To Match or not to Match

The main reasons to forget about color-matching obsession

The choice of colors for the interior decoration of any room seems one of the most important things for the creation of a harmonious general image. However, it often leads to an excessive focus on the color-matching issue. The truth is that there's no severe need to try and find colors that perfectly match.

Picking up perfect color might be tough, especially with 'outside' help

Breaking the rules

Today, everyone knows about professional designers' rules. It seems that it's a strict requirement to use color palettes and select only those hints that perfectly match. However, the most beautiful and unique interiors are created only when certain rules are broken. Consider a few things to ignore when decorating your home place:

• Everything in a room should match. In fact, it's a common misconception that can be easily ignored. Even the existing designers' rules are not the common truth. Every owner can do whatever he/she wants with their houses or apartments. Besides, modern trends in interior design keep changing. And today, color matching isn't such a crucial aspect. Experts claim that to create a lively interior with a statement, it is necessary to make it a bit unintentional. It's just enough to make sure that all selected colors look nice together.
• Metals shouldn't be mixed. In fact, it looks quite boring when any possible surface and faucet are made of the same metal. Such a trend is outdated by now. Professional designers call to integrate at least a few different metals. It's at least recommended to use metals of the same color but with different finishes.
• Don't use dark colors for small spaces. In fact, this rule is outdated as well. The main aim of a design used to be to make the room look larger. Today, trends and aims have changed. The primary goal now is to decorate a room beautifully to make it look cozy, so choose any dark colors you prefer.
• White is the only option for trims. Surely, such a solution complements the room and wall colors. However, it becomes more popular to choose dark neutral colors. It means that house owners can feel free to choose any option.
• Only bright hues can make an accent. This rule can be easily avoided, so people can opt for neutral colors to make a room speak for itself. Consider, for instance, a popular color of the year - veri peri, which is a very smooth and calm hint. If you choose a sofa in this hint or add a few accessories/decorative elements, your room will definitely make a statement.

More options are not always better. Some things just need to be simpler.

Reasons not to look for perfect combinations

Along with the fact that color matching isn't the main trend anymore, there're other reasons for people to stop insanely looking for ideal colors for every piece of furniture, curtains, floors, and walls:

• Colors look different on the screen and in real life. Today, people often look for furniture or paints on the Internet. The screens of different devices have diverse adjustments, so even when looking at an armchair on the smartphone's screen and on the PC's display, we will see two different colors, not to mention the real color we'll see only after the delivery. As a result, the color will never be a perfect copy of the one you are looking for.
• Textures make shades look different. Even one and the same color looks different, being used for various textures and surfaces. For instance, a brown hint will never be the same on smooth and textured elements. The same concerns textiles. Each of them captures colors in its own unique way.
• Lighting changes everything. Even when we go to a real store to find a table or a sofa of the perfect color selected for a living room, we might end up with a huge disappointment. The thing is that the aim of the furniture store is to demonstrate the best qualities of the furniture. They use special lamps and make the colors work for them. When you take an item to your home and place it in a certain location, the shade will look different and hardly match other items/walls/floors perfectly.

It's quite difficult to find every element of the room to match the general concept. Many people make a huge mistake and spend too much time searching for ideal combos. As a result, it turns into a fixed idea and obsession. After all, you don't have a perfect picture and might feel only disappointment.

The colors should definitely look good together. But what's more important, they should be pleasant for a particular house owner. All other rules concerning color matching and unlimited striving for a unified space have no sense. So just relax and enjoy the decorating process without becoming too focused on shades.