Maria Killam’s

12 ways
TO C R E AT E A C OLOUR S C HEM E
i f yo u n eed to pain t r i ght n ow

©2020 Maria Killam MARIAKILLAM.COM

I consult with clients from all around the
world and I’ve found we all have something in
common. We want our homes, and especially
our living rooms — the most important room in
our house — to have a look and a feel.
We want it to feel warm, cozy and inviting,
whether we’re home alone, with our family or
throwing a party.
Many of our eDesign projects involve exactly this
kind of request, along with a discussion on which
colours are right for the walls.
Most of us simply can’t re-decorate our living
room from top to bottom every 7-10 years,
without keeping or working with some existing
pieces in a room that needs to be updated and
refreshed.
©2020 Maria Killam
Chances are good that you are working with
something that’s dictating your entire colour
scheme. It could be a stacked-stone fireplace
surround, bossy wall-to-wall carpet or a tile floor.
It could be a chair, sofa or area rug that’s still in
good condition.
Or, if you’re looking at an empty living room, you
could be feeling paralyzed by all the decisions
you have to make in order to create a look you
love.
I’m going to show you examples with each of
these three scenarios. The first scenario shows
you how to start the decorating process when
you have a blank slate in an empty room; the
second will teach you how to create an updated
look when you have to work with a dated colour
scheme and the third scenario is from an online
consultation and involves a bossy floor tile.
MARIAKILLAM.COM
 FIN D YOUR

I NSPI RATION
1. Creating the inspiration for your living room is thecritical first
step in decorating a living room you will love. My best advice
is to search online and find a room with colours you love and
copy them.
Once you have an idea of the colours that will make you
happy, choose a patterned pillow. The beauty of choosing a
patterned pillow is that it will do the heavy lifting of creating
an inspiration starting point that you can take and repeat
throughout the living room and your home.
If you start with a solid-coloured pillow you’ll need to do
some skillful colour blocking and you may get frustrated
looking for the perfect fabric pattern that picks up the exact
shade of colour in the pillow. It’s much easier to start with a
pattern and coordinate the rest of the room from there.
For this example, let’s say you like greens and blues, a very
popular and current colour combination.
Choose a patterned pillow with both of these colours:

Shop this pillow

©2020 Maria Killam MARIAKILLAM.COM

 T H E N EXT

CHOICES
CHOICES
2. Once you’re happy with the inspiration/starting point, add to
your pillow collection by choosing coordinating cushions:

Click on each pillow to shop

Next, repeat one of the

colours for a sofa.

Shop this sofa

Choose accent chairs in a colour that picks up your palette.

For this palette, your chair could be white, a linen colour or
a pattern with green or blue or both.

Shop these chairs

Now that your basic colour

palette is established, make
sure you repeat the accent
colour in gradations of small,
medium and large.
Coordinating Area Rug
Drapery with contrasting trim
Gourd Lamp

©2020 Maria Killam MARIAKILLAM.COM

 YOUR C OLOUR

PALETTE
3. Do you see how easy it suddenly becomes to establish a
colour palette? You already have white, a linen colour, blue
and apple green.

552
HC-173
Pleasant Grove
Edgecomb Gray

OC-17 HC-155
White Dove Newburyport Blue

©2020 Maria Killam MARIAKILLAM.COM

 YO UR C OL O U R PA LET T E (C ON T.)

4. Now that you have a basic palette chosen, you can choose your wall
colours. Since you probably aren’t going to paint your main living area
navy blue or a bright apple green, the next step to find the perfect wall
colour is to look at the neutral in the room. In this case, it’s the chair:

OC-17 HC-173
White Dove Edgecomb Gray

Match the wall colour to this linen chair.

You can choose a lighter or darker
version depending on what kind of look
and feel you want and go from there You
might want to paint your powder room
this fresh green and add drama to your
552 HC-155 dining room with a navy. Repeating the
Pleasant Grove Newburyport Blue colours from your living room palette
wherever you need to insert colour is a
great way to create flow.

Sometimes it’s easier to decorate when you are forced to work with
something already existing in the room because this immediately narrows
down your choices. You can see how this works with Goldy’s floor tile
and the dated sofa discussed on Page 11.
However, if you are in the lucky position of starting with a blank slate,
once you find the inspiration that makes you happy, you are well on your
way to creating a fabulous room you love.

©2020 Maria Killam MARIAKILLAM.COM

YO UR C OL O U R PA LET T E (C ON T.)

5. This client and her husband couldn’t agree on a ‘colour’ when they went
shopping for a new sofa, so they chose charcoal grey. The reason why
they couldn’t agree on a colour, is because choosing a sofa BEFORE the
carpet, artwork or throw pillows is like picking all the paint colours for your
house BEFORE you buy any furniture.
If you also purchased a grey sofa
during the grey trend, don’t worry.
There are ways to bring it to life
with colour.
I recommend searching for pillows
on Etsy. There are many reasonably
priced pillows with vendors using
designer fabrics to choose from.
Click here to shop pillows on Etsy.
We looked for a pattern that
combined a little of the charcoal
colour with a new fresh colour.
Ask Maria: Should I Buy a Black Sofa?

Here’s the one we chose:

This chinoiserie-style pillow introduces a pretty
pink colour while the botanicals add some fresh
greens and pale warm beiges to the palette.
TIP: Balance the Accent Colour
Keep in mind, you need three gradations of
an accent colour when you’re decorating.
This means a room that looks the most
pulled together has small, medium, and large
gradations of the colour.

©2020 Maria Killam MARIAKILLAM.COM

YO UR C OL O U R PA LET T E (C ON T.)

6. We then added coordinating cushions and accessories to finish the look.

You can see that without the pattern in the pillow that combines the pink,
green and citron colour, a bright green pillow all by itself would look really
random and like you were forcing something that wasn’t really working.
It’s fine to add solid pillows but first you need to make sure you have at
least one pillow with a combination of the colours in your palette.

Click on each pillow or item

to shop or for sources

4 Steps to Choosing the Perfect Wall to Wall Carpet Colour

©2020 Maria Killam MARIAKILLAM.COM

YO UR C OL O U R PA LET T E (C ON T.)

7. Since everyone wants light and bright walls, here are two colour options
for the wall colour — Pearly White and Shoji White. Pearly White, which is
a very pale green grey, is cooler and more grey than Shoji White.
A second option is Shoji White, which is a complex cream (or in other
words, a very pale beige). If you are someone who prefers a creamier
look, this complex cream is very versatile. It will look creamy without
looking too yellow.
Very pale neutrals are always timeless and classic when used correctly
and can be a versatile backdrop for decorating with bright colours.

Sherwin-Williams Sherwin-Williams
7009 Pearly White 7042 Shoji White
(green grey greige) (green grey greige)

This client loved the idea of introducing pink and green into her colour
scheme and was thrilled to see how her charcoal sofa could so easily be
transformed with new throw pillows and accessories.

©2020 Maria Killam MARIAKILLAM.COM

 D ES IG N CON S ULTATION

8. Here’s a recent consultation I had with one of my readers from India.

At the start of our conversation Goldy let me know that she wanted her
home to reflect her personality. She and her family, like many people in
India, entertain a lot. It’s not unusual for them to have friends over almost
every day of the week.
I then asked her to tell me about more about her home. She and her
family rent an apartment where they plan to stay for at least the next 10
years. Her living room needed a complete makeover and apart from the
tile floor, everything was changing.
Due to the heat in India many homes have tile floors throughout and the
granite tile in this apartment was a mixture of dusty pink, gray and cream.

©2020 Maria Killam MARIAKILLAM.COM

 D ES IG N CON S ULTATION

Goldy had followed my blog long enough to know that, although the
granite tile wouldn’t have been her choice, as it was there and staying
it became the boss of the room. Everything else would now have to
coordinate with this hard finish.
If you ignore a major fixed element that takes up a lot of space in your
living room, your interior won’t look well designed and cohesive. In this
case, she couldn’t ignore the floor tile. A fireplace with stacked stone
or unpainted brick, or wall-to-wall carpet also qualifies as major fixed
elements. These become the boss of your room and, unless you are
planning to replace or make a change, you need to work with them.
She had pre-selected a dusty pink sofa that repeated one of the colours
in the granite and I agreed it was a perfect start:

©2020 Maria Killam MARIAKILLAM.COM

 D ES IG N CON S ULTATION

9. The next step was to create the inspiration. Inspiration can be found in
artwork, pillows or an area rug. I find it much harder for a client to commit
to an area rug so I usually start with throw pillows.
Throw pillows may sound like a small detail for your living room, but I’ve
found they create more delight and happiness with my clients than you
would imagine. Because, for example, it’s easier to fall in love with a
trendy pillow that’s easy to change out, than an area rug.
When searching for a pillow, find a pattern in a colour grouping you like,
one that relates to any bossy elements in your living room. Don’t start by
choosing a solid colour because for this step your throw pillows have an
important function — they’re not just there for show.
One of the primary functions of throw pillows is to combine unrelated
colours already in your room and pull it together. Another task throw
pillows take on is to add colours to your colour scheme and that’s what
we did here.
We already had pink, gray and cream in our colour scheme (due to the
granite tile) so we knew we needed a pillow that worked with these
colours:
This pillow first of all relates to the new sofa, which
in turn relates to the granite floor. The navy in the
pillow brings contrast and makes the dusty pink
colour feel fresh.
If you scroll through this Pinterest board you’ll
see groupings of furniture, pillows, lighting and
accents for different consultations I’ve done
recently. Use these examples to create your own
combinations.

Click on pillow to shop.

Click here to shop navy/pink pillows.

©2020 Maria Killam MARIAKILLAM.COM

 D ES IG N CON S ULTATION

10. Once you’ve found the inspiration piece (you only need one) to pull your
room together, you can choose the rest of the colour palette.
In Goldy’s interior, we’ve now added white, navy and greige in addition to
the existing pink found in the floor.

©2020 Maria Killam MARIAKILLAM.COM

 D ES IG N CON S ULTATION

11. One of the most important decisions Goldy wanted to make was
choosing a wall colour to ensure her living room would feel elegant and
inviting.
I chose BM OC-11 Clay Beige, a really versatile colour, for her living room
because it looks like a linen colour with just a hint of gray. I knew this
would be a great colour for her living room when I first saw her granite tile
floor; however, if I had given her this colour right away, she wouldn’t have
been as excited about it as she was when she could see the rest of her
living room coming together.
I don’t choose the wall colour until the end of a consultation because
the right colour on the walls is what pulls the entire room together. If I
start talking about paint colours too soon, it’s really hard for anyone to
get excited. The right colour, shown too soon, can look unrelated and
random.

OC-11
Clay Beige

Interior from Houzz

©2020 Maria Killam MARIAKILLAM.COM

 D ES IG N CON S ULTATION

12. Now that we had the

inspiration and the colours
for Goldy’s living room, we
chose the supporting pieces:
By the end of the call she
was prepared to go shopping
for two fabric chairs in a
pattern that will pick up the
pink or navy colour, or both.
I encouraged her to find the
chairs in a pattern as too
many solid pieces make an
interior look like all the pieces
were purchased from a big
box store.

Goldy was thrilled with her new

inspiration pillow, colour palette,
and all the furnishings and lighting
we choose for her “new” and
elegant living room. She couldn’t
wait to start painting and see the
finished result.

©2020 Maria Killam MARIAKILLAM.COM

 IDEA S F OR

LIGHTI NG
If I had to choose between new paint colours for my walls or new
lighting (unless the existing paint colours were really bad) I would
choose new lighting.

1.
5.
2.

4.
3.
6.

5 Lamps Everyone Should Have in Their Homes

This is so important. Most people think if they have a dark house,

the solution is to paint the walls a pale colour, or to install multiple
recessed pot lights in your ceiling.
It’s actually lamps with fabric (not glass) shades that give you
atmosphere and light up dark corners. You need to become a
lamp tramp like I am if you spend a lot of time in a room with little
natural light!
I’m going to discuss each of the lamps pictured above so you
can know when they’ll be the right solution to incorporate in your
home.
You can also view my curated lighting boards on my Pinterest site
here.

©2020 Maria Killam MARIAKILLAM.COM

DRU M SH A D E
A drum shade chandelier will work with most design styles and is
an elegant alternative to the traditional five-shade tulip chandelier
most people inherit in a dining room. The flush-mount version
of the lamp style is also a beautiful alternative to the standard
builder’s light installed in most bedrooms.

S TA N D IN G L AM P
The ubiquitous torchiere lamp (left) does little more than illuminate
the ceiling while adding very little atmosphere to your room. A
much better option is to add a standing lamp with a white shade.
Click on each lamp to shop
A candlestick lamp is a great choice as well because it’s simple
and clean, and will work with most decor. Buy two of them and
trust me, you will find a dark corner to place them in!

Torchiere Lamp Standing Lamp Candlestick Lamp

©2020 Maria Killam MARIAKILLAM.COM

MO U N T E D S WIN G A R M LA MPS
Swing-arm lamps can be hard-wired directly into
your wall or come with a plug-in cord.
These lamps are ideal for mounting on either side
of a sofa positioned against the wall or above
bedside tables in your bedroom.

White Guest Bedroom eDesign; Before & After

Click on each lamp to shop

10 Styling Lessons from Jeffrey Bilhuber

TA B L E L A M PS
Light can sometimes be harder than tile to get right. The
selection of bad lighting is much greater than the selection
of pretty lighting.
An easy tip for stylish table lamps is to simply repeat one
of your room’s accent colours in a lamp base and add
a white fabric shade. There are so many pretty bases
in every colour — don’t go another day without enough
lamps!

Double Gourd Lamp

©2020 Maria Killam MARIAKILLAM.COM

WA L L SC ON C E LIG HT IN G
Have you noticed how many wall sconces are
featured in every movie and television show?
I sometimes wonder if set decorators carry an
extra case full of this type of portable lighting to
add to every scene. There seem to be countless
shows where a wall sconce light is in the
background.
Once I realized the impact that wall sconce
lighting has on an interior, I started noticing them
everywhere.
If you are building a new house, incorporate
nough of this lighting into your plan!

Maria’s Kitchen Refresh

Click on each lamp to shop

THE U P L IGHT F LOOR LA MP

This inexpensive little light can be placed at the base
of large houseplants and behind furniture to give your
interior a soft happy glow. A great trick is to buy a remote
controlled gizmo to turn your up-lights on and off with just
a flick of a button.

©2020 Maria Killam MARIAKILLAM.COM

THAN K YOU !
F O R R EADI N G
12 WAYS TO CRE AT E A F R ES H L O O K & FEEL

Now you know the steps to creating a fresh look and feel for the
most important room in your house:

CRE AT E T HE INSPIRATION
E STABLISH A COL OUR PA L ETTE
CH OOSE THE WA L L COL OUR

And, you have some great lighting ideas to create the layers of
light every living room needs. Following these steps will give you
a warm and inviting room that reflects your personality and will fill
you with happiness every time you walk in the door.

Colourfully yours,

©2020 Maria Killam MARIAKILLAM.COM

 SHOP
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 J OIN THE B ES T

COLOU R TRAI N I NG
IN T HE WOR LD

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