Well-chosen colors of various coatings make up the lion's share of the final design that a room or entire apartment will receive. Light color creates a noble atmosphere in any room and makes the room fresher. If the interior has a light floor and the same wallpaper, it becomes easier to highlight other design solutions (furniture, ceiling, doors or decorative items). In this context, it is appropriate to talk about how to use the correct light tone of surfaces, as well as how to combine white and its shades.
The popularity of light shades is due to people's desire for openness and joy that a light palette offers
Choosing a design for different rooms
Design translated from English means not only to design, but also a plan, drawing, drawing. Therefore, it is better not to keep the design of a home in your head, but to transfer it to paper. Fortunately, the possibilities of the Internet are so great that you can do interior design yourself without hiring professional designers for a lot of money.
Living room design
The living room has long ceased to be exclusively a room for receiving guests. A room in which no one lives permanently, but at the same time serving as a room for the whole family to spend time together, is called a living room.
The living room should be bright, cozy, bring warmth and comfort. The room should be equally pleasant for adults and children. Therefore, it is necessary to achieve a feeling of space, light and cleanliness.
When developing a living room design based on a white floor, you can achieve an expansion of space and a visual increase in area. To do this, you also need to leave the walls a light shade. If you overdo it with white, you can turn a room from cozy and comfortable into cold, distant.
To avoid transition, the design of the living room should contain finishing elements (or decorative elements) in bright or dark colors. These could be doors, baseboards, trim, picture frames, sofas, chairs.
Bedroom design
The bedroom, unlike the living room, does not require visual enlargement. The room may be small, but it must be a cozy space.
To make the bedroom seem warmer, light floors must be complemented by walls in dark pastel colors. Sand, plum, caramel, and chocolate colors are perfect. A dark floor is not the best choice for a bedroom space.
Additionally, you need to think about the color of the furniture and accessories for the bedroom.
If the walls are quite dark, then it is better to choose light curtains, sconces and bedspreads, matching the color of the floor. If the floor and walls remain light, then the textiles must be dark. This will prevent the bedroom from turning into a room without shapes and colors. A harmonious combination of light shades in decoration and dark shades in furniture will add a sense of style, warmth, and harmony to the bedroom. A large number of combinations of white tones will add coldness.
Kitchen and bathroom design
The kitchen and bathroom are rooms where the word “cleanliness” comes first. It is recommended to use the same material for the floor of both rooms. So let's combine them.
The kitchen and bathroom are high-use areas. The number of visits to these places far exceeds the use of the bedroom or living room.
Frequent use of a room increases the level of pollution. Therefore, it is recommended to use a design based on the dark color of the doors, the dark, non-stainable color of the floor, trim, and baseboards. The use of dark color is explained by the low level of soiling, which leads to the need to wipe the product less often, and, accordingly, to less wear.
In fact, everything is far from true. Rooms such as the kitchen and bathroom are cleaned regardless of the appearance of contamination. Rooms with high humidity levels that require special care. Such a room is at risk of mold growth. Therefore, regular ventilation and wiping is a necessary procedure.
Grease stains from cooking require frequent cleaning. Accordingly, using a light color to decorate the kitchen and bathroom is not at all scary and is completely acceptable.
When choosing a light-colored floor when designing a kitchen, you can use the principle of zoning the room. For example, near the kitchen unit, in the passage areas, the shade of the floor can be lighter; the place where the table will be installed can be highlighted with a dark floor.
The advantage of a light-colored floor in these rooms is its versatility. Against the background of a white, coffee, or light gray floor, any wall color will look beautiful. We combine a light floor with any color of the kitchen unit; brightly colored furniture will appear juicier.
A light-colored floor can not only expand the room visually, but also add a sense of cleanliness. A dark floor is significantly inferior in characteristics to a white floor. The color of the floor should hide traces of water drops and stains.
Choosing wall color
Options for combining the colors of floors and walls have already been presented a little higher. Let's consider the issue in more detail. When combining a white floor with the color of the walls, remember the following:
- Light floors and walls give a feeling of spaciousness. But too much light - and the room lost any outline. It did not turn into a spacious room, but became a shapeless, huge, even cold room. When combining light with light, the shade of one of the elements should be different. For example, the floor is milky, the walls are white. Or the walls are peach-colored - the floor is light brown, two shades darker than the walls.
- A light floor, dark side walls and a light back wall (viewed from the door) will bring the feeling of a tunnel. If the room is too square, then creating a tunnel effect is acceptable. If the room is rectangular (most rooms in city apartments have a rectangular shape), then any furniture will be “lost” in the room.
- A light floor and a dark back wall will steal the depth. The room will seem smaller, warmer, even in feel. It is unacceptable to use a room with a total area of less than 18 m2.
An excess of white color - we repeat - instead of feelings of purity and calmness, it will bring a feeling of coldness and detachment. It is necessary to “dilute” the light floor with additional elements, details of a different color scheme. A combination of a dark floor with light walls will look more harmonious.
Light shades of the floor harmonize perfectly with dark and bright colors. Depending on the type of room, wishes, and lifestyle of the owners, the walls can be painted in any color. The rules for distributing color in a room remain unchanged.
When choosing a color for the walls in a design with a light floor, you should stick to a uniform color. The brightness and richness of the design should be added with decor or pieces of furniture. For a room with a light floor, a variety of furniture options are suitable - classic, modern, hi-tech.
Light laminate in the apartment
The offer of laminated panels is literally becoming brighter. This shows how the trend of dark exotic finishing materials is giving way to various light shades of grey, beige and pure white. You can find laminate with these colors that imitates:
- concrete plates;
- stone;
- tree;
- metal;
- glass;
- skin.
Imitations are extremely successful. Laminate panels not only look like natural surfaces, but also have textures such as concrete grain or wood grain. The surfaces have an extraordinary shine. Another offer is bright panels created by world famous designers. Light laminate floors can be chosen to suit any layout. The basis of a modern interior can be a white, glossy “glass” floor, panels with designer patterns or imitation concrete. There are also laminates that look "old". You can purchase panels that look like stone that has been damaged by time, or wood planks that have dents and stains. Also interesting is the laminate floor, which resembles worn wood painted white.
Choosing colors for doors and skirting boards
Doors and baseboards are irreplaceable elements of the overall style of the room. The first thing to note is that the doors must match the style of the floor. For example, the floor is wooden and a plastic door is installed. This combination is unacceptable. The wrong choice of material and color can destroy any harmony.
The basic rule of designers is that the floor, door and baseboard should be the same color. The presence of a dark-colored floor in the room leaves no choice; the door and baseboard are automatically matched to it.
The light floor gives free rein to your imagination. Doors in dark shades and those as light as the floor itself are perfect for a light-colored floor. Dark doors can add clarity to the interior of a light room, while a dark baseboard will highlight geometric shapes.
Dark doors against a light floor can add visible space. For rooms with an area of 2 * 3 m2, dark doors will turn into an absurd bulky structure.
If there are two doors to a room, located next to each other, then they should be the same color, while light doors may get lost against the background of a light floor and walls. If these doors hide the bathroom and toilet, then this is exactly the effect you want.
When choosing the color of the baseboard, you can rely solely on personal preferences. The plinth can be white, black and colored. The main thing is that in the overall design the plinth does not “harm” the eye. The color and shape of the baseboard matches the door frames perfectly. Designers recommend using the same material for the platband and baseboard.
Expert advice
Designers convince us that light-colored floors are very versatile in their use, since almost any color suits them. However, it is worth noting that there are also rules here, one of which is the need to maintain contrast.
Expert advice will help you follow this rule:
- Don't let furniture blend into the walls.
- Use dark shades, but do not overdo them as the effect may not be what you expect.
- Use accents. They can be decorative pillows, blankets, vases, garlands, etc.
Selecting curtains
When choosing curtains for a room with a light floor, it is necessary to maintain a feeling of harmony, cleanliness, and space. The choice of fabric color should be in harmony with the overall design of the room. The fabric material is airy, transparent, light. Chiffon, satin or organza are perfect. The type of fastening does not matter.
We create a practical and cozy atmosphere in the bedroom
The bedroom is characterized by the presence of light dust from the fillings of pillows and blankets. And on a black (blue, chocolate, emerald) floor this dust will be very visible.
When choosing a black floor color, you need to take this feature of the bedroom into account.
Lighting
For an interior with light flooring, lighting plays a big role. The white tint of the floor adds light to the room, but only with sufficient natural light.
When using one chandelier, the floor will appear white - directly under the lamp, and dark - in the corners of the room.
To avoid a visible transition, it is recommended to supplement the interior with lighting in the corners. You can consider lighting options directly for pieces of furniture - sconces, floor lamps, hanging lamps.
In an interior with a light and dark floor, halogen lighting around the perimeter of the room looks great.
Selecting flooring material
There are not many options for choosing flooring:
- natural wood (parquet);
- laminate;
- linoleum;
- ceramic tile.
Perhaps some readers of the article would classify carpet as a floor covering, but this is not so. Carpet or carpet is an external decorative protective covering; the basis will still be the materials from the listed list.
The floor covering rarely changes, so it must be strong from the very beginning. It is unacceptable to use flooring materials that do not match the type of room.
The color of the floor should match the design, light flooring should match the colors of the walls, dark floor should match the doors and baseboards.
Natural wood
To produce flooring materials in light shades, oak, maple, ash, birch, and hornbeam are used.
Any of these materials has a big advantage - naturalness and environmental friendliness. But there are also disadvantages:
- Artificial lightening. Natural wood, when processed into parquet, is lightened in factories in large batches. When released, the color turns out to be monochromatic, especially if the manufacturer cares about its image. But how natural wood will behave under the influence of light, moisture and other external factors can only be guessed at. In some places, if exposed to direct sunlight, stains and discoloration may appear.
- Stylistic affiliation. Natural wood flooring is used for minimalist and sometimes modern interiors. In a modern high-tech style, the naturalness of wood will become an absurd design mistake.
Laminate
Laminate is a universal floor covering for any room. The modern market allows you to choose laminate flooring in a wide variety of shades, even white.
With the right choice of characteristics, laminate can be used in the kitchen, living room, hallway, even in the bathroom. For places where moisture accumulates, care must be taken to ensure that the laminate has moisture-resistant qualities.
The only disadvantage of laminate as a covering for light-colored floors is the method of its installation. If the laminate is laid across the line of light, the joints will be too visible. For a dark shade of laminate, the problem is also important. The laminate must be laid along the line of light.
Linoleum
The most common type of floor covering, linoleum, gained its popularity back in the last century. This material is practical for use in any room, washes well, and fits comfortably when laying.
In construction stores you can choose linoleum in different colors, including light shades that imitate wood or laminate.
Light-colored linoleum flooring is difficult to distinguish from a well-laid laminate.
Linoleum is sold in cut pieces of standard width - from 1.5 m to 4 m. If the room is wider, the covering has to be glued together. This is done using a special technology, preferably by professional layers, but the seam at the joint is noticeable in any case. Over time, it can come unglued, water from cleaning gets into the gap, and the overall unattractive appearance of the floor becomes visible.
Another disadvantage of linoleum can be considered that it belongs to the household, semi-commercial, commercial class. The higher the class, the greater the wear resistance of the material (the ability to withstand the weight of furniture, resistance to pressure from heels, etc.) The higher the durability, the higher the price.
Ceramic tile
The most durable flooring material is ceramic tiles. The variety of colors, shapes, and sizes of this material is simply amazing in quantity.
Tiles come in different qualities and, accordingly, different prices.
When choosing tiles in light shades, you need to pay attention to the pattern or pattern, if it is present on the surface. It should be combined with the overall pattern of the interior. For example, when laying tiles in the kitchen, the same pattern of ceramic chips on the floor and countertop will look advantageous.
Do not forget that ceramic tiles on the floor are cold and slippery material. Before choosing this material, you should consider additional insulation (warm floor or carpet - it doesn’t matter).
When choosing colors for walls and floors, it is necessary to maintain stylistic harmony. The use of a light floor is acceptable in different design styles; the only difference is in the materials for the floor. For modernism with bright colors, classics with pastels, rococo with antiquity - a light floor is ideal.
Decorating the floor in the bedroom according to Feng Shui
According to Feng Shui, floors should provide reliable support for a person and serve as a symbol of his relationship with the earth. After all, a person receives strength and energy from the earth. The color of the floor in the bedroom according to Feng Shui is chosen according to personal preferences, but natural colors are preferable: brown, beige, sand color, golden straw, etc.
It is not advisable to choose bright artificial colors or aggressive red and coral colors. There should be no patterns on linoleum, tiles or parquet with sharp corners, images of sharp figures, zigzags, arrows, etc.
It is believed that such drawings provoke illness and quarrels. Circles, ba-gua octagons, ovals, and designs with smoothed rounded lines are welcome.
In any case, according to Feng Shui, it is better to choose natural materials for the floor - boards, cork, bamboo, stone.
