Everything has color. If you walk into a white room wearing red, parts of the room will blush pink—just as when you hold a buttercup under your chin, you glow yellow. Color is magical, but you have to control it with a few simple techniques.

Repetition is the key to the effective use of color. If you take some of the ceiling color down into the room, it unifies the room and almost always makes it appear larger. You can also create transitions by taking color from one room and carrying it into the next. If you were a guest at an old-world country mansion, it would be delightful to walk through the green room and the red room and then the white room to get to the gold room, where cocktails were being served. But those of us who live on a somewhat smaller scale need fewer bold contrasts in color.

If you want a color to recede, use more of it. Suppose you move into a new house and you hate the carpet, but you take a peek and there’s only plywood underneath it. The carpet is brand new, perfectly serviceable, and you really need to spend your money on a new sofa. What you should do is repeat a variation of the carpet color throughout the house so that the carpet recedes. Carry the color up a wall and mount a framed print against it—you’ll see the art before you see the wall or the carpet.

I am inclined in general to use neutrals and then work with texture and light to create color, because we all tire of bright, intense tones much faster than we do subdued one. On the other hand, don’t be afraid of rich color—just learn to use it judiciously. A room with a lot of architectural volume absorbs the heat of bold colors well. If you live in a tract house, however, and you paint the plain flat walls of your dining room an intense hot shade, you might find that you’ll never again want to serve anything but salads because the room will always seem too warm!

Collect shadows, textures, and reflections.
Rather than allowing shadows, textures, and reflections to accumulate haphazardly, you should collect them deliberately. As you compose a room, look for the shadows objects cast, for the variety of ways in which different textures trap the light, and for the many reflections a polished surface can create. Use lights to create or emphasize effects that please you. When these design elements are thoughtfully handled, they can have as much impact in a room as the furnishings do.