What’s the Perfect Color Scheme for Your Lounge?
The lounge is the area of your home where you relax, have fun, and enjoy spending time with your loved ones. Therefore, it’s essential to decorate this room with comfort as your priority. The color scheme of the lounge should relax you, but not too much. Therefore, you should go for neutral colors instead of relaxing ones, which you would choose for the bedroom. You can add more comfort to the room through textures and decorations, like fluffy pillows.
How to Choose a Color Scheme for Your Lounge in 4 Steps
- Compile a list of acceptable colors for you
The first thing you should do is to read up on the psychology of color to understand the effects different shades have on the human mind. When you do this, you will see that colors have both positive and negative connotations. Add to this your personal attitude and preferences.
With all those factors in mind, you can create a list of colors that you can use in the room. Don’t stick to neutral and pastel shades at first as you need to decide what you will be comfortable with in general. Bold shades can be used as elements of décor to enhance the space when you start filling the room.
2. Consider your possessions
Unless you are creating your lounge area completely from scratch, you need to consider the items that must go into the room. If you are so inclined, you can also start researching home décor and accessories. Perhaps, you’ll fall in love with some specific pieces and the image of the perfect lounge will evolve from visualizing them in your space.
However, remember that precious decorations you are crazy about or valued pieces, like an antique furniture set from your grandmother, shouldn’t be your only consideration when developing a design for the room. If you build your lounge around some items, should something happen and damage them, the room will be bereft. Therefore, you need to find a compromise, which is the reason why a neutral color scheme is usually the best for this place. It also allows you to transform the room by replacing some key pieces in it.
3. Consider the natural light
If your lounge area has a lot of natural light, be sure to add some jewel-colored accents to it. They will light up in the sunlight filling the room with beautiful ambiance. Sapphire-blue and emerald-green are particularly good choices, especially if you throw in some decorations of sparkling gold.
In case your room is on the darker side, you shouldn’t use any earthy and dark colors in it at all. They will make the place feel oppressive and stifling, especially in the afternoons. Artificial lights can help mitigate this problem, but they will be little help during the day when such a room looks gloomy no matter what. This kind of space should have more yellowish hues. This way, the little natural light that does get in will turn it soft and welcoming with the subtle sunny glow.
4. Apply the 60-30-10 rule
Do you know the classic 60-30-10 rule of interior design? It’s exactly what it says on the tin, meaning 60% of the room should be in your chosen base color, 30% in the secondary (which is distinctly different from the base), and 10% accent color. These proportions have been perfected by interior designers over decades and proven to be the best possible mix for a beautiful and comfortable space.
Now, think of all the colors you’ve considered during the previous steps and take a look at the list of colors you have left. Use a color wheel if necessary to visualize the scheme better. Now, pick out three contrasting yet complimentary colors that you want to fill your lounge area with.
