Decorating your home can be super fun… and super overwhelming. When faced with a gigantic blank slate, it can be difficult to know exactly where to begin. With paint? With the perfect modern sectional? What about that piece of art you love? While you’re trying to decide on all these different things, we can definitely offer some tips on how to choose furniture color.
UNDERSTANDING LIGHT AND COLOR.
The amount of light your room gets will determine how bright or muted your chosen pieces appear. Before you start firing off any major decisions, take a look at the way natural light works in your room. If your room is naturally bright all day, you have the opportunity to play with more bright, hot colors. The sun compliments their intensity and turns up their vibrancy. Alternatively, if your room only gets sun in the morning or late afternoon, you might want to embrace that and choose a darker, moodier hue. If you have time, a swatch test can be a great way to see which colors work best. Try painting a two to three foot area of your space in your chosen color, and then note how the light works in the space for a week or so. You might just save yourself the trouble of repainting the whole room.
FURNITURE COLOR IS PERSONAL
It’s important to consider how color influences feeling. While there are some scientific correlations (such as yellow making you feel positive and hopeful, or blue making you feel calm and at peace), there are also personal ones. Maybe you loved the turquoise toilet of your childhood. Or your first boyfriend’s apartment was painted lilac, but curiously smelled like Cheeto dust, so lilac as a genre is ruined for you. Whatever your personal associations with color, they’ll influence the shades you want in your home. Personal comfort should always trump trend: when making a shortlist of your favorite pieces, be sure to check in with yourself as to whether you’re picking a particular chair for the ‘gram, or because you know it’s going to be a great long term investment. If you’re really struggling to identify your home-style, take some cues from your closet. What colors do you gravitate towards on a daily basis? Are you an adventurous dresser? Take these cues to heart as you consider how to choose your furniture color.
WHAT COMES FIRST, THE PAINT OR THE FURNITURE?
When you’re trying to figure out how to choose modern furniture for your living space, you might be tempted to paint the whole dang thing and then decide. Paint seems like a good foundation, right? If you’re planning on painting your house white, then go for it. But if you’re more adventurous with color, are considering a feature wall, or just aren’t sure… maybe hold off the rollers.
Choosing your furniture first helps you hone in on a palette more naturally. If you find yourself gravitating to really strong, bright colors for your chairs and sofas, a neutral wall color is easy to style against. But what if you fall in love with a sofa — like, head over heels, can’t eat, can’t sleep in love with this sofa — and it only comes in neutral colors? The sofa and you belong together, so it’s coming home. But you might want to change up your wall color to accommodate this unexpected change in plan. Remember: paint options are infinite, but furniture comes in a specific selection of shapes and colors.
