Key Takeaways
Decorating with your color palette, at a glance
- The principles that work in your wardrobe work in your home: your colors, your contrast, your shapes and your metals.
- Ask “How do I want to feel in this room?” rather than “How do I want it to look?”
- Match wood tones to your hair color and fixtures to your metals.
- Each room has a natural color: skin tone for family rooms, Romantic Red or skin tone for bedrooms, Power Color for dining rooms, Support or eye color for offices.
When I was about six years old, I stood in the front yard of the house my mother had designed in Hibbing, Minnesota. The house was a weathered pink brick, the front door a lovely sage green, with pink azaleas along the walk. I looked at my mother standing in front of it and said, “Mommy, you are so beautiful!”
Years later, working with Suzanne Caygill, I understood why that moment stayed with me. The house was a representation of her. The brick was a deeper value of her skin tone. The sage green door was her eye color. The azaleas were her romantic tone. Standing in front of her own palette, I could see her essence.
Your home can do the same for you. The palette from your color palette analysis works on walls and woods as well as it does in your closet. In this post I’ll show you how to bring your color palette into your home, the way I teach it in the final chapter of my book, Dress Your Essence: by season, room by room.
Start With How You Want to Feel
Too many people design their home the way they design their wardrobe: with an eye for how it looks and what image it projects. That almost always results in a space that feels less than comfortable.
When I help clients redesign their spaces, I never ask, “How do you want this room to look?” I ask, “How do you want to feel in this room?” The first question takes you outside yourself. The second invites you to land within yourself.
Then the same principles from your wardrobe apply:
- Colors and contrast: walls, furnishings and accessories in your palette, at your level of contrast
- Shapes: furniture, art and accessories that reflect your own sacred geometry
- Wood tones: matched to your hair color
- Metals: light fixtures, bath fixtures, even doorknobs in the metals from your palette
Your Home by Season
Each season tends to want something different from its home.
Spring homes are fun, animated and colorful. Springs love natural light and feeling uplifted and energized. They entertain groups of friends and family, so their spaces should feel casual and inviting.
Summer homes are all about relaxation. Of all the seasons, Summers are most connected to the idea of “having a home” rather than “a place to live.” They love muted, tone-on-tone colors and décor, and rooms that flow seamlessly into one another.
Autumn homes are focused on texture and complexity. Warm wood tones are vital, and tile, rugs and furniture should be textured, rugged and substantial. Their home is their kingdom, so generosity and warmth matter. Because Autumns carry firelight energy, they should have a fire feature, like a fireplace, wood stove or firepit, as a focal point.
Winter homes often favor black and white or neutral décor. Winters cultivate quiet stillness in their space, with abstract graphics and shapes: think Art Deco, moonscapes and marble. Their home is their sanctuary; they may keep a formal space for receiving guests and other rooms private.
Room by Room
The Family Room or Living Room
Choose a variation of your skin tone for the walls. If there’s a mix of skin tones in your family, choose one person’s for the walls and bring in others’ through fabrics and furnishings, so everyone feels seen and at ease.
Wood tones should reflect family members’ hair colors, so a mix is often right. One of my clients has lighter brown hair, and her husband’s is almost black. Their coffee and end tables are in her hair color; the ceiling beams and bookcases are in his.
Start with the couch and build outward. Neutrals are always safe, but your eye color, Romantic Red, Support Color or even your Power Color are also beautiful choices. If one partner carries more contrast or complexity than the other, accent pillows let you bring in that palette without overpowering the other person.
The Bedroom
Paint the walls in your skin tone or a value of your Romantic Red. Choose a bedspread in your Romantic Red, eye color or Support Color, and build from there. Wood tones should match your hair color, and the overall level of contrast should be right for you.
In my book I describe the bedroom as the domain of the feminine: when a couple shares it, I suggest designing it from the palette and shapes of the partner whose energy is more feminine, to create a soothing space for rest.
The Dining Room
This is where you can bring the drama. Upholstery, curtains, dishes and glassware are perfect places for your Power Color, Supplementary Power Color, accent colors and metallics. Mix metals for an eclectic feeling, and choose art that reflects your sense of adventure or your highest values.
The Home Office
Your Support Color or eye color belongs here. Your Support Color supports whatever you’re creating; your eye color brings calm and balance. Vary the value to make the space feel energizing, calm or focused. Wood tones should complement your hair, and any metals should come from your palette.
And if you spend your days on video calls, a lighter value of your Power Color makes a beautiful background.
When You’re Not Sure Which Color to Use
Go back to the question: how do you want to feel in this room?
- Energized, vibrant and in charge? Bring in your Power Color.
- Balanced? Use your eye color.
- Romantic and sensual? Choose your Romantic Red.
- A range, depending on your mood? Start with your neutrals and add easily changed accents like pillows, candlesticks, vases or flowers.
Start with one room at a time, or it’s easy to get overwhelmed and lose the feeling you’re creating.
A Palette That Lasts Decades
Dr. Mary Hulnick, who wrote the foreword to my book, had her palette done in 1983. Decades later, it still informs not only her wardrobe and her husband’s, but the décor of their home. Their palettes are harmonious, and their home reflects both, making it, in her words, a sanctuary for their souls.
That’s what a home in your colors feels like. In the end, it all comes down to this: do you feel completely yourself in your space? Confident, beautiful, relaxed and supported? If so, you’re doing it right, whatever it looks like to anyone else.
What to Do Next
- Choose one room and ask how you want to feel in it.
- Compare your wood furniture to your hair color.
- Check your fixtures and hardware against your metals.
- Add one accent in your eye color or Power Color and notice how the room feels.
Your first step today: stand in your favorite room and ask why it feels like you.
Let Your Home Reflect You
Your colors don’t stop at your closet door. When your walls, woods, fabrics and metals come from your own palette, your home becomes a reflection of you, the way my mother’s house was of her.
Your complete palette is the foundation for all of it. Book a Call with Jennifer’s Team.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I use my personal color palette to decorate? Yes. The same principles apply: colors from your palette, your level of contrast, wood tones that match your hair and fixtures in your metals.
What color should I paint my living room? A variation of your skin tone works beautifully for family rooms, because it expresses relatedness and helps everyone feel at ease.
How do I decorate a shared space with two different palettes? Find the crossover colors between your palettes, use one person’s skin tone on the walls, and bring in the other’s colors through pillows, rugs, art and wood tones.
What color is best for a home office? Your Support Color, to support what you’re creating, or your eye color, for calm and balance.
Get Your Palette
Your colors are not a fashion choice. They are who you are.
Your palette guides your wardrobe and your home. It starts with a short conversation about your goals.
