More advice about choosing colours schemes for a clueless person- help!

[BoogleMcGroogle]

Our old house was a 1960's semi, with a open plan kitchen/ living area and a large are living room. Large windows. Light everywhere. It was easy to choose an airy scheme ( not matchy-matchy but toning in ) we went for sage green, cream walls, homely wood, a few brighter accents). While I'm no interiors guru the house flowed and fitted together.

Here's my problem. We've moved into a large Victorian house which has much more separate 'rooms'. They face in different directions, with different sizes and amounts of light. We now also have a formal dining room ( well we don't, we have a room full of boxes) and a more formal drawing room. How do I choose a scheme for each room, while still pulling the downstairs together? For example, our snug would look amazing with red toned tartan curtains, but I've just picked cool toned William Morris prints for the dining room which it leads from. Surely this would look busy? Can I paint the walls different colours? I really liked the way our house used to flow and I want to avoid the 'welcome to our boarding house themed room'. How do I make 'flow' happen ( or do I need to?) in a different type of house? I really don't have much of an eye and any advice/ links would be amazing. As you can tell, I'm clueless.

Hi op, I love traditional houses with separate rooms and yes, you can still create a 'flow'. I'm limited on time just now but will be back with suggestions later. Can you post a pic of the 2 fabrics you mention?

Also a list of rooms (and their intended use) would be useful plus the direction the rooms face. My house is N/S 1920s semi with high ceilings and has been substantially extended at the rear. I have learnt a lot about playing to the cool tones of the north facing rooms

The house will flow if you use the same colour pallets and style throughout. It sounds like you’re after a traditional decor and a heritage colour pallete? Tbh, I’d probably start by looking for inspo online + order a few books about your chosen style. Plan everything before you do any work.

You can also have a look in your local interior shops. Very often they’re able to offer excellent advice or even design services on top of sourcing things for you.

Thanks so much for your thoughts, that's already given me some ideas.,

It's a helpful reminder from JoJo to plan before starting the work. I'm a bit of a rusher! The house has been converted from 2 Victorian cottages so not a traditional Victorian design and much more cottagy than start town house.

Our main rooms are: entrance hall. All fine. Painted a heritage green.
Kitchen. Cream/ green shaker units. North facing bit large doors so bright.
Snug. North and east facing walls. Dark, small.
Dining room east and south facing windows. Bright, big.
Drawing room. Huge. South -land west facing windows.

All the main rooms have a fireplace, with a wooden mantle.

Here are fabrics I'm considering.

1. Is for the dining room. We have no furniture so are going for arts and crafts dining set and sideboard. When we find one! I can afford to treat us to some some botanical watercolours and have a gorgeous oil ( abstract, gold shades). Also gave a kilim we got in Morocco for the floor.

1. Is for the snug. No two beige sofas ( would love velvet one day), an Ikea bureau ( green washed) are all we have so far. Nice paintings in good frames.

It looks like both those fabrics have a similar blue in them - could you use shades of that on the walls

BasiliskStare blue walls?! I've only ever had walls in various shades of white. What if it all goes horribly wrong? Perhaps I could start with just the one blue wall?

My sitting room is farrow and ball De nimes and looking at both of your fabrics,they would tone in beautifully.

Thanks for the tip- I'll look up DeNimes now 🙂

If you want more neutral op, have a look at Farrow and Ball Dimity. It's a 'red based' neutral which would work with both of those fabrics....

I really like this article on using colours which go together in a house fredgonsowskigardenhome.com/2011/03/07/pick-use-four-colors-when-decorating-a-room/

I think the key with decorating separate rooms (we have an Edwardian house with very different light quality, aspects etc) is to pick a style that suits you and adapt it to that. If you like neutrals, vary them throughout to suit the tone of the room, and, if you like William Morris, pick various fabrics of his, or similar, that suit each room to use as curtains etc. If your style is light and airy, there's no need to totally ignore that. In cooler rooms that you want to warm up, add heavier textures such as wools or velvets, in rooms that feel warm and bright, add lighter, reflective materials to make the most of that. We have used bolder tones so far, but always warm and with an underlying mutedness rather than very modern bright shades. Each room is different but the house feels as though it's been decorated by the same person.

Dimity isn’t a great colour I had my new kitchen painted in that colour. The kitchen designer took note of it as he was so impressed. As Bluesheep says it is red based so is just that little bit warmer than may whites. It would work well with both. It is just like the centre of the flowers. You could use one of the other colours for one wall like alcoves or chimney breast.

Check out lots of Pinterest ideas.

This colour (suggested above) is beautiful OP!

Edwardian houses were traditionally very light pastel in colour, in rebellion against Victorian drab.

If you're going for a cottage look, don't be too matchy-matchy, especially don't match curtains to walls. For example, in our sitting room, we have sage green walls, yellow curtains, faded orange sofas with subtle yellow flower pattern, brown floor, orange/brown rug with a few green bits in. It's harmonious in a way that green walls, green curtains, green sofas and green rug wouldn't be.

Try a colour palette generator to find colours which look good together: www.canva.com/colors/color-palette-generator/

Edwardian houses were traditionally very light pastel in colour, in rebellion against Victorian drab.

I'm delighted to have learned this! My house is Edwardian and is decorated in soft neural and pastel shades...so pleased that it's in keeping with the period of the house

neutral