Kelly Wearstler’s 4 Tips for Working With Color

Choosing a wall color for your home can be a daunting task, not to mention choosing an entire color palette—but don’t let it overwhelm you. “Living without color is like living without love,” says world-class interior designer Kelly Wearstler. “Color is so powerful, and it evokes so many emotions. … It brings so much happiness and life and love to a space. Color is absolutely nothing to be afraid of.”

Kelly Wearstler is one of the world’s top interior designers, and her design work has been featured in publications the world over, from Architectural Digest and Elle Decor to Vogue and The New Yorker. Born in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, she moved to Los Angeles in her early twenties and rose to fame by redefining the look of West Coast design. She has designed everything from Hollywood homes to boutique hotels (like the Viceroy in Malibu and the Avalon Hotel in Beverly Hills); has created collections of everything from home accessories to fine china to wall coverings; and also runs her own firm, Kelly Wearstler Interior Design (KWID), and eponymous luxury lifestyle brand.

Warm neutral colors, secondary colors, accent colors, swatches—when decorating with color, there are a lot of factors that go into interior design color schemes. Before you dive into the ins and outs of interior color theory, here are some of Kelly's tips for helping you find the perfect color combo for your space:

1. 1. Invite color into your home. When working with color, Kelly says it’s vital to experiment in order to find what you love. She tells the story of her first apartment, a historic building in LA: “I really wanted to put my personal voice and spin on this new dwelling of mine. And I was looking around architecturally at what was there that I could be inspired by. And at the top of my windows was a stained glass window, and there was this citron color. I loved it. It just felt really happy and it made me feel good.” She wanted to bring the eye-catching, bold color into her home, and according to her, “the most affordable way is through paint.” So she bought 20 quarts of yellow, painted her living room and another room, and “ended up at this incredible statement.” The paint color unified the apartment, making it feel larger and more unique to her personality. If you’re still nervous about interior paint, try to get a pop of color with other things, like throw pillows, upholstery, lampshades, or area rugs.
2. 2. Look in your closet. Kelly has a lot of friends and clients who tell her they want color in their home, but they just don’t know which colors to try. Her solution is simple: “Go into your closet, because the interior of your home is a reflection of who you are as a person. So what you look good in in terms of fashion, you're gonna feel good in.” Take a look at your closet: Do you have a clear favorite color? Do you have mostly warm colors or cool colors, do you go for earth tones or vibrant colors, do you prefer light blue or navy blue? She further breaks it down by what color choices she sees in the closet: “Somebody that has a lot of black and white, perhaps they like things that are more pared down and simple. There could be somebody who loves a beautiful shade of powder blue.” If you have a closet that has a mix of lots of different colors, she recommends taking a few of the articles of clothing and “actually put them in a room and drape it over a chair and see how it feels in there. Looking at these colors are going to tell you a lot about what you want to surround yourself in.”
3. 3. Tell your story with color. Kelly says that interior design is all about telling a client’s story. Color is a great way to feel as if your home’s design tells a story unique to you. For instance, Kelly had a client who was an artist, but she didn’t want to hang her art on the walls. “We decided we were going to do it in a rug,” Kelly explains. They designed a rug with colors from the client’s work. “When you think about what color you want to use to start the story, it could be a piece of art. It could be a fabric that you fell in love with. It could be a vintage stool that you found that you love, and that’s the inspiration for your room.”
4. 4. Change space with color. House color is an incredibly powerful tool that can completely change a space’s size, shape, and mood. “For example, a richer color that’s on two sides of the wall actually makes the space a little narrower and more intimate,” Kelly explains. But if “the walls are a little lighter and you have a darker color at the end, it actually makes the corridor feel a little wider.” Look at your own home and photos of interior design and see what lighter and darker colors on different walls will do to a space—especially a small space.

Learn interior design from award-winning designer Kelly Wearstler. Make any space feel larger, cultivate your own distinct style, and create spaces that tell a story with the MasterClass Annual Membership.