I'd suggest heading to Maria Killam's blog and do a bunch of reading. Lots of good info.

So much depends on your space and light so painting large samples in your spaces is key. I love Sherwin WIlliams paint palettes for helping to pick colors that flow from room to room. Pinterest is also a good source.

Paint palettes

You can absolutely switch up colors. Make sure all colors together create a pleasing palette. Get the larger paint samples (about 3"x4") and fan out your choices and see if you like them together.

Often if you match saturation levels and keep saturation somewhat subdued, you can change up hue and lightness as long as the colors are different enough from each other.

What everybody said..))

Also, "warm" and "cool" are relative terms to a big extent..we can judge the warmness and the coolness(can you say that?) of the colors only in comparison to one another. So there are cool reds and warm blues for example..and you can always find warmer shade or cooler shade in every color..endlessly.

You can actually get away with a lot..people do primary color palettes too when it's really clean bright blue, really bright red, etc-and it looks amazing. Similar saturation is important..I do prefer subdued as Jane suggested, but some people love clean colors-and still make it all work together.

Everything requires consideration of course-and a lot of those samples..:)

(There are some fearless people that do things that I'd never imagine of doing, and mix shades I'd never think of mixing, and they are natural talents-they make work absolutely everything. But I for example am not that blessed even though I'm very, very into colors-and I did a lot of reading while remodeling, whether these were books or blogs. Even sheer usefulness aside-gives one more courage. And I needed that courage..I was deadly afraid of painters and their reaction..Luckily ours were pretty patient..even though they seemed a little bit surprised..))

In terms of reading, besides Maria Killiam's blog, very helpful indeed-I recommend (everywhere I can lol) this blog as well. laurelberninteriors.com. great info on everything, everything-and tons on colors as well. And she's really funny too.

one more thing..which is pretty similar to suggestion of looking at palettes on Pinterest or elsewhere..it can be fabrics, art, you name it..but if it works in the nature-it will most likely work in a house as well. so sometimes it takes just taking a walk in the park, looking outside your window, climbing that hill.

you do need to be much more careful about so called neutrals than about colors, in hard finishes-since they usually have undertones that might or might not clash, but unlike paint, you can't just tweak these or easily change or still make it work..its more complicated with things that are not one color by their very essence.. even if they seem to be.

with paint, you re more free so to say. you do need to be mindful. yet you're freer anyway

with soft furnishings you're free as a bird in the sky..well, almost))

oh my aprilneverends - I am in love with that blog! the only negative is that she is so close and yet so far :0 Close location wise - just across the river - but so obviously out of my price range given the areas she services.

I know..we used to live in (very) Southern CT-minutes from Westchester County, really..:) I know exactly what you're talking about

And yes, she's so close, one of the few authors I'd like to have a cup of coffee with-yet still so far

She does have cool e-books put together for sale-the palettes, etc..it's written as nicely and detailed and funnily as everything else -I already was long done with the painting yet still couldn't avoid the temptation and bought the palettes one..both parts lol. You know she has them of course since you know the blog-but the OP might find that info interesting

I would say though, just reading the blog will help tremendously

aprilneverends - thank you so much for the endorsement and link back to the site! I really appreciate that! And Boopadaboo, thanks for chiming in too! I'm no longer taking on clients or consults. The blog and all the rest is more than a full-time job. But I very much enjoy it!

Mondays are my favorite day of the week because that is when I work on social media and website (behind the scenes) related stuff. xoxo, Laurel

oh my Laurel. Hi!!

now I feel bad calling you "she"..:)

What else would you call me? "he?" LOL So, how did I know that you guys were talking about me? I'll tell you.

When anyone links to my site, and then someone clicks on that link which several people have done, (thank you!) it's called a referrer and every so often, I take a gander to see where traffic is coming from. There is always a link back to the source, so all I have to do is click on it and poof, here I am!

ok..so not magical thinking, lol

So nice to see you, Laurel!

Keep in mind that as well as the warm/cool issue, you have clean/dirty (clear or muted if you prefer), pale/saturated (pastel versus intense) pairings to deal with. And that's just for any color.

A "greige" can be a warm or cool greige, can have purple, blue, green or pinkish over and undertones ... it all depends on what color you put next to it.