As this year comes to an end and the new year is in our sights, we begin to reflect on what worked for us in 2018 and what didn’t. How can we improve our home in 2019 just by using color AND be able to choose it for yourself? I’m going to show you a super fun and easy way to do just that.

Here I have a basic picture of a stylized Christmas cactus. Great color, pretty picture, I like it but there’s no way I’d put these crazy colors in my home – or can I?

Yes you can but unless you like these colors as is, you may want to tweak them down just a bit and here’s how to do it.

Start with any photo that you like and don’t worry if the colors are too bold, just look at a picture you love. Based on the picture about, I came up with this color palette.

I don’t know about you but these are colors I would not want in my home. They looked great in the photo but just don’t translate well into a color palette for the home. Here’s what you can do.

STEP ONE: Look at the first color in your palette, here it’s a gray. Now go to the Sherwin Williams website and click on the COLORS. There you’ll find color families. Click the NEUTRALS. Here you’ll find similar colors to the gray above. Now in one of the gray boxes, pick a gray you like or one that is similar to the your original palette. I noted the one I like with a little black dot. Write down that color or take a screen shot of it. Move onto the next color which is the yellow.

STEP TWO: Do the same thing as you did with the gray.  Go to the Sherwin Williams website and look at the YELLOWS. Screenshot the yellow box you like and in that box, just pick a yellow that calls to you. Here again, I marked mine with a black dot.

Do the same for all the colors until you’re done. I finalized my color palette for you here:

Now look at the difference. This color palette is based off the colors from the first graphic but I just tweaked the colors a bit. Now these are colors that I’d have in my home. They could be accent colors, main wall colors, or ceiling color, anything at all! The point here is that YOU created a color palette from a photo that you like but just tweaked it a bit in the Sherwin Williams website.

Now go ahead and give it a try! It’s a super fun way to design your own color palette. Also I forgot to mention that if the colors look good in a photo you know they will look good in your home. Take a photo that you like to your local paint store and try this technique out. You had fun using color today and learned a new way to design your own color palette for your home.