Homeowners eager to say something—about who they are, about how they want their home to feel—are doing so with bold shades of paint. “Strong color, whether warm or cool, elicits a powerful emotional, elemental response,” says Portland, OR, designer Stephanie Dyer. “It makes a statement.” And while deep, rich, complex shades pair well with easygoing neutrals, they’re also being used expansively, flowing from walls onto ceilings and across trim. “There’s a time and a place for restraint, but I’m fundamentally opposed to fear when it comes to using color,” says Dyer, who’s drawn to shades like saffron, burgundy, purple, and peacock blue. Up ahead: how designers think about using saturated, sophisticated shades.
Bold Paint Colors to Use in Your Home
Deeply dreamy
Picking paint colors you connect with is key, but other factors do apply. “People often say, ‘I love this color!’ but it’s equally important to consider the function and feel of the room,” says Montecito, CA, designer John De Bastiani. The owners of this 1950s ranch house wanted their primary bedroom, with its lofty ceiling, “to feel like a cocoon,” says De Bastiani, who steered them toward a strong yet serene, muted not muddy, deep blue-gray.
The totally immersive color treatment created an even cozier quality. “That actually came about organically,” De Bastiani says. “We painted the walls and at first intended to keep the ceiling white, but it was too sterile. So we painted the beams, took a look, and then went all the way. The best things can happen when given enough time to develop.”
The result? A bedroom that serves as a visual lullaby—without being boring. “When using calming colors,” De Bastiani says, “be sure to bring in textures, accents, and other elements for interest.” In this case, battens added to the walls, exposed rafters on the V-groove ceiling overhead, a floral fabric headboard, and bleached-oak side tables and a bench make the space feel like a dream come true.
Warm welcome
Red reaches out and engages people while calling attention to itself as well, so it’s a can’t-miss choice for an entry. Yet it’s not so bossy that it doesn’t play well with others. “Red goes with a lot more colors than you might think—yellow, khaki, beige, even some blues,” says East Hampton, NY, designer Bryan Graybill. Graybill typically pairs punches of strong color with more restrained tones, as demonstrated in his own Shaker-meets-English-Arts-and-Crafts farmhouse. The warm, saturated red and the soft golden-sand shades complement each other, thanks to a shared brown undertone. The two shades are woven throughout on doors, in stairwells, and at the entrance to a pantry kitchen. “You can be bolder with color in antechambers because you usually have less furniture and fewer objects to define these areas,” Graybill says. His general counsel in regard to strong color: “It will stimulate your space and your life—go for it!
Getting in deep
In an older house, coming on strong with color means factoring in existing features like original woodwork—as in this 1902 home in the Willamette Heights neighborhood of Portland, OR. “It’s all about finding the right complementary tone,” says Dyer. “Natural wood, which has brown or orange or yellow tones, looks great with its opposites on the color wheel—blues and greens.”
For this dining room, with its major millwork and dramatic arch leading into the kitchen, Dyer used a blue that’s deeply saturated with a warm-green undertone. To beckon people in and through, the designer extended the blue a few inches inside the arch. “I don’t like transitioning color on an outside corner, and I was extra conscious of that here to enhance the experience of the passage,” she says. Bonus for DIYers: It’s also easier to tape off and get a clean line on a curved wall this way.
The striking statement in the lofty kitchen comes from the white oak island darkened with a black stain and topped with soapstone and black-walnut butcher block—a bold contrast to light wood floors and pristine white walls with tall windows.
Rich reflection
Drenching an entire space in a single power color may sound audacious, particularly in a traditional setting, but it can establish a sense of stately cohesion. Case in point: the inviting front hall of this 2001 Colonial- style home in Mount Pleasant, SC, swathed in an inky deep blue. “Architecturally, there was no way to seamlessly transition to a different shade from the walls to the trim,” says Charleston, SC– based designer Christyn Dunning-Gauss. “With all the crown molding, using another color would have been too much.”
Glossy, not glaring, the all-over bright navy in a satin finish lends liveliness, heightened by the light that spills through French doors and four globe-style pendants. Brass trim on the fixtures adds a secondary reflective element, while accenting the walls with gold-framed artwork and finishing the space with a faded Turkish rug and a sleek console table pulls off a friendly yet still formal vibe.
Going all in with one paint shade is a rising trend that Dunning-Gauss believes might not have caught on a few years ago. “Paint companies are giving us bold colors with softer undertones now,” she says. “It’s making homeowners more open to using color in a big way.”
Brilliant ideas
The right bright, used throughout a home, can create a unifying theme. This color-flow approach is particularly on point in a house with a largely open plan, like this early 2000s home in Chilliwack, British Columbia, where a saturated grass green is repeated to tie the various spaces together. “Lots of windows overlook a mountain valley and let in so much light,” says designer and color expert Maria Killam of the space. It called for a “fresh, fun, airy hue to bring the outdoors in,” she adds—a far cry from the espresso brown that formerly permeated the whole place.
As an accent on the central stairway, this lively green is especially winning, thanks to its warm-yellow undertone. The breezy, buoyant shade has a tree-house effect here, Killam adds, encouraging folks to climb the steps. Leafy plants and John James Audubon–inspired prints on the gallery wall enhance the outdoor theme. But what really seals the deal, Killam says, is the soft-green-greige walls: “A versatile pale shade can provide the perfect backdrop for bold accent colors. Using it widely in an open-concept home is a great strategy.
