Color Rules in Home Decoration: 60-30-10 Rule

Colors are the most important elements in home decoration. We have already discussed how to choose colors for home decorating under the previous topic called Choosing Colors in Home Decoration. It is now time to learn ways to apply the colors we have chosen. In order to be able to that, you should know about the basic color rules in home decoration.

Before getting into the details, let me give you a little hint for choosing colors for home decoration. You can choose the colors in your favorite fabric or in an artwork you love. You can even use that artwork or the fabric as an accessory or as upholstery while decorating your room. It will give a harmonious effect to your place. Here is a good example:

60-30-10 Rule

One of the most widely known color rules in home decoration is 60-30-10 rule. It is not only useful for home decoration but also for web designs, outwear designs, fabric designs etc. This rule means that you should choose three colors for decorating a room and 60% of the room should be in the dominant color, 30% in the secondary color and 10% in the accent color.

The easiest way to apply this color rule in home decoration is using the dominant color on the walls, the secondary color on the furniture or the upholstery and the accent color on the accessories like pillows, flowers, frames or so.

Let me give you an example from my own living room. When we were decorating our home before we got married, we have chosen two classical colors like in many Turkish homes; white and brown. The dominant color was white which is a good choice because interior designers advice to choose neutral colors for the dominant color. The secondary color was brown. Actually there were a few different tones of brown but at the end, they are all brown. A year later we got married, I began to feel uncomfortable in the living room which actually is the only place I should be feeling comfortable the most. Then I realized that I should add another color to the decoration and I chose green as the accent color. I sewed some green-white pillows, I DIYed the twin vase and I put a big beaded green (many tones of it) necklace into a big plate onto the coffee table. These three accessories changed the whole room immediately. I felt like I was in Spring already.

Are not all the rules arise from the experiences anyway? Indeed, I have unconsciously proven this rule is valid and necessary to be applied in home decoration especially in the living rooms. I would advice everyone to follow this rule while decorating their homes.

Let us see some examples of rooms that applied this rule in home decoration.

Images: HGTV

As you can see, all spaces look balanced and harmonious. The best thing about this rule is as I said before, it works pretty much for everything designed. You can plan your daily outfit by following this rule.You may love to wear colorful clothes but remember, even chaos has its own rules. So, follow the rules. They will never misguide you.

We have focused on only one rule of colors in home decoration so far. There are some more but for the sake of readability of this post, I will discuss the rest in another post. In that case, I may be able to explain each rule in detail by many examples.

Hope you find this rule as much useful as I do. Take care until next time.

Love,