Often the first room you see in your home is the living room. This room tells your guests what you are all about. It reveals your personality better than any other room in your house. Sit in your living room now and take a look around. What do you have the most of? Is it wood or is it metal? Perhaps it is neither. Maybe it is fabric. Determine what your base design is and go from there.
If you have a great deal of wood in your room, and wish to keep it, you are leaning toward warm colors. If metals are more your style, then you will have a cool room. If your primary decoration is fabric, if all of your furniture is fabric covered, with neither wood nor metal, or minimum amounts of each, then the color of your fabric is what determines the hue of the room.
If your wood is unpainted and you really want a cool room, your wood can be painted to fit into a cool room. Likewise, if the wood is painted and you prefer a warm room, most paint, while it will require a great deal of work, can be removed, and the wood stained or covered with a clear coat which will bring out the natural tones in the room. A darker stain will create a warmer room than a light colored wood stain.
If a warm room is what you want, and you like the reds, then you should look for browns, golds, and deeper reds. For this color combination I would head to Valspar’s and select your favorite colors. You will be able to see your choices in a virtual room. I have added my choices to this room. To view my choices, click here. Leave this open in a separate window so that you can work with me as we go along.
The living room shown in this sample is for a Rustic décor. For a more Traditional living room using warm blues, you can view my color choices using the Valspar Digital painter by clicking here. These blues create a comfortable at home feel. Another take on the same Traditional Living room using greens is here, again on the Valspar Digital Painter. One more look at the same room using reds. If a cooler room is more to your liking, this palate uses cool blues. You will notice immediately that the accessories in the room are warm accessories that really stand out. Keep in mind that it will do the same in your room. If a cool room is what you are after, and you have all warm accessories, you will need to make a change here too or all of your hard worm will fall flat. This is a great tool to play around with color combinations. the furniture and drapes in the room are a little goofy when you try yo adjust the color, but the walls will give you an idea of the colors you can combine and it shows you the effect your changes have on the different rooms.
I would accent a warm room, with wood and metals, such as gold and brass, and also with leather. A cool room I would decorate with glass, both colored and crystal and my choice of metals would be silver. If I were to use wood, I would paint it a light color to accent my color choices.
Please review also, Benjamin Moore Paint Colors For Your Kitchen and Living Room and Benjamin Moore Paint: Colors that Go from Little Boy to Little Man
Because a modern room is so much fun to put together, I will do a complete article on decorating a Modern room. This will be Part Four of the Decorating With Color Series.
SOURCES:
http://www.valspar.com/painter.html?image=wav_tra_liv_1.jpg&colors;=1008-3A,1008-7A,1008-5C,7001-4
