How do you build an interior colour palette?
The 60-30-10 ratio we use when building a room’s palette, how light changes colour, and why we test samples on the wall.
We build a palette in the room, not on the swatch card. The same lavender turns grey in a north-facing room and pink in a west-facing one.
60 - 30 - 10
Let sixty percent of the room be a calm ground (walls, floor), thirty percent a secondary colour (large furniture, curtains) and ten percent an accent (cushions, art, a single chair).
Test samples on the wall
Leave A4 painted boards on the wall for at least three days and look at them in morning, midday and evening light. Decide in evening light, because that is when you sit at home most.
One dark note
Adding a single dark colour (aubergine, navy, moss) to a light palette gives depth. The aubergine armchair in the Peach Apartment is an example.
