Choosing Accent Colors

Choosing accent colors is fun!  You really cant go wrong.  I have no fear when choosing accent colors, because I know they will be used in small doses on a pillow or vase.  It is easy to swap those items out if you get tired of the color.

I think accent colors need to work almost anywhere in the house.  I have a few go to accent colors that work really well with our whole house color scheme.  For the most part I can move accent pieces around between rooms without any worries.  This is important because I like to switch things up often all the time.

The first source for accent colors is the main colors used in other rooms of your home.  For example, the awesome teal color used in our nursery and dining room can be used on accent pieces throughout the rest of the house.  Another example is the driftwood gray used as the main paint color in our hallways, kitchen, and loft.   I used that same smoky blue (Martha’s grays have a strong blue presence in our house) as an accent color in the dining room.  I am brining it in on the curtains and hopefully 2 of the chairs.  Using the main color from one room as an accent color in an adjoining room helps unify the entire color scheme.  Plus if you love your colors, you’ll want splashes of them everywhere.

The following colors from our whole house color scheme are used as accent colors elsewhere in our home:

The next logical source of accent colors is the colors that already exist on cherished pieces.  For example, we love the yellow maize color on our Anson chairs from Room & Board.  Even more so, we love how yellow plays nicely with the zinc in our color palette.  The yellow chairs are living happily ever after with the zinc walls in the office.  We now find ourselves drawn to yellow accent pieces to use throughout the house.

Here are accent colors we use and the pieces they were inspired by:

Another source for accent color inspiration is your wardrobe.  If you have read my about page, then you know my obsession with turquoise accents actually began with an obsession with a turquoise shirt.  Many of us are creatures of habit and when we find a color that looks great on us we wear it over and over.  Think of accents in your room the same way.  What color would you like to see them in everyday?  I love turquoise on me and my accent pieces.  I probably have a little bit of turquoise in every room of my home.  We also love charcoal grey…everyone in our family has cherished charcoal grey pieces in their wardrobe.

Fabric is another great source of inspiration for accent colors.  I designed a fabric to use in my son’s nursery with a chocolate brown ground cloth and pops of teal, aqua, and lime.  When we painted his nursery teal, I originally assumed I would use aqua as the accent color.  But when I moved a few lime colored storage bins in the room and our family photographer chose lime as the accent color in his newborn photo collage…I fell in love.  Teal and lime is a hot combination, if I do say so myself.  But it didn’t end there…I found myself injecting bits of lime and other shades of green all over the house.  Lime green goes equally well with the teal, turquoise, and grey we chose for our color scheme.

Here are the main accent colors we are drawn to:

Once you know your accent colors it becomes easier to shop for accessories.  If you love something and it is the right color, get it!   You don’t have to worry about exactly where you will put it.  It will probably work in most areas of the home and offer you some flexibility.  You will easily be able to find a home for the pieces you love.  I know I can pretty much bring anything yellow, lime, or turquoise home and find a place for it.  I also know if I am looking for a specific piece, I can’t go wrong if I find it in one of those three colors.