@chispa but I did find that one article extremely useful, and I also found useful the article embedded within. For the first time, I have overcome my inertia about colors and materials. And I am no longer limited by decisions.

I realized the most useful article I posted originally is not live, so here it is again:

https://www.fromhousetohome.com/whole-house-color-scheme/

One of the difficulties with a whole house color scheme is with the trim. Wood trim looks great with bold and dark colors on the walls. Pastels look great with white trim. Bold colors also look great with white trim. But once I start using bold colors, I get bored with white trim. I think it would be fun to use bright colors for trim sometimes. Or it would be fun to create a gradation from dark wall, medium trim, light ceiling. But how do you do that through the whole house, especially if you want the ceiling darker than the walls in some rooms? Or is it enough to have a whole-house color scheme and deal with the trim color on a room-by-room basis?

I think if it is done throughout the whole house the bold color becomes a neutral and the color that is commonly considered the neutral, imagine a white vase in the first photo, is what will stand out. That is just something I made up. It is not something I have ever heard an expert say. It is just something I notice when looking at colors.

Here are a few staircases. They are all bold but the one where the surrounding room is also the same color does not stand out as much. It becomes more of the neutral.

These last three photos pop because they stand out from their surroundings. I'm not sure the effect will be the same if that same color is on the moldings throughout the house. It might read as bold with the first room you see when you walk into the house but by the time you enter the third room it kind of feels like a lack of creativity and becomes more of a neutral imo.

Unless every room is spot on, those bold moldings throughout might even look like a mistake or like you got a great bargain on red paint.

Otoh a house full of red baseboards might turn out spectacular but I think there are easier, and more effective, ways to add a huge dose of bold and color continuity to a home. I would start with just the staircase and staircase moldings. Then add smaller doses of the same, or similar, color in other areas of the home. Use art, wallpaper, pillows, textiles, etc for those smaller doses. Layers of colors are key. A house full of red moldings might seem too forced.

@ilikefriday I'm glad you chimed in on this. We both like to be creative. You make it work, but I don't trust myself. I worry that if I leave white baseboards it will be like the white trim that used to be on my home exterior. It looked like someone primed them and forgot to come back to paint the top coat.

And yet I have white trim and ceiling in my new bathroom, because I wanted navy and white. If I do it all through the house...the white...will it look formulaic? Or un-creative?

Will it look formulaic or uncreative?

I think it depends on what else is going on in the space. IMO white baseboards are boring but there are many, many things that bring boldness and creativity to a space. Having bold baseboards, all the same color, throughout will become very limiting especially since you don't have furniture picked out. My suggestion is to selectively change the color of the baseboards after the rest of the room is furnished and completed.

I have a somewhat different take on whole-house color schemes. Having a set of preferred (or default) colors gave me a starting point with my current home. My three colors can be used in a variety of ways (walls, trim, furniture, soft goods), and have served as a unifier for the whole. Since they form a neutral base, they allow for bolder colors to be added over time as tastes and moods change. § One other consideration, for me at least, is by having ceiling and trim colors (whatever they are) stay constant, repainting is not as tedious as it could be. (I truly dislike painting ceilings — and baseboards.)

Hubby and I have been watching "Shetland" on BritBox and thrill at the scenery with the intensely contrasting colors: bright green hills, bright white, dark to bright azure sea, dark rock, tall sandy grasses and sandy beach. He would add the glow of light on a medium caramel wood. I would replace the dark rock with chocolate. And in other shows, he loves a dark wine red room. It's just nice we both like bold coloring. And like you said, @ilikefriday dark colors really set off white. Like these pictures.

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@Otter Play I know one color is your flooring. It looks like a warm mid-tone caramel. What are your other two colors?

@kl23

You put way, way, way more thought into the whole house color scheme then I do. I have one but it was not intentional. It just happens that I am drawn to the same colors throughout the house. I stumbled upon my color scheme by accident. Black, blue, red/hot pink and all their variations. I cannot wait to see your space after it has been completed.

Kl23. Floor is mid-tone brown with reddish tones. Trim and ceiling are Behr Linen white. The third color is Benj Moore Graytint (#1611) a chameleon of a color that can look grey or pale blue or white. Since I usually live near the sea, it seems appropriate. § I have rugs that are navy, one that is splotchy (tech term) grey, and mostly white. Lately, I’ve added a geometric chevron stripes of rust, cream, and almost-teal. All the rugs have been in multiple rooms.

And then there was a house I saw several years ago. Orange-green-purple color scheme throughout, but trim and wall color varied from room to room. Color shade (not tech term) and intensity changed as well. The owner was a painter. Figures.

@Otter Play that's one of my favorite triadic color schemes. I also like analogous: blue, green, caramel.

@Otter Play

I would love to see a house such as you described. Orange, green, purple. Did you like it?

Ilikefriday. When I mentioned the owner was a painter, I should have said painter is an artist. I liked it very much. §§ Small older home probably built in the 1930s. The colors were neither primary nor pastel. I’d call them soft. (Something along the lines of SW Avid Apricot-Romaine-Potentially Purple, but those are just remembrances.) At least green and orange were used for trim colors in different rooms; don’t recall purple trim. Purple was used for the bedroom walls. Various tones and intensity of all three colors for finishes and furnishings. Quite effective.

These? @ilikefriday did you find said artist yet? 🤭

I had a house with all oak floors, doors, stairs, and trim once. The walls were all off-white. It was standard at the time. The kitchen had no trim and the floor was ruined and replaced with vinyl. I made the kitchen, laundry, and associated powder room delftware blues and whites (the ceiling was called Snow Shadow) with oak cabinetry and new vinyl in chocolate brown. Blue and white checked table cloth and Pella lace at the window. So there I went with a sort of complimentary color scheme: orange-red brown and blue. Pretty simple but there were several shades of both the blue and the brown. I also had the outside of the house painted from all white to a nice blue with white trim. Then I started making mistakes with wallpaper: golden beige in the dining room and pink in the living room, both in too small a print. Moved away before I could correct it. Next owner undid everything. The exterior became grey with bright red trim.

I think that's important to remember. Whatever we decide won't last forever. Maybe next time I make a mistake, I will be willing to undo it faster. I have fewer years left to wait.

In that house I had with oak everywhere, the color of the wood had to be part of the color scheme in my mind. And furniture too in my current home and future plans for it, needs to be part of the color scheme...or at least I thought. My new interior designer looked at my stairs and said we could strip and stain them. I wanted stone at the time so I didn't follow up. But now it looks like I'll be having wood stairs still, and the wood will be at least a third of the surface area because I am DONE with carpet on stairs. So I can't ignore the color, even if it is a bit neutral.

OK, what I am getting at is how do you handle wood in a whole-house color scheme? And what if you have more than one wood furniture type/color? Do you become rigid and remove the "different" wood, restrain it, etc. Or do you embrace the diversity of woods and stains as subtle variations of "brown"? I am leaning towards diversity, and even spreading out my groupings across different rooms, deliberately breaking up the currently unpopular "sets" until matching furniture in a room is popular again. Or will I be dead first? 😂

I'm de-Christmasing and the living room is looking especially durable without the hits of red. That's one reason I chose this designer. Her portfolio showed a raw talent in using touches of bright color in a sea of neutrals and pastels. I'm glad she's looking forward to do so in a dark sea.

When the tree goes today, it will show the designer how badly I need a lighting plan. How I would love the little tiny warm lights all year long without feeling like an idiot. Isn't there some way? Last year I bought lighted "twigs" you could stick in a vase with other fake or real flowers. I never got around to adding the "other". It was OK. Upstairs I have a stained-glass huricane-like lamp I filled with little lights. It looks like firefies to me.

De-Christmasing is no fun.

No, I didn't find the artist but I did find this. It's a different shade of orange and it is totally me 😄

I can't imagine a plain white ceiling in this space. I will have to search for photos.

Although I love it when people pull off bright, bold colors, it doesn’t always work for me. So for my interior I have a soft, blue green and a pale, sandy yellow for wall colors in the main areas of the house. Think a soft sea and beach. All the trim is the same shade of white. I have copper and mid range wood tones and a bit of black here and there. It really works well.

@ShadyWillowFarm that sounds like a really peaceful whole-house color scheme. What wood color(s)?

@ilikefriday I see several oranges, the tub is a bit more yellow orange and the walls a bit more red orange. Then there's the art and floor oranges. Together they glow! It's definitely you!

I looked too. I found this: and thought you might like it: https://www.vogue.co.uk/gallery/suzy-menkes-piasa-vincent-darre-selling-up-to-reinvent-himself

This one has a light orange ceiling. I saw others with a full pastel orange ceiling that weren't as attractive to me. One had a black and white ceiling and floor. I liked that, but not as much as the yellow-orange. I think I like it when the ceiling is lighter than the walls but not all the way to white. Like my old blue kitchen. When I see the ceiling lighter and brighter than the walls, the ceiling seems higher. What do you think?

Another option I like is to take the color of an accent wall up onto the ceiling. When I see that over and behind a bed, the bed seems more integrated into the room.

This is a neutral example, but this is what I mean by having something on the bed wall that extends up across the ceiling.

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I like the tips here for using dark green as a go-to color.

https://decoholic.org/unlock-the-magic-of-dark-green-paint-colors-transform-your-home-today/

I have lots of wood colors, from coppery to dark walnut!

I found another article on decorating with dark green. I like the idea of including multiple greens in one room and think it would be fun to include another idea of adding a jewel tone against a dark green background.

https://www.thespruce.com/green-living-room-ideas-4122169

@kl23 x did you notice that none of the green rooms had white molding?

I have a house with A LOT of wood - strong Craftsman moulding on all doors and windows, custom wood cabinets flanking the dining area, a wood tray ceiling in 1/2 of the Great Room AND wood floors throughout (which are slightly redder than the wood trim).

It absolutely affected my design choices. I live with ivory walls for the first time in my life - all the walls are SW Antique. The seller had used a light khaki, but it made the house dreary. Most of my furniture and decor choices lean to the greens and blues (except the master bedroom). I think the color of wood floors definitely matters in a whole house color scheme. The house I own now has the most “red” in the wood floors and it does change my decisions.

@RedRyder no I missed that but will look again. Thanks!

@RedRyder I saw the trim work treated both ways. So that's nice to have as a reference. One even recommended white or black trim. Of course your wood trim looks beautiful with everything.

I am starting to get comfortable with the windows and doors in white and the baseboards and crown moulding in white or anything else.

What about the doors and window trim in ivory instead of white? Or are the windows already trimmed in white and can’t be painted over?

And doors can be dark….

Yeah, I'm just saying that there are several ok options. Things don't have to match.

I came across this article and it made me think of this thread

https://stylebyemilyhenderson.com/blog/how-to-choose-your-perfect-color-palette

@ker9 Thank you! I really enjoyed reading that. And I had to laugh in that I choose green tops all the time, so I guess it really IS my go-to color! Thank you so much for adding to the list. You never know how an approach might help someone.

I came across this interesting site when looking for trim colors. It will create a pallet as well as different colors that coordinate.
I’m not exactly sure how to use it but thought I’d share it.
Colorsxs.com
https://www.colorxs.com/palette/color/sherwood-tan-1054

@ker9 that's really neat! I tried it with a chocolate color:

https://www.colorxs.com/palette/color/pantone-19-1109-tcx-chocolate-torte

I got the hex number,
used the site hextoral to get the ral number,
searched Sherwin Williams
And came up with pastel turquoise
Mind blown

I have been playing with the the site that @ker9 posted for about 30 minutes now. I think I can easily become consumed with it. I love how it shows the analogous colors that correspond to the color entered. This is very helpful!

This site will convert hex to the closest SW color

https://qconv.com/en/convert-hex-to-sw

Sorry kl123 I hope this isn’t hijacking your thread.

@ker9 noooo.... This is totally cool! Great to have as many resources as we can.

I find myself liking analogous color schemes as the next natural progression from the color-wash trend. It's more realistic and stable as a color scheme choice. I also think it's both more comforting and exciting at the same time. Here's a short article that describes it using the color wheel and tips for applying it.

https://www.elledecor.com/design-decorate/color/a27793858/analogous-color-scheme/

Ha! Then I read this one that confirmed analogous color schemes are at once calming and energizing. I also liked the hint of a point that our outside world often is an analogous color scheme and makes using one indoors a good choice for nature lovers.

https://www.sessions.edu/notes-on-design/the-dynamics-of-the-analogous-color-scheme/

And now I am thinking analogous color schemes are perfect for people like me who are drawn to dark rooms but don't want them to be depressing. I don't cotton to the term "moody" because I don't think a room has to end up feeling moody or depressing just because it has non-white walls. This article seems to agree at one point.

https://www.livingetc.com/advice/what-is-an-analogous-color-scheme

I am liking a variation of tone on tone color schemes highlighted in this article: https://www.santamargherita.net/magazine/en/trend-tone-on-tone-interiors/

Combine tone on tone with analogous or other color schemes. Use like colors to make an object blend into its surroundings or different colors to make it stand out. But this logic, all the furniture in my home currently stands out. Ugh! I am noticing also in several tone on tone room pictures that the wood floors and furniture seem ignored in the discussion. Does that mean they aren't to be considered? Or should I consider their wood colors to be a secondary layer of the overall color scheme?

@kl23 - I’m assuming you are gathering this information for your own renovations.

Hi RedRyder. I am, but also am gathering for others. Sometimes I send a link to it for someone who wants to read good articles about different ways to approach a whole-house color scheme. And I love it when someone finds an article that worked for them and they post it here.

Yes! Like you, @ker9 !

I wanted to read this again and found I could not use the original post to get to it:

https://www.fromhousetohome.com/whole-house-color-scheme/

I am noticing an interesting trend emerging as we venture out of the world of white on white and experiment with using color again. Remember when "color drenching" was first mentioned in 2021? Now I am reading about the next step, in 2024, "double drenching". https://www.elledecor.com/design-decorate/trends/a62500422/what-is-double-drenching/

But even this embrace of what we used to cal "tonal" immediately moved into the "analogous" color scheme as an alternative. I see us next hybridizing tonal x analogous, then tonal x complimentary, then tonal x triadic or split complimentary, until we are finally comfortable with color and seek neutrals again. Why not skip ahead to the end where we remember that neutrals have color too and incorporate them into their tonal group. If you have dated honey-gold oak cabinets, or dreaded orange maple cabinets, why not incorporate in a gold or persimmon into the room, or aubergine and chartreuse, whatever fits into your whole-house color scheme. It's just fun to actually witness and mark the steps our neighbors are taking as they emerge from their white on white caves.

I've been reading that genetics influences preferences for light vs. dark environments. Our preferences also are influenced by where we spend our working hours, what kind of climate we live in, and our lifetime of experiences. So there really is no "right" or "wrong" to this.