One question that is asked frequently in decorating is this: How do you make a house flow?
That is, how do you create a home that goes from room to room seamlessly? Especially with an open floor plan?
One of the best ways to do that is to pick one paint strip and use 3 or 4 colors from that strip throughout the main areas of your home. If you have a really open floor plan with not a lot of areas to create a stopping point, then it’s definitely best to pick ONE color and stick with it. Or at least 2 colors on the same strip. Having one background color can create an interesting backdrop for all of your furniture and accessories and help create that flow that we all are looking for.
The colors above represent the colors in my home. You can see that I’m not afraid of color and using it all over. I would have a hard time just picking one favorite color. 🙂
Top row (L to R): Whole Wheat, Believable Buff, Antique White, Blonde, Magellan, Wedgewood Gray, Colony Green, Olive 4, Rainwashed, Grasscloth.
(Whole wheat in the foyer looking into Antique White in the Dining room)
These are NOT the exact paint swatches, I gave up on finding the true colors and went for a close approximation from chips at Sherwin Williams online and they are as accurate as I could find, but this gives a good idea of the colors I have. I think they are all pretty colors and work well together. Now, you may not be as brave with color and that is fine. That’s where using colors on one strip can come in handy. There is certainly nothing wrong with sticking to shades of color all on one strip. Then, you can bring in accents of 3 or 4 other colors to finish off a room. This may not be the way designers do it, but it’s what has worked for me.
I’ve used Whole Wheat in the main areas (foyer, living room and hallways) and Believeable Buff downstairs in the den, with Antique White in the dining room and upstairs guest bath. Those are all from the same Sherwin Williams color strip. And my trimwork is all a glossy white all over the house for a nice contrast.
I’m certainly not an expert on this and don’t claim to be, but I have learned a few things over the years from decorating my own home. I’ve got several different colors going on in my house, but I think for the most part it does flow pretty well, since many of my rooms are not open to the others.
One other tip that I’ve always heard is to choose 3 or 4 main colors to decorate with and use those in alternating doses throughout your home. I have a thread of gold running through my house and it shows up in most of my rooms. On the walls, as an accent color in another room, and just sprinkled around my house.
If I had to name my main colors, they would be gold, green, blue (dark and light), some red in small doses, and black for impact and grounding. I do think that old notion of having a bit of black in every room is a good idea and definitely works.
Here’s a Coastal Living idea house that shows how color flow can work well in an open floor plan:
In this small footprint home, using a few colors that flow together are really important. You can see that a neutral sofa creates a backdrop for the other accent colors of eggplant and coral. A coral orange chair and plum pillows echo the stairwell and room beyond. Using one or 2 main colors in one room and then using those same colors as accents in another room will set this idea in play.
Notice the neutral furnishings for the most part, as well as the neutral paint color looking towards the kitchen, which is also open to the living area.
Here in the den, the plum/eggplant color is used primarily as the main color and walls and trim are all painted out in the same hue. Again furniture is neutral.
In the guestroom, more neutrals with a little bit of aqua/gray blue is brought in as an accent in the fabric on the bed. 
And that same soft aqua gray flows into the adjoining bathroom, creating a seamless space.
I love seeing this in action and of course, the Coastal Living idea house has been professionally decorated.
So, what can we take away from this exercise?
- Use 3 main colors throughout your house (maybe 4). Each room can primarily be one of those colors and use the other colors as accents, varying each room and bringing out a different color in each room.
- This is also a good way to move accessories around your house, if many spaces share the same colors, it would stand to reason that your accent accessories could also be moved easily from room to room.
- Use black as an accent all around your house for grounding. It does work!
- Use colors that YOU love and are comfortable with. This will ensure that your house feels and and flows well to YOU.
- I personally think that rooms that are off alone and not open to other rooms can be painted a little differently than other spaces without things being off, but again, you may want even those spaces to flow somewhat with the rest of the house. I try not to use anything in my house that is jarring with another area. But, that being said, I do have a lot of different colors going.
I hope this gives you some ideas on creating flow. You all gave me some great topics to tackle last month and this was one of them. I certainly don’t claim to know it all, but it’s something I can research and present some of my thoughts and what I find for the benefit of all of us to learn from. One thing for sure, I’m constantly learning myself.
Are you happy with the color flow in your house?
If not, what do you think is missing? Feel free to chime in with your thoughts on color flow. This could be an interesting conversation!
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You can find me over at Melissa’s, 320 Sycamore, today where I’ll be sharing some of my favorite things. Just in case you’re interested!
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The giveaway winner for the Larson-Juhl custom framing is: Judy, with a Meek Perspective. Congrats, Judy! I’ll email you for details.
Judy @ A Meek Perspective November 10, 2010 at 10:04 am
I like the Ferrosa Frame at 2 1/4 ” in Black. I would love to frame some Black & White photos from my son’s Senior Portrait session. There are several great one’s with him by his jeep. He’d love to have it!
Judy 
What a great lesson. The colors you have in your home are beautiful and the example of the Coastal Living Home is excellent. Thanks for this, it’s always a good day when you learn something!
I find that I am more into doing my walls neutral colors – something along the lines of your Whole Wheat and bringing in color through my accesssories as I get older. This way if I want to change things up a bit all I have to do is change out a few pillows or a throw, maybe some small pieces in the room. Maybe it’s because I’ve been doing color all along {even as a teen in my bedroom} and now I need a break. I do like the color in my master bedroom, which is Sherwin Williams’ Martha Stewart Milk Pail – a gray blue. I would use that again.
Love this post! I used Whole Wheat in one of my first houses yrs ago. Right now I am enjoying Sherwin Williams Portobello and Benjamin Moore’s Nantucket Gray(which is more green than gray). I play to paint my bedroom after Christmas and I will take a look at the Portobello strip for ideas of a color for my bedroom!
Congratulations to Judy! She’s a friend of mine from college, and she’s a real sweetheart. I know she’ll appreciate the prize, and I’m so glad to see that she won!
Your color tips are good ones, Rhoda. I really second your advice about using a bit of black–you’re right, that’s an old trick, but it really DOES work! I’d add a couple more thoughts:
–choose a neutral (mine is Sherwin Williams’ Buckram Binding, a buttery tan) to use in the transition spaces of your home (e.g. hallways)
–use one color consistently for the trim throughout the house (my favorite is a glossy white)
As always, thanks for sharing your inspiration with us!
This is a great post! I know this is tough, expecially for people who have one continuous wall that runs throughout several spaces. It’s a true art to make the spaces defined and have them tie together as well.
Thanks for the informative post, Rhoda. The colors you have used in your house are so pretty! I also think the Coastal Living home illustrates your lesson very well.
My house is almost completely open downstairs. I can stand at my stove, and look through my kitchen and family room straight into my master bedroom to the left, and into my dining room to the right! I took the one color strip approach to my house. Everything downstairs is painted with Benjamin Moore paint, and almost all rooms are painted Mayonnaise with bright white trim, except my kitchen and dining room. My dining room is painted Golden Straw. We have beautiful shadow box molding with deep crowns and baseboards. They are also painted bright white. My kitchen is painted Super White, and our island is El Cajon Clay. Due to the white walls, our moldings in our kitchen only are painted Mannequin Cream. The cream paint looks nice with our limestone and travertine floors. So all the colors are on the same color strip except the El Cajon Clay and Super White.
Look at all of those lovely colors! I’m trying to be more aware of this in our house..it helps me to put them all together on a board when deciding colors to see if it all “flows.” Love the black tip as well. 🙂
Color has been on our minds in a big way the last year. With a kitchen & dining room remodel in the last 12 months we have looked at more color than crayola could begin to imagine! I am partial to blues and grays, while Audley loves browns & sage. We have tried to mix these colors without the color clashing. When the living room and hallway project is complete in January I hope they will all blend perfectly. I do love he plums in the Coastal Living pics. That is probably a bit too much with the direction we are heading! =)
Love how this topic was so timely!
After reading a while back that your walls were Whole Wheat, the painters are at my house as we speak finishing up painting the bonus room that color. Thanks for the tips. It saved me a lot of time and I love the color!
Hi Rhoda! this post is very timely for me and I’m going to come back and read it more thoroughly. I have a VERY open floor plan and want to do some painting after Christmas. All of our rooms except the dining room (cajun red SW) are a khaki. I love color but didn’t want my open plan to look chopped up with colors.
Thanks for all your hints!
Donna
I’m wondering if the owners of the house know about flow….I can sit in one room (sage green) and look into the yellow dining room/butler’s pantry, into the orange hall and into the blue office – yikes!!
Perfect timing! I have no less than 9 paint samples on my walls right now. I’m having such a hard time choosing. Some are muted, neutral colors that I know would flow well, but others are much more colorful and much more me. The colorful ones did all come from one of those little booklets at Lowe’s that shows them working together.
One part of me says, “Go neutral like everyone else to make decorating easier.” Another part of me says, “But I love color, lots of it.” My daughter swears I’ll be bored to tears with neutral.
What to do????
Beautiful colors! I have something similar to Rainwashed in one of my bathrooms. I remember years ago watching a Lynnette Jennings show where she advocated choosing an inspiration item (fabric, painting, whatever) & then picking colors from there in different permutations for the whole house. I need to revisit the idea as we are about to repaint at least half of the main floor.
Thank you so much, Rhoda!
This is very informative!
Luciane at HomeBunch.com
I had never heard the trick with using black, but I do it in every room! I especially love mixing shades of whites & creams with blacks & browns. I love the contrast and depth it adds to a room. Great post and color tips!
Rhoda, I’m just now figuring this out! I went to Sherwin Williams over the weekend (to catch their sale) and purchased all the paint I needed to paint my downstairs a simple palette that flows. I knew that I wanted something neutral, but I also needed a bit of drama. So for my living and dining I went with SW virtual taupe. A deep taupe with a hint of gray. And for my family room and kitchen, I decided on accessible beige. A light almost white beige with a hint of gray. They are both from the same color strip so they will flow well.
This is a really good post! And adding black is something that I never thought about! Do you really think it will work? My railings are honey oak. Hmm I wonder if painting black would look okay?! Thanks again for the tips!
Great post!! I have a hard time getting my colors to flow from room to room. I love color and am always wanting to paint everything a different color and then it doesn’t flow that well – lol. I am learning that I need to keep the big picture in mind 🙂
Thanks Rhoda – you are awesome!
xox
Jen
Great info! I think for the most part the colors in my house flow pretty well. I have really been wanting to add a red somewhere in my house, but I know it isn’t going to work with the other colors. Oh well…maybe one of the colors you shared will inspire me instead!
Rhoda, I have a question for you! This has been bugging me for awhile and fits in with your post today. I have a very open floor plan in our lower level, and a straight staircase that is also fairly open. We recently painted our lower level a pale green (Pistachio Tint, Valspar). The problem is the stopping point. We stopped at the top of the stairs, but I don’t like the transition of the original wall color to the new. The old color is a taupe that has ALOT of yellow undertones to it. It just looks weird. I’d like to paint the upper hall, but in what? A warm gray? The same green, a shade or two lighter??? I can send pics if it’s helpful.
Thanks!
HI, Denise, that can be tricky. It might work to add a neutral stone/gray color with the green. THat will be something you’ll just need to experiment with, since undertones can be so tricky. Try out a gray neutral on a poster board and put it next to your new green and see how you like it. Might have to do some trial and error methods to find the right one.
Thanks Rhoda- I think I will try out something in that tone. I have shyed away from grays in the past- our dreary winter/ early spring weather makes me not want to see it on our walls year round! 🙂 But I think if I go with something warmer like you suggested it might work all the way around.
thanks for the idea!