Five Easy Tips to Choose the Best Color for your New Furniture

When the time to replace furniture has come at last, or you just need new furniture after a move, we often get confused on what color to choose.  My first suggestion is that you should have a look at the context where you are going to place your new piece of furniture.  In fact, the visual impact of a colored object can change considerably depending on the colors of the background and the nearby objects.  And do not forget that the brightness of the room plays an important role as well.  Further, here are five quick and helpful guidelines to choose the best color in the most common cases.

A as Ancient. Ancient and classical furniture is the easiest case, as options here are very limited. In the past, there wasn’t a great variety of dyes available. Tables and cupboards were usually made of wood and thus have a walnut (light or dark) color, while couches and sofas could vary from beige to brown or reddish.  It mainly depends on the material (fabric or leather) that they are covered with.  If you are going to buy a new bedside table, for example, you will have simply to choose one with the same color of your other wooden furniture or dyed with a corresponding hue of the color of your bed in order to find a good match. However, classical furniture can be tricky, as it often has floral motifs or other decorations.  So, try to match not only the colors, but also the styles of the several elements of furniture that you are going to combine together.

B as bathroom. Because bathroom furniture is very stereotyped, it should not be difficult to choose the right color. Brightness is crucial, as bathrooms have usually small windows and get little light. If the tiles of your bathroom are white, blue or turquoise, choose white furniture. In general, white is always a good choice in any bathroom, as conveys a sense of tidiness and hygiene. Another popular color is blue; it works great on white tiles, much less on blue tiles, as in this second case your bathroom would look too dark. Personally I go for saturated colors, as they bring life to the most intimate room of the house.

K as kitchen. Kitchen furniture is similar to bathrooms in its being highly stereotyped. Again, brightness plays a great role, as we spend a lot of time in our kitchens.  Therefore, choose bright colors and try to make your kitchen as lively as possible.  However, you are freer in your choices than in the case of the bathroom, as the range of possible furniture styles for kitchens is wider.  For example, you could pair an iconic bulging red fridge of the 60s with deep yellow tiles and the classic stainless steel top and sink in order to create a pop art effect.  If you prefer something less bombastic and more intimate, bleached white table, chairs and cupboard on opaque white ceramic tile flooring could be a better option.  The trick is being consistent, especially with the style of the rest of the furniture of the kitchen.

M as modern.  Modern furniture allows you a much greater choice than classical furniture.  Here it helps to reference the general theory of colors.  Try to understand the mysteries of the wheel of colors and its usage and discover how to use complementary and secondary colors in order to create effective and visually pleasant color palettes and combinations.  Do not forget that the disposition, light temperature and power of the lamps in the room can dramatically change the visual impact of any piece of furniture. Therefore, you have also to plan or know your lighting when choosing your new furniture.

P as Photos. In a photo published on a fashion magazine, the same piece of furniture looks different from the reality, as professional photographers can really make miracles.  So, don’t trust photos.  You have to see the object in the reality and without any special lighting to understand how it will work in your house. An idea could be to take a photo of the object with your mobile and then to contrast this photo with the furniture of the room where you are going to place it.

Photo credit: http://www.hgtv.com/design/decorating/color/how-to-choose-a-color-scheme-pictures