The three color scheme...

There are many different decorating schemes out there, Rustic, Urban, French country, Transitional, the list goes on and on.  I'm going to tell you about one that I call the Three Color Scheme.  I tend to recommend this scheme when I have a client who is likely to make frequent changes to the aesthetic of the room.

The name is actually quite confusing as there are in reality four portions to consider and only two of them are meaningful colors.  First we discount any natural product.  If you had a room full of Mahogany and one Cherry piece the cherry piece would look out of place, but more than likely you have several different types of wood in many different shades.  Your mind will group these all together as "wood".  The same thing goes for brick and stone.  Second we use a hefty amount of neutral...and also ignore it.  Molding, ceilings, blinds, the vast majority of these are in some shade of off-white.  You see them and then forget about them, as you are intended to.  You want people to draw attention, do your window molding in Azure.  Now that we have a nice neutral and natural base we can begin with the colors.

The third step.  The largest segment of color that we are going to use in the room will be our base color.  It could be the walls, the curtains, the sofa, or the bedspread depending on the room.  If you have a favorite piece of artwork DO NOT make the base color match it.  Doing so will diminish it's ability to draw attention to itself.  The same goes for Oriental rugs, which are basically paintings on your floor.  

Lastly choose and accent color.  Pause here...

Decorator Secret:  There are no two colors that don't coordinate.  More so there are no two colors that you don't frequently see together.  things get tricky when you have three or more colors, and especially when you add multiple patterns, but for plain color you can pick any two.

Back to the fourth and final step.  Now that we know we can choose any color we like we have to decide which color, used in a limited amount (this is the key) will stand out (or "pop") against our base color.  Now don't worry too much, I said I like to use this for people who like to make frequent changes.  If we limit our accent color to throw pillows, candles, flowers, matting on paintings, etc we can always switch it out and give the whole room a new feel.  If you want to get a small box for storage you can change the room every few months (or days if it really suits you).

Example:  White walls with blue curtains and sofa can be accented with yellow/gold one day for a federal or French provincial look and then changed out for browns for a more contemporary aesthetic.

Homework try to think of a two color combination that isn't used, then give up and think about all the ways you could change one of your rooms seasonally.