Everything needs to flow. Pick two or three colors or elements that unite your spaces and vary the other. Otherwise it can feel disjointed and incoherent. That might be black and white and the wood of the floors used through the space together with your bright colors. Or it could be a natural green and a neutral beige together with a light blue ceiling that's used throughout the space, again with different colors used as minor or major elements of the different rooms.

Use unifying themes, colors, and materials, and then go wild within those constraints!

It sounds like you have the right idea. I think it flows better if all rooms look the same syle and color palet but can be limiting and boring as well.

That was very helpful! I really love it when people post photos. I can look at design magazines all day but I prefer to see how people translate 1 bajillion dollar rooms into real living spaces. With a house full of boys I would be crazy to invest a ton of money in really nice furniture and rugs.

What order did you guys tackle your rooms? I feel like I should start with my living room and go from there??

Clueless, I have 3 kids. Two are boys aged 8 and 5, so I know how it is! I also have 2 huge dogs and a cat. I like pretty things so I've encouraged the kids to be respectful of them. So far, so good!

Christopher Lowell used to encourage people to start with the room that they would consider their sanctuary. This way, it's there for you re-do all the other rooms. Often that's the master bedroom, but each person has there own preference of where they would like to relax.

My great room and 2 hallways are the exact same color (some shade of gold/tan) but the hallway paint is a different sheen for washability. My kitchen and dining area is not completely open to the great room but you can definitly see one room from the other and I used a darker more tan color in the those rooms.
My house is a 4 bedroom ranch with 2 bedrooms and 2 baths on one side of the house and 2 bedrooms and a bathroom on the other side. The bedrooms and bathrooms are each there own color without regard to coordinating or relating them. I too love color and since those rooms are private spaces I think they can be whatever colors I want.

Yes, I do think there needs to be color flow. To test if your are successful with flow, you should be able to move your accent pillows, rugs and decor from room to room and it should all work. I wish i had realized this before we built and decorated our house. But I'm trying to be more aware of that now.

Here's our general color palate( plus pear green):

My general palette is reds, pale greens and yellows. Lots of medium to dark wood surfaces like furniture, window trims and doors.

I try to take into account the sun exposure and purpose of each room. Our kitchen, master bedroom and bath are south-facing. I chose pale green and white as dominant colors for them. Something cool to mitigate the sunlight. Kitchen also has some muted yellow and more saturated fern green in it since it's a more active area than the master bedroom and bath.

The dining room with a large west-facing window and south-facing balcony slider is the brightest room in the house. It opens to the kitchen, and I continued the muted yellow from the kitchen to the DR. I wanted the DR to be the most light-filled room, thence my choice of muted shades of yellow together with warm cream wall paint.

The living room faces north and runs parallel to the DR and kitchen. The dominant colors are dark reds and browns (orange-brown brick fireplace wall, draperies and furniture) against the warm cream wall paint (same as in DR). I have a few white and black pieces like the large carved white lamps by the sofa, black lacquered Boston rocker and black stand with the TV to mitigate the intensity of the red tones. The couch is also white. Browns and deep reds create a warm cocoon feel in contrast to the light-filled openness of the DR. The kitchen is separated from the LR by a wall and not visible from LR.

Right now the remaining two bedrooms that face north are mostly in creams and browns with very limited color, except for dark red draperies in my kid's room. I've been wanting to change the color scheme since the rooms look so bland but haven't settled on any colors yet.

This is a great question and topic and one I've been rolling around as I make plans for my new house. I have much of the small house painted the same color-- I didnt start out with that plan. The house flows so much better now with one color (BM Anjou Pear)-- and it feels bigger. It also carries a great vibe through the house because, while an intense color, I love it!

My plan is to use accent colors to both distinguish the rooms that are all painted Anjou Pear but also to provide continuity with the bedrooms and baths that will be different colors. Turquoise, black, white and flax will all be accent colors-- heavy in some rooms and just a splash in others.

So far, I've only painted one bedroom-- it's a very pale gray with a darker gray planned for the adjoining bath. I'll bring in a hint of Anjou Pear with white linens and shades of gray. I expect to bring in the turquoise and flax into the other rooms.

I don't have such a hard time seeing these color threads through the house-- it's style continuity that I struggle with. This will come with time too.

Do you have a palette worked out yet? What colors are you considering?

totally, my daughter is colorful too. her new apartment can not be re painted. we were left with a medium bright yellow- green kitchen, ivory bedroom with dark eggplant wainscot on all 4 walls, and medium French blue halls and living room with white trim.
The kitchen has black, eggplant purple, orange,red and yellowy- green curtains (background is black with brilliant colored fishy- figures)
She is using red curtains in the bedroom with bright yellow green throw pillows on the red bed cover, with red shams.
In the living area she has taken the red curtains to use again and is using her black furniture, adding red throw pillows and red accents. when you walk from kitchen to living area the use of one color from the previous room makes it 'flow' rather than feel like you are stepping into a completely new kingdom in each room.

I organized every space in my home around the palette reflected in my Native American art and my Oriental rugs. Both have the same colors represented.It is representative of "nature".

I chose the wall colors to reflect the palette, downstairs one room chocolate , one deep thyme green, one navy and several in shades of terra cotta. The rest in a pale cream and light yellows. All of the upstairs is in the same three shades of cream to dark tan.

As pps says every single piece of art and every rug can and has been used in every room in the house. We have swapped all the DR and sitting room furniture and rugs and even the spaces! I love the flexibility and the lack of any jarring note throughout. And yet nothing is the same by any means. I have great diversity and unlimited choices as far as rearranging ...all because I had a unifying theme.

I will link to my photo bucket and you can click on that and go to the rest of my photobucket if you like to see examples. c

Here is a link that might be useful: photobucket

So far I really have zero direction in mind for an overall color scheme for the house. I have narrowed it down to two couches. I like the green, hubby likes the shape of the other one better.

I am getting some furniture from my family so I am waiting for them to send me pics so I can post and then see which couch the fantastic posters here think will go better. The chairs are mid century modern the coffee table is glass top with gold leaf.or I have the option of a brass one. I think it is all from the 50's and I love it all! I could always put the chairs in the master bedroom and get different chairs for the living room.

~twiddles thumbs waiting for photos~

The one hubby likes.

I don't know how to get multiple photos in one post!

People always comment on the cohesiveness of our house. All the walls are Kilim Beige (and it looks great in every room), woodwork and 2 inch are blinds are white, most the furniture is dark wood with a few painted pieces to break the monotony. My key living and dining room colors are green with varying accent colors in coral, orange, and a little turquoise. Family room has a maize colored sectional, brown ,orange accents and turquoise accents. Bedrooms and bathrooms have neutral floor color and a base of green with different accent colors in the one already listed. It all works!

I think your gut instinct is spot on...I think main living areas should flow in color/style, but bedrooms should reflect the occupant...an 8 year old girl's room should not look like the MBR.

I have always had the main rooms flow together and our master too (but, in a different manner...if that makes any sense). I definitely believe the bedrooms should be designed for the occupant. If I had a guest room on our main floor...I would have that "match" the main floor flow too.

A really good way to choose your color scheme is to go to any fabric store and look at fabrics in the home décor section. Find a patterned/designed fabric that has colors that you just love and speak to you. Buy a 1/4 yard or so and use the colors from that to pick your "colors." Bring it to any store that sells paint and match up the fabric colors to some paint swatches and there you have the colors...that you love...that will flow. You can use the paint swatches and fabric to shop for accessories, fabrics, drapes, etc. and you will feel confident that it will all flow!

Is there something wrong with rainbow puke????

totally clueless - I think we share the same love of colors so will follow your color and decorating journey eagerly.

Regarding the sofa, I like the color and shape of the green personally. I see all of those areas in the tufting in the other for "stuff" to gather!

I have the same question! The color palette of my house consists of dark brown (flooring), light browns, blues, and greens. We are getting ready to redo our Master Bathroom and are considering gray. The bathroom is removed from the rest of the house and we could even paint the bedroom gray to match it better. But it wouldn't really go with the rest of the house. Is this wrong?