Image above: This North Carolina home, designed by Charlotte Lucas, balances a bold pink palette with browns and greens.
Color plays a central role in shaping the overall design style of a home, but deciding on a color palette that best suits your space can seem like a very complicated process. If you are too safe with your choice, the look will be blah, but going overboard can create a sad look. Fortunately, interior designers have a tried and true solution. The 60-30-10 color rule is a helpful technique for creating balanced, neutral color schemes.
At its core, the 60-30-10 color rule focuses on balance. That’s how it works 60 percent of the space is dedicated to the dominant color, 30 percent is reserved for the supporting shade, and 10 percent is used for the accent color. This ratio makes the room not feel overwhelming – or, on the other hand, so subdued that the colors are not visible.
“With interior design, there are no hard and fast rules,” says Amanda Wyatt, designer and founder of Design Insider. But this approach gives people a chance to feel more confident in creating their own plan.
If you’ve been reading endless design inspiration but aren’t sure how to translate those ideas into your space, you’re not alone. Whether you are choosing a color palette or looking for a way to distribute it in the room, here is how to use the 60-30-10 rule to combine everything in a consistent manner.
How to Use the 60-30-10 Color Rule
More often than not, your main color (60 percent), will be the color of your walls. No matter how big or small your space is, those four walls take the most pictures. Parts of your furniture and larger decorations like pictures will account for 30 percent, and any soft furnishings like pillows and throws are your 10 percent. Of course, these percentages can change and vary—it’s a custom formula for a reason—but this is the most important starting point.
Examples of the 60-30-10 Color Law
Yellow, Blue, and Brown
Use the 60-30-10 color rule to balance a color palette you already love, like this yellow and blue living room by Annie Kern.
- 60: The Floral motif in the wallpaper works with the yellow sofa and window treatment to make yellow the main color in this living room.
- 30: Two light blue chairs ensure a cool tone as a secondary color.
- 10: Floor space, colored glass, and light fixtures make brown a subtle but muted color.
Green, Yellow, and Pink
The 60-30-10 color rule also applies to color schemes that include multiple patterns and images. The master bedroom seen above, designed by Isabel Ladd Interiors, is from Beautiful House‘s 2023 Whole Home.
- 60: Although the patterns can make it difficult to identify the main hue, the green ceiling and reduce the cement as an important point of the color palette.
- 30: There are shades of yellow throughout the room, appearing in the lamps, bench and drapery.
- 10: Pink is the accent color in this room. A thick pillow pairs well with paper flowers to tie everything together.
White, Brown, and Black
Minimalists can also use the 60-30-10 color rule! Just look at this colorful dining room from artist Ali Budd.
- 60: The white walls and ceiling make the main color white.
- 30: Brown appears as the second shade in natural wood types of dining furniture and flooring.
- 10: The black credenza and the serving bowl bring the room together as an accent shade.
How to Apply the Law in Monochrome Rooms
With a monochrome color palette, think of different tones of color as game pieces. Take the room above, designed by Charlotte Lucas, as an example: Pale pink is 60 percent of the base, while the deep shade is 30. Around the room, a deep, almost burgundy hue works as a 10. A helpful suggestion is to work from light to dark or vice versa. Choose the lightest or darkest shade as your base color, and work your way from there.
Time to Remove the 60-30-10 Color Rule
If you find that it doesn’t work, you can break the 60-30-10 rule whenever you want. Although it is called a rule, this method is only a guide to balance in a colorful room. It is good if you have 40 percent of one color and only 20 of the tone. Two-tone palettes are a great example of when to throw out the color rulebook.
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Amanda Wyatt is an interior designer, home construction consultant, and founder of Design Insider, an online Rolodex curated for interior design resources and business deals. Amanda designs comfortable spaces that are both livable and beautiful, and now she’s made all of her design tools available to the everyday designer through Design Insider. His goal? Giving anyone interested in interior design easy access to professional store supplies and discounted business prices. You can find one of Amanda’s client projects, “Going to Carolina,” published in Amber Lewis’ latest book titled “Call It Home.”
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