Color inspiration can come from anywhere—nature, fabrics, art, books and magazines, kitchen and bath showrooms—but whatever the source, design pros have a caveat: Make sure the colors you choose are right for you and the room. Is your bath style a Zen space clad in naturals and neutrals, or a morning eye-opener with tropical yellow walls? Do you want a retro kitchen with indigo cabinets, tangerine walls, and an avocado ceiling, or one with the classic white cabinetry everyone loves?

Get Personal
“Color is all about personality,” says Melissa Smith, certified kitchen designer (CKD) and member of the National Kitchen & Bath Association (NKBA). “Some people may flourish in a calm, relaxing setting, and others may want stimulation. The most important thing is not to be intimidated. Pick colors you love, colors that make you feel good.”

The trick is translating those colors into a cohesive room scheme. It helps to remain flexible and ready to tweak and compromise, especially if you want real change. As with any change, there’s a certain amount of risk involved. “It’s sort of like voting for a politician,” interior designer Lou Ann Bauer says. “You can go with the same guy,” a known quantity who may not be ideal, she says. “Or you can vote for somebody who’s a little bit outspoken.” The latter is more interesting at first, she says, but long-term performance is uncertain.

In a kitchen or a bath, Bauer says, don’t be afraid to amp up the color. “People are scared, so they go with white or alabaster or beige,” she says. “You could at least get it to maybe butterscotch or vanilla, something warmer.”

Bauer often uses what she calls “planes of color,” combining three or four different colors on accent walls in a space so that the colors butt together in corners and then flow through the whole house.