New Apartment Plans: Color Schemes

One of the most important parts of planning a room (after you’ve determined its function) is to look at color.  Homes look best when there’s a cohesive color scheme.  That does not, by any stretch of the imagination, mean that you have to paint everything the same color, or even different shades of the same tone.  Just stick to a single palette – warm colors, beachy colors, cool neutrals, etc.  For our new apartment, I prefer a cool neutral color scheme – lots of grays with hints of blue, and that way all the light colored furniture will really be able to pop against it.  Also, with so much color on the walls, I plan on using flowing white drapes in every room (yeah, we’ll have a window in the bathroom, don’t be too jealous!), and that’ll be cheaper and still look very classy.

To give you an idea of what we’re thinking of, I put together a couple floorplans with color in them.  First, the Martha Stewart colors.  This is either my favorite or second favorite color scheme, not sure yet:

It’s kind of an intense color scheme, so let me explain a little bit.  First, I like the soft light gray for the main room for several reasons.  First, it’s the lightest of the colors, and that will be the easiest to live with on a more constant basis.  Second, it’s partially blue (not really coming across on the computer, but trust me, there’s a little bluey to it.  Blue is a calming and relaxing color.  Third, this room will get a lot of light and this color seems to change a lot depending on the light, more so than many other colors.  And fourth, it’s still a cozy color, and the room has such big dimensions that painting the wall a darker color will make it feel (but not look) a little more intimate and cozy.

I chose the darkest color for the bathroom for a couple reasons.  Mostly, one of my favorite places to go in Columbus for hair styling or facials is the Aveda Institute.  And their shampoo room is done in a really dark blue that has always felt to me like you’re swimming along in the ocean.  I like this color in a bathroom for the same reason.  Also, this is the smallest room, and the one we’ll spend the least amount of time in.  Since I really like this color but am a little hesitant to try it out, using it in a small room for less than a year seems like the perfect opportunity.

Finally, I chose the middle color for the bedroom for another several reasons.  First, we have a white bedspread, and two of the walls will be covered in windows which will almost certainly have white drapery.  Plus the ceiling will remain white, and the carpets are a light neutral.  That’s a loooot of light colors.  So I wanted to balance it out with something a little darker.  But not so dark that the bedroom will be a cave.  I want more of a cocoon feeling than a cave feeling for the bedroom.  And I want it to be calm.  Second, since this is where we’ll pick out our outfits every morning, I think it’d be best to have a fairly neutral background to view them against (or for me, I have a feeling that Marty and his jeans and grey t-shirts that come in a pack don’t require too much styling.  Still, he looks good in them, so I’m not complaining!).  And third, I wanted the bedroom to feel different than the main room.  In our apartment right now, every room has been painted the same color yellow.  It gets to be a bit much after a while, and I’m really looking forward to the ability to change it up.

Here are some other color schemes I’m considering (side note: I say color schemes that I’m considering because, quite frankly, Marty has already basically given me free reign for painting assuming it’s in the budget – if I’m happy, he’s happy.  Gotta love it!):

or

Does anybody have a favorite?  Obviously we’ll have to wait till we get there and then try colors out on the walls, but it’s a good start!