How many colors can you get away with?

How many colors can you get away with in the same room?

Well, that rather depends on the room, but there are a few guidelines. Usually, you don't want more than three colors covering large surface areas; however, you can get away with many more accent colors on smaller objects.

The trick is then figuring out which colors go well together. To do this, take samples of the colors you're planning on using, and put them together on a neutral colored table or cork-board so that you can see how they go together. Take samples of the wall paint, the floor, trim, and furniture stain, the carpet, the drape fabric, the furniture upholstery, and overlap them proportionately to represent the size of the area that each will cover. Then turn away with closed eyes, step back, and when you turn back to look at the arrangement, squint at it. You want an impressionistic view so that you won't be distracted.

This will give you a more realistic idea of what your room will look like, and you can see if any of the colors or prints clash in a way that is unpleasant to you. You can also see if it would look better to use more of one color and less of another than you had originally planned. You may want to use decor accent pieces to repeat a color in order to tie the room together. You may notice that covering the entire wall with a particular color would be overwhelming, where as it would look great as a trim. You may notice that a particular print looks better on a small surface, like a chair, and a few throw pillows, than it would covering an entire couch.

At any rate, this will allow you to make your mistakes and correct them for free, rather than needing to make expensive changes after you've already bought huge quantities of the materials and done all of the work.

Remember to look at your samples in the room itself. This is important, because you need to see what it will look like with the light in that room. Check to see the effect of the natural daylight, as well as the artificial light, on the colors. You may discover that you need to change your lighting, and that should be done before any of the finishing work.