Does anyone use a colour wheel to decide on home decor colours?

[Tremping]

I struggle to link colours for decor. Okay if its matchy matchy, but anything else and I just can't do it.

Wondered if a colour wheel could guide me. Paper ones can be bought off Amazon and there's lots online but realise I need some guidance on use and maybe a recommendation for a user friendly one. Can anyone help?

Hopefully someone will come along and help as I’m looking for some inspiration and pointers too. Year’s ago I’m pretty sure there was some sort of link in this section. It doesn’t help that most wallpapers are now only available online. I used to wonder around and see all the choices. We don’t want the hassles of returning unwanted heavy stuff.

Guidance?! It's pretty simple. Pick a colour you like and look at the opposite colours and that's what goes together.

I don't use a colour wheel, but when I had a whole house to decorate, I found it useful to choose a paint range eg Farrow & Ball, Paint Library etc and choose colours only from that range.

For a start it meant that I was picking from a considerably smaller range than say, Dulux, but also, the colours all have the same intensity and finish, which seemed to pull the whole look together.

I've got a basic colour wheel with five layers of colour, and four apertures.
One aperture goes over the key/ main colour and then the aperture immediately opposite shows a complementary colour. So if I liked aqua as my main colour the one shown opposite is a soft peach. If I am looking at the fifth layer or ring of aqua then I need to be looking at the fifth layer of peach because they're the same density of light/ dark.

The other two apertures are called triadic which means they're also complementary but that you're then adding in a third colour, and the same rules apply for density. I wouldn't choose a colour from the third layer to go with a complementary different colour in the first layer.

I think (but could be wrong) the ratio is something like 70% should be one colour, 20% another colour, 10% accent colour

Also if you think about home decor magazines or online catalogues they're using staff that are trained in design. Even if you're not actually going to buy from say the Next catalogue have a look at their room suggestions, what colours they have put together, maybe textures too because they can have as much impact as colours.
If they're putting two or three colours together it's for a reason, it's not accidental.

Dulux have a thing on their website where you pick a paint colour and it suggests others that will go well with it (complimenting and contrasting). You can obviously adapt this to match fabric shades, other paint brands etc.

Yes I use a colour wheel and I also found one of the Farrow and Ball books really helpful in choosing the white for the woodwork, skirting etc. It had a full list. I had my spare room decorated and chose the woodwork paint in a hurry - it looked terrible. I re- did it in a warmer white following the F+B suggestion, and it was extraordinary, it completely changed the room.

The colour wheel is very helpful for playing with colour and seeing how the same hue can be made lighter or darker. If you use a little bit of the complementary colour to the main colour in your scheme (which is easy to find with the colour wheel), it affects your perception of your main colour and makes it feel more alive. If you don’t feel confident, a short cut is to copy the colours from some patterned fabric or wallpaper that you like.

The colour wheel I use is from Solomi, available on Amazon.

No. It’s really not difficult. What @StillAtTheRestaurant said. Just choose colours you like, and consider obvious things like the aspect of the room, how much light it gets, and when you mostly use it.