What's the rule on how many colours?

[Pollyanna]

My house (once a wall is partly removed and double interior glass doors are put in) the dining room, hallway and back alcove can be seen from the lounge room. The kitchen, lounge room and back alcove can been seen from the dining room.

When choosing a colour scheme or schemes for each of these areas what is the 'rule' about how many different colours should be seen from one spot?

[Harry72]

I'd go no more than 3 main colours and one strong high light colour if spreading between 2 or 3 rooms, for a single room no more than 2 colours and one strong high light colour.

When doing colours to play it safe, paint your skirtings the same colour as the walls but about 2 shades darker. Another good tip is to tint your ceiling white slightly using the same tint colour as the walls, gets rid of the stark contrast.
Dont be scared to have one wall a heavy coloured feature wall.(the strong high light colour)

[Cliff Rogers]

I'm with Harry on this.

I'll add that I like the same colour right through the whole house & I like it to be a fairly neutral colour & then use the furnishings & curtains to set the scene in each room.

Reckon I'd get a job on Queer Eye?

[JDarvall]

isn't it something like this with 3 colours...

10% of one colour.......30% of another and 60% of the last...... like white on the walls,,,,,,,,blue on the archatraves, skirting etc,,,,,,,and green on the windows....or whatever. I'm not good with colours.

[peter_sm]

It can all come down to personal taste too. In our house 6 rooms and a hallway all have different pastel two tone colour schemes. 14 colours in total. You can see into three areas at one time, most of the time. We did all of the doors, picture rails and skirts all the same white gloss colour. We like it, and a lot of people in the 50's liked to do it.

[bitingmidge]

When it comes to colours there are no rules. Paint is (relatively) cheap, so don't be afraid to brave. It's very rare for a paint job to turn out a complete disaster.

If you get sick of one colour, or one doesn't work, simply paint it again when you need to!

Our houses have always been crisp white internally. The current one with a couple of strong coloured walls which pick up some of the outside colour.

It's always a good trick to have something relate to the colour you choose, whether that be something as simple as a few cushions, a print or even a vase, just to tie it all together.

Grab some magazines, or some paint company brochures and have some fun!

Another favourite trick of mine is to use one colour, but vary the levels of gloss, the high gloss will appear much darker than the flat. I've often chosen one colour, and painted skirtings, picture rails and architraves in gloss, walls to picture rail in satin, and ceilings, top of wall and cornices in flat.

There you go!

Cheers,

P

[Sturdee]

I'll add that I like the same colour right through the whole house & I like it to be a fairly neutral colour & then use the furnishings & curtains to set the scene in each room.

So do I and the colour is white. Saves having to cut in at the ceilings as well


Peter.

[silentC]

Our place is pretty much all the same colour right through. The walls are low-sheen and the skirtings and architraves a semi-gloss. The doors are full gloss in a slightly darker shade. The ceilings are flat white with a drop of black tint.

We took a cushion off the couch to the paint shop and got some wall paint tinted up to the same colour and used that for a feature wall in the living room. Did the same in the kid's rumpus room. The main entry has a single long wall painted in a different colour. In terms of walls, no one room has more than 2 colours but 3 can be seen if you stand in different places.

I look at some of those home renovation shows and wonder what they were thinking, but as BM said, paint is cheap(ish) and if you don't like it, you can paint over it. One of our feature walls was painted two coats with the sample pot they gave us!

The thing with rules is that no-one says they have to apply to you

[totoblue]

Have a look at http://603010.com.au
They have some colour schemes and you can have a look at them applied to their sample rooms.

Wattyl and Dulux have interactive paint planning thingies on their web sites that allow you to see colours together in sample rooms and IIRC they suggest colours to go with other colours you've picked.

[Mcblurter]

Depends on how artistic you are!! Some can get away with multiple colors depending on whether they are complimentary colors or not. If you know any artists get them in to have a look. My brother was a great help when choosing new tiles for the bathroom with his knowledge of complimentary colors we ended up choosing a colr we hadn't even thought of but it's perfect. Our house has a variety of purple, yellow's and greens with white ceilings. Usually just stick with white ceiling and one color. Our house is concrete so there is enough texture in the walls already so don't really need and extra highlights!
Cheers
McBlurter
PS: we just did a new room where we used 8 sample pots on the walls to see what we liked. We painted them in patches and then put colors of other rooms that could see into the new room next to these patches to see how they would go together. This worked really well and it became obvious which color was the best one. Was also good as you could also see the color under lighting at night and sunshine during the day.

[Pollyanna]

Thanks everyone.

I like the idea of a main neutral colour throughout and then use an object or piece of furniture to determine the feature colour. I don't want feature walls so what other ideas can I use when painting a feature colour?

[totoblue]

I like the idea of a main neutral colour throughout and then use an object or piece of furniture to determine the feature colour. I don't want feature walls so what other ideas can I use when painting a feature colour?

Get a large (cheap) artists canvas from an art shop or somewhere like Spotlight or The Reject Shop. Cheap ones can be had quite large - I saw some largish ones for $20 at the local art shop the other day. Avoid the "archival quality" (expensive) ones.

Paint it in your chosen feature colour (probably a sample pot). Then take some of that feature colour and mix it with your wall colour and splash or roller about a bit on the canvas to make something "artistic".

You could also use a floor rug or soft furnishings.