Room Color Palette Generator

The short answer

Use three colors in uneven amounts: a main color on about 60% of the room, usually the walls; a second color on 30%, the big pieces like the sofa, curtains and rug; and an accent on the last 10%, the pillows, art and lamps. That’s the 60-30-10 rule. Find the other two colors on the color wheel, keep the big areas soft and save the strongest color for the accent.

The palette above is a sample: light grayish yellow-green walls (#BCC6AC, an LRV of about 54), a mid grayish yellow-green neutral for the sofa and curtains (#777E6C) and a mid red-violet accent (#B271A7), its opposite on the wheel, under a ceiling of #E1E5DB. Change the color, the scheme and the room to make it yours, then download the palette card.

How to use the generator

1. Start from a color you love. Type its hex code, pick it with the color picker or choose one of the starting colors. A favorite rug, piece of art or fabric makes a good place to start.
2. Say where it goes: on the walls, on the big pieces or on the accents. The generator keeps your color exactly as it is and builds the other two around it.
3. Pick a scheme and the room. Complementary gives the most contrast, Analogous and Monochromatic the calmest rooms. Add the direction of the room’s biggest window for notes on its light.
4. Read the result. You get the three colors in a sketch of the room, each with its hex code, its LRV and where it goes, the ceiling color and notes for your room.
5. Take it with you. Download PDF gives you a palette card to print, Copy summary puts the colors on your clipboard, and Print prints the page.

Nothing you enter leaves your device. Once you change something, your color and choices are kept in this browser until you press Clear.

How the palette works

• The 60-30-10 rule. About 60% main color, 30% second color (half as much) and 10% accent. The walls take the 60%, window treatments, upholstery and floor coverings the 30%, and pillows, art, lamps and accessories the 10%. Equal amounts look spotty. The shares are a guide for where each color goes, not something to measure.
• The color wheel. The painter’s wheel has twelve hues built on red, yellow and blue: three primaries, three secondaries (orange, green and violet) and six tertiaries in between. Opposite pairs on it are red and green, blue and orange, and yellow and violet. Screens space hues differently, so the generator first places your color’s hue on the painter’s wheel, with red, yellow, green and blue where they sit on a screen.
• The schemes.
  • Analogous: the main color and its two neighbors on the wheel, three families side by side.
  • Complementary: the main color and its opposite as the accent, with a neutral of the main color’s undertone for the big pieces. Pair complements with neutrals, and let one color lead with the other as an accent.
  • Split complementary: the main color and the two hues either side of its opposite, such as orange walls with blue-green and blue-violet.
  • Triadic: three colors evenly spaced around the wheel, like yellow-green, blue-violet and red-orange.
  • Monochromatic: one hue in lighter, deeper and stronger versions.
• Soft big areas, a strong accent. Use a softer, less intense color for the large areas and the most saturated color in small doses. The generated wall color is light and muted, with an LRV of about 60. The second color is a few shades darker than light walls, or lighter than walls with an LRV under 50, the kind of contrast that makes an accent wall stand out. The accent is a little stronger than your color: it’s the focal point, and a focal point should contrast with the rest.
• LRV. Light reflectance value is the share of light a color reflects, from 0 for black to 100 for white. The generator works it out from your screen color’s relative luminance, which measures the same thing, so treat it as an estimate, not the number on a paint chip.
• The ceiling. The wall color with 50% white mixed in, a shade or two lighter. A lighter ceiling looks higher, and a stark white one can make the walls look darker.
• Neutrals. Grays, whites and blacks sit off the color wheel, so a pure gray can’t start a scheme. Start from a color with a little warmth or coolness instead and keep the neutral for the walls or the trim.

A palette that looks right to you in your own light is the right one.

Worked examples

Worked example

Sage green walls in a living room

What we know

• Color: #BCC6AC, a light grayish yellow-green
• Where it goes: the walls (60%)
• Scheme: Complementary, living room

How it works out

1. Wheel: #BCC6AC sits at yellow-green on the color wheel.
2. Second color: yellow-green at LRV 20, #777E6C.
3. Accent: red-violet at LRV 24, #B271A7.

Your light grayish yellow-green on the walls, a mid grayish yellow-green on the sofa, the curtains and the rug, and a mid red-violet for pillows, a throw, art and a lamp. In a complementary scheme the accent sits opposite the main color on the color wheel, so it stands out.

Worked example

A navy sofa in a living room

What we know

• Color: #1F2E4D, a dark grayish blue
• Where it goes: the sofa, the curtains and the rug (30%)
• Scheme: Complementary, living room

How it works out

1. Wheel: #1F2E4D sits at blue on the color wheel.
2. Main color: blue at LRV 60, #C6CCD9.
3. Accent: orange at LRV 24, #BE753F.

A light grayish blue on the walls, your dark grayish blue on the sofa, the curtains and the rug, and a mid orange for pillows, a throw, art and a lamp. In a complementary scheme the accent sits opposite the main color on the color wheel, so it stands out.

Worked example

Mustard yellow accents in a bedroom

What we know

• Color: #D4A33B, a mid yellow-orange
• Where it goes: pillows, a throw, lamps and art (10%)
• Scheme: Analogous, bedroom

How it works out

1. Wheel: #D4A33B sits at yellow-orange on the color wheel.
2. Main color: orange at LRV 60, #D5C9C0.
3. Second color: red-orange at LRV 20, #A96C5F.

A light grayish orange on the walls, a mid red-orange on the bedding, the headboard and the curtains, and your mid yellow-orange for pillows, a throw, lamps and art. In an analogous scheme the three colors sit side by side on the color wheel, so they blend.

Complementary colors

Opposite colors on the painter’s wheel make the strongest contrast, which is why the complement works best as an accent. A muted or deep version of a hue has the same complement: sage is a soft yellow-green, navy a deep blue and terracotta a muted red-orange.

Split complementary and triadic colors

Each hue of the painter’s wheel with the two hues either side of its complement (split complementary) and the two a third of the way around (triadic). Its analogous neighbors are simply the hues next to it: red-orange sits between red and orange.

The light in your room

The same paint looks different in different light, so the generator adds a note for the direction of the room’s biggest window.

• North-facing: cool, soft light all day. Warm undertones (red, orange or yellow) and an LRV of 60 or more suit it. Skip a light color with a blue or gray base.
• South-facing: warm light all day. Most colors work, as long as the wall color isn’t too warm.
• East- and west-facing: east light is warm in the morning and cool toward evening, west light the reverse, so choose for the hours you use the room most.

Colors also look stronger on a big wall than on a small chip, so go a shade lighter than your first pick for the walls. Darker walls are a choice too: deep colors can make a small room feel cozy, and the room lumens calculator adds light for dark walls.

Before you buy paint

The palette card ends with the same steps.

1. Treat each hex code as a guide: screens make color from light, and paint is tinted from colorants, so no code converts exactly into a paint.
2. Pick the paint chips closest to each color, then judge them at home, beside your floor, sofa and curtains, in daylight and lamplight.
3. Paint a sample at least 2 × 2 ft, with two coats, on the wall that gets the most light and on the one that gets the least.
4. Live with the samples for a few days and look at them in the morning and in the evening before you buy.
5. Check the LRV on each chip: about 50 to 60 keeps a room light and airy, and 60 or more suits a north-facing room.

Then work out how much to buy with the paint calculator: the gallons and quarts of paint for the walls, the ceiling and a coat of primer. Painting a nursery? The nursery checklist generator lists the furniture and safety basics to have ready.

Once the colors are settled, size the big pieces they go on: the rug size calculator for the rug and the curtain size calculator for the curtains.