Ranging from bold to bright, to subtle and neutral, you have an entire rainbow of colors to experiment with. This decorating rule suggests that you should cover your room with 60% of a dominant color, 30% of a secondary color, and 10% of an accent shade. It is all about maintaining the perfect balance of tones.
It's a classic decor rule that helps create a color palette for a space. It states that 60% of the room should be a dominant color, 30% should be the secondary color or texture and the last 10% should be an accent.
A quick 60-30-10 rule example would be the following: Your room has all white walls and a white sectional sofa (60 percent), neutral flooring, side tables, and upholstered side chairs (30 percent), and pops of one color around the room using toss pillows, artwork, and other small items (10 percent).
60% of your room should be the main color, 30% should be the main accent color, and the last 10% should be a secondary accent color. But feel free to play around with the ratios as you like.
If you want to incorporate three different styles in a room try 70-20-10. Seventy percent can be the dominant style. 20 percent another style and 10 percent another. It is easier to mix decor styles if most of your furniture is updated classics.
Groupings of items in odd numbers tend to look dynamic and more natural to us. Whereas, things that are grouped in even numbers tend to look stale, “staged,” and cold. Three seems to be the magic number for interior design, but the rule also applies nicely for groupings of five or seven.
Following the 80-20 color rule is really simple. It states that the majority of your room – 80% – should be decorated in neutral colors, such as whites, creams, beige or pale pastel hues. The remaining 20% is where you can let your creativity shine, opting for statement colors and patterns.
From favorite paint colors to specialized design advice, Benjamin Moore's color and design experts have the answers to a common homeowner question: How do I make a small room look bigger and brighter? Lighter paint colors like off-whites, light neutrals, pales, and pastels give the illusion of larger, brighter rooms.
If you were to pick more than one, then it wouldn't have the same effect and you may as well paint the entire room. Because only one wall gets to be the accent wall, you must choose wisely. Your eye will naturally be drawn to certain walls over others depending on the lighting and furniture arrangement of the room.
Pick dark shades that have a bit of color. 'I love dark green as a feature wall in a room with a lot of natural light,' says color and paint expert, Annie Sloan. A dark purple, brown, burgundy or navy blue can also work against a soft white or cream to help trick the eye into making the space feel bigger.
Coming first on the list is Scandinavian interior design, with over 700,000 pins. A minimalist style, “Scandi” decor is marked by clean lines, neutrals with the occasional pop of color, and soft textures like linen and wood. Second place goes to Art Deco, with over 568,000 pins.
Timeless interior design is the intentional choice to incorporate classic, functional, and aesthetically pleasing design elements into your home over trendy, fleeting, or socially loud ideas.
As a general rule of thumb, you should never paint your entire home one singular color. That isn't to say that you can't use the same color in some capacity throughout your entire home; however, it shouldn't be the primary wall color in every room.
The color with the largest proportional area is the dominant color (the ground). Smaller areas are subdominant colors. Accent colors are those with a small relative area, but offer a contrast because of a variation in hue, intensity, or saturation (the figure).
You don't have to use every color in every room. Pick the ones that look the best for each room. You can have one wall color throughout the house if that's your preference, but use your decor to incorporate your color scheme.
Accent Walls
Speaking of accent walls, these will continue to be a top interior design trend for 2023. While many of us automatically think of using paint to create an accent wall, there are countless other options to make a wall a visually interesting focal point.
The wall you choose to highlight should ideally be the space to which your eye is first drawn when you enter the room. Walls with fireplaces or existing design features – like mantelpieces – also work well. Avoid walls with doors or windows if you can, as they'll tend to detract from the effect you're trying to create.
It gives you the benefit of bold color without overwhelming your space, adds on-trend graphic edge, and can even be easier than painting the whole wall from top to bottom if you have high ceilings. This paint trend doesn't seem to be fading anytime soon, and I think that's a good thing.
Use dark colors strategically
'Dark colors, such as charcoal gray, navy blue, forest green or black, can make your space look bigger if used wisely,' says Artem Kropovinsky. 'They can create contrast and depth that make your walls recede and your ceiling appears higher.
Add reflective surfaces
Yes, you know that mirrors make a space appear larger. (“It's like doubling a room,” Curtis says.) But other reflective surfaces — high-gloss painted ceilings, lacquered furniture, shiny tile on a kitchen backsplash — have a similar effect, casting light and creating the illusion of volume.
The underlying premise of the three colour rule is to not combine more than three colours in your outfit at any one time. The exception being black and white, which are technically not 'colours' but tones, and can be intermixed as a fourth colour in your outfit. An easy example is the outfit I'm wearing above.
This decorating rule suggests that you should cover your room with 60% of a dominant color, 30% of a secondary color, and 10% of an accent shade. It is all about maintaining the perfect balance of tones. Pick colors that mingle well with each other to create a subtle combo.
The rule of 3 colors is simple: pick one primary color. Then, pick two other complementary colors. See the example below. We picked a main hue (a variation red), and complemented it with two different colors.