforce that vibe through the colors you choose to highlight in your space?
My personal color palette overwhelmingly revealed itself to me after I looked at all of the images that I have collected over the years. Without even knowing, or really trying, I collected a cohesive palette that I can refer to again and again. This palette was collected intuitively and speaks to the feelings and vibe that I wish to convey in my life!
Let me know if you found this process helpful. I would also love to see your own color palettes if you are up for sharing!
Thank you so much for reading!
Remember…
Love,