Source: Western Living Magazine

This is a guide for choosing a color palette. Let me start with am example. The other day, this picture from Western Living Magazine really caught my eye.

Especially this area. The indian pink couch and mahogany drawer showed a very good example of what I want to talk about: picking out colors from furniture pieces.

How To Use Color Picker and Why

This is a tip to build a harmonious color palette. There are big pieces in a room–like wooden tables, chairs, or a drawer like in the picture above. What I’m recommending here is that you incorporate them into your color palette.

If you look at this mahogany drawer, you’ll find it more than just ‘brown.’ It has pink, red and yellow. Let me show you this.

Source: © https://rachelinseoul.com

I used a color picker. My cursor was somewhere on the front of the drawer, and the color picker showed this result. It actually has some brownish pink, yellowish pink, and reddish pink! And some black as well. And some of the pixels do have the same color as the couch, thus harmonious!

I have been using this website called ‘Image Color Picker.’ It lets you upload your own picture, and see the colors like the picture above. This website is free so far, and hasn’t caused any problems yet.

Having a harmonious color palette works like this: for 70 to 80%, choose colors that are close in the color map; for the rest, go for something else.

Let’s say you get started on red-orange, which is on the left. Then you can choose from between orange to red area. That is, 70 or 80% of the room will have colors that are close to each other. For the rest, you can use plants or eccentric pieces to show some dynamics.

If you want to go for more whimsical mood, you can decrease the percentage of that ‘70%.’ Maybe 50% of the room has hues that are similar to one another(like, salmon pink, deco pink, and terra cotta,) and the rest can have whatever colors you desire. As you decrease this percentage, the room will show more vibrance. If too much, it may look chaotic.

Let’s go back to picking-hues-from-furniture. If you have mahogany chest like the one in the first picture, it’s likely that it takes up about 10 percent of the room. If you choose a rug that has a hue similar to that mahogany chest–the rug will take about 40% of the room–you have a room that has a harmonious color palette. Done!

Color Palette Guide Example (Rattan Table)

Source: Amazon

I ran into this beautiful rattan coffee table on Amazon. When you look at this table, you’ll find that it has yellow, brown and white hues. More white and grey, because the top is patterned glass. I think the seller did a good job decorating this piece with white feather and white books, because they accentuate the whitish colors of this table.

I used a color picker, and you can see bits of grey, lighter grey, yellow, reddish brown, etc.. These are the colors you might want to choose from.

So with this rattan coffee table, I came up with the following idea board:

Overall, I stayed with white and grey when it comes to couch and rug. To connect with the glass top of the table, I wanted to incorporate some glass piece, so there’s a beautiful glass vase.

If everything were white and grey, it’d look numb. So we have some greenery. I opted for artificial ones, because personally, I am the plant killer. I tried two or three in my life, and I decided not to harm them anymore. Sad face, sad face. Cushion covers and throw range from white to burgundy.

And there’s a rattan lamp that hangs from the ceiling. If light fixtures can match something on the ground(in this case, the rattan table) it tends to feel more connected.

If you’d like more extensive guide to build your own ‘taste,’ click this link.