Paint Colors for Using Throughout the Home, and How to Choose Them!

While it may seem like a good idea to paint your whole home’s interior in the same paint color, this can actually have a detrimental effect. Your house should flow from one room to the next but each room should have its own identity and personality as the use changes between each room.

As part of my in-person interior design consultations, I often get asked about how the homeowner can create more of a cohesive feel throughout the home. This is backed up with a statement like, “I want it to feel like every room flows well together but still have our personality and personal taste shine through”.

This is where having a “whole house color scheme” comes in. And no – this doesn’t involve using the same wall paint color throughout! It involves selecting a few great neutral colors that you can use (both light and dark tones) and choose from, depending on where you need them for. You should then build from this base with other colors to inject personality into the spaces.

So by now you must be thinking, “okay that’s great but how do I select these colors to choose from?”

Let’s take a look at the steps involved!

Warm or Cool?

It all starts with whether you are a warm or cool color palette person.

Generally speaking, if you want your home to be a place for relaxation and de-stress, cool colors and tones will be more calming for you. And on the flip side, if you want your home to be energizing and stimulating then warmer tones will be better suited for you. 

Use this as a guideline to the types of colors you are drawn to the most and that make you feel most at home.

Top Tip to Remember – Warm colors tend to have red undertones (even if they are a neutral color like white, there will be undertones!) and cool colors tend to have more blue undertones.

The Connecting Color 

You need to think carefully about which color you love the most and would be happy to use in nearly all of your rooms. Don’t get too bogged down into specifics, just think about what your favorite color is or one that you could happily see daily. In a perfect world, this color should fall into either the warm or cool category from the previous section.

This will be your “connecting color” that helps to create the feeling of flow throughout the house.

Warm, Cool and Accent Colors

Next, to complete your whole house color scheme, choose both a warm and cool color that isn’t your connecting color. These will help to bring balance to your home. And again, don’t worry about specifics at this stage – these are just red, blue, green, etc – and not specific tones, as that comes later when you’re designing each individual room.

Top Tips for Using Your Whole House Color Scheme

Here are some tips when using your whole house color scheme for your next project!

Try to incorporate your connecting color in most rooms. This can be different tones or shades of your color, light and dark for example, and also used in different quantities.

Choose wall paint colors from your three main colors, or that have these undertones to them. This could be an off-white or cream that has a warm or cool undertone (depending on your warm and cool colors selected).

Using both a warm and cool color in each room will help to create a balanced interior. You can mix this up by having more warm tones in one room, and more cool tones in another.

It is a good idea to have a good black and white paint color up your sleeve to use throughout your home. You can use these for your ceilings, trim work and/or accent shelving or cabinets.

Paint Colors that Work Everywhere

This brings me on to sharing some color palettes for both warm and cool interiors that will work throughout the home! 

From each palette, choose a color for the walls, for the trim work and for the ceiling. Don’t be afraid to mix it up between rooms as the colors are all from the same family (color palette).

The Perfect Warm Color Palettes

The perfect warm color palette features warm off-white paints, warm grays and other colors that work well with them to provide you with a cohesive palette for using throughout your home.

Paint Colors from Left to Right:

Sherwin Williams Pure White, SW 7005 – neutral, neither warm or cool, perfect for using throughout the home on trim work or ceilings

Sherwin Williams Alabaster, SW 7008 – a warm neutral, almost an off-white

Sherwin Williams Dover White, SW 6385 – a creamy white

Sherwin Williams Agreeable Gray, SW 7029 – a warm greige color

Sherwin Williams Urbane Bronze, SW 7048 – a warm deep gray

The Perfect Cool Color Palettes

And a selection of brilliantly cool neutral paint colors, for using throughout your home.

Paint Colors from Left to Right:

Sherwin Williams Pure White, SW 7005 – neutral, neither warm or cool, perfect for using throughout the home on trim work or ceilings

Sherwin Williams Spare White, SW 6203 – a cool white with light gray undertones

Sherwin Williams Passive, SW 7064 – a cool gray paint color

Sherwin Williams Classic French Gray, SW 0077 – a neutral cool gray

Sherwin Williams Iron Ore, SW 7069 – dark charcoal gray that is neither too warm or too cool