More than just appreciating them during Easter, learn Why Pastel Colors are Blossoming in Home Design in Rose Morrison’s latest article for Casart Coverings on Slipcovers for Your Walls.
Many thanks to Rose for her guest posts for Slipcovers for Your Walls, casartblog for Casart Coverings, removable wallpaper and decor. Be sure to read Rose’s bio at the bottom.
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Are you planning a DIY home renovation soon? Every once in a while, it’s good to switch up the color of your interior to give it a fresh vibe. If you’re looking for ideas, why not try pastel colors? These muted hues are a long-term recurring theme in fashion, buddying the dominating vibrant colors of the runway on every trend cycle — and there’s a reason for that. Learn why pastel is trendsetting, why you should consider it and how to incorporate it into a DIY project.
Why Pastel Colors Are Gaining Popularity
Pastel shades are making their way into more and more homes as people discover they fit the peaceful atmosphere they’re looking for. These delicate tones are conquering the world of design because of their power to convey a sense of harmony and create a calm and relaxing ambiance in any space. Here are the reasons they’re gaining consistent steam in home design.
Serene Atmosphere
In the psychology of colors, these easy-on-the-eye shades reflect peace, calmness and serenity. It also facilitates softness and healing in environments. For example, hospitals often use pastels widely with mint, apricot and lemon tones to ooze a soothing vibe, encouraging patients and doctors to relax. Adding these hues to your interior helps establish a restful sanctuary where you can retreat after a hard day at work.
Versatile
Another strong point of pastels is their versatility — they’re suited for minimalist, modern and Scandinavian designs alike. Pastel blue, pale pink, khaki and cornsilk are broadly used pigments to mute a bolder color or add a splash to balance the hues in a room. They’re often added on a white background to set up a point of aesthetic interest, but they also work with other neutrals.
Timeless
They’re timeless and can adapt to changing dynamic design trends over time — thanks to the kind of ambiance they imbue. With their power to make any space interesting, fun and fresh, they’re a classic that continually captures the hearts of interior designers and other professionals.
Where to Incorporate Pastel Colors
Are you up for a change of mood? Fortunately, it’s easy to embed pastel palettes in your interior for a successful home makeover. You’ll work on flexible colors, which makes a DIY project simple and doable. Here are areas where you can incorporate them.
1. Accent Walls and Accessories
The home elements you can easily tinker with by repainting are accent walls and accessories. Perhaps your kitchen and bedroom walls need fresh paint or the throw pillows require new cases. Ditch the old tone and see how lavender, mint green, pastel pink and purple tints can magically transform your space. A subtle dose of mint green against an all-white background will turn your bedroom into a calming haven.
Perfect the look by adding some nickel fixtures and crystal accessories to infuse a sense of elegance. Do the same with your rugs, carpets and other living room essentials to dress up your home in style.
2. Furniture and Upholstery
Do you want to take this makeover to another level? Why not change the color of the fabric couch or consider reupholstering? Refreshing the furniture’s color can make a massive difference in the coziness of your space without requiring an investment of thousands of dollars. There are several ways to do this:
- Add a furniture cover: You can buy a pastel covering from your nearest home improvement store.
- Dye the fabric chair: This may require some skill, but nothing too complicated. Shop for dye or spray paint and layer the coating until you achieve the desired color.
- Reupholster: While it’s best to hire someone to reupholster your furniture, you can do it yourself if you’re on a budget and don’t want to pass on the job. Measure the couch first to calculate how much new pastel fabric you need. Then, remove and attach the new cover. While you’re at it, add stuffing to plump your couch as necessary.
3. Walls
Learning some painting techniques to achieve a pastel shade gives you more freedom to repaint your home however you want. Here are some tips you can try:
- Color mixing: By adding white paint to a bold color, you can soften it. For example, mixing white with blue results in pastel blue.
- Color washing: You can apply a thin layer of pastel-tone paint on a dark-colored wall to get a translucent look.
- Ombre effect: For a captivating visual appeal, blend shades of the same color so they gently transition from dark to light. It works well on accent walls, furniture and curtains to create a mesmerizing gradient of soft blended hues.
- Sponging technique: Another easy method is to dip a sponge in pastel paint and dab it onto walls, creating that speckled, textured look and rusty touch.
4. Floors
Many homeowners try to make a tight space look bigger by adjusting the flooring. If you’re in the same boat, you probably remedied this with some basic solutions — like installing tiles larger than the standard size of 30 cm in length and width to create a visual trick of wider floors, using the same flooring material from the bedroom to the kitchen and applying contrasting colors in furniture and flooring.
Another strategy to optically expand any footage area is to paint over the tiles with pastel tones. These hues make any area light, airy and spacious, reinforcing the illusion of a bigger space and giving an extra authentic appeal.
How to Pair Pastel Colors with Other Colors
The winning feature of pastel tints is their versatility, allowing you to combine them with any color and still achieve a unique aesthetic that reflects your personality.
Neutrals
Pastel shades pair well with white, beige and gray to balance the harmony in any space. The pastel-neutral tandem works like yin and yang.
Bold Accents
A vibrant blue sofa or bold and patterned yellow rug can use pastel colors to complement the entire look and inject some visual interest.
Metallics
Mixing a pastel color palette with metallic finishes such as silver and gold can take their allure to the next level.
How to Balance Pastel Colors
While pastel shades are generally soft, they can overpower the tone in one space if applied excessively. That’s why it’s crucial to balance them out with bold palettes for synchronization. Here are a few tips to guide you.
1. Use the Color Wheel
Leverage the color wheel to build tone schemes and palettes with varying contrast levels. First, you must choose the primary color and then pick two to three shades as accent hues. Triadic are three shades spaced evenly apart on the wheel and tetradic entail four shades. If you have a taupe as the base of your interior, check what colors pair well with it based on its warm level. By applying the theory, it’s easy to harmonize different colors.
2. Proportion and Distribution
Interior designers follow the 60-30-10 rule when combining color schemes for an agreeable look. In a nutshell, 60% of the hues in the room should represent the main shade, 30% for the secondary colors and 10% for the accent color.
What does this look like in practice? In a living room, 60% is the white wall and sofa, 30% is the neutral flooring, side chairs and tables and 10% is the throw pillows, hanging artwork and other small items.
Pinning the color combos may be challenging for people with no interior background, but you can always search for inspiration online or in magazines.
3. Layer and Texture
Patterns and textures add richness, charm and depth to a soft pastel color. Use them in your next home project to spice up your space.
Add a Touch of Retro Flair with Pastel
The home is your private sanctuary. Pastel colors can assimilate into any home design, whether minimalist, modern, country, Japandi or almost anything else. These soft and light tones complement almost any interior design and style to create the inviting, calming, personalized space you aim for.
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Additional posts & resources:
- Finding Your Perfect Color
- Bring Peace and Calmness to Your Home with These 15 Ideas
- How Does Interior Design Affect Mental Health
- Interior Design for Wellbeing
- Peace of Mind in Design
Many thanks to Rose for her inspirational article.
About the author:
Rose Morrison is a home improvement and design writer.
She is also the managing editor of Renovated. Follow her on Twitter to see more of her work.
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