The hardware store has hundreds of paint chips on display; Finding the paint color that will look great in your home seems downright impossible. However, professional interior designers do exactly that every day. They sort through mountains of paint chips to find the one that fits a space perfectly. How do interior designers do it?

Most interior designers don’t even think about paint colors until they choose every other element in a room. For a beautiful interior design of the room, you need to follow suit. If you start with one paint color, you should find furniture that works well with that color. Let’s say you painted the walls of your living room purple. You would need to find a sofa in a color that complemented that shade of purple, as well as a coffee table, rug, and entertainment unit. Furniture, rug and accessory color options are limited, while paint colors are limitless; it is much easier to match the paint to the furniture than it is to match the furniture to the paint.

To create an interior that doesn’t look like a multicolored clown’s house, I recommend starting with an inspiration piece. Find an object that you love. It can be a painting, a decorative vase or a sample of fabric; just make sure it has at least three colors. Your color scheme will never fail if you start with an inspiration piece; You already love the color scheme on the object, so you’ll love that same color scheme in your space.

Then, choose three colors from your inspiration piece. Don’t limit yourself, you don’t have to choose charcoal gray just because you heard it was a trendy color. Choose the three colors that grab your attention and make you happy.

Choose the boldest, brightest color of the three, and shop for smaller accent pieces like bowls, flowers, and throw pillows to match that color. These small accessories will bring your room to life, providing bright pops of color that enhance the visual interest of a space. When you arrange these accessories in your room, be sure to distribute them. Don’t put all your pink bowls on one shelf; Put a vase of pink flowers on the coffee table, put a pink pillow on the sofa, and group three pink bowls on the shelf.

Next, choose the second boldest color of the three – this will be the color of some of the larger accessories in your room, such as a chair, bookcase interior, or rug. Use this color sparingly in two or three accessories in the room. If you use the hue on every large accessory, it will dominate the space. You want the colors in the space to complement, not fight, each other. For the remaining large accessories that didn’t get the color treatment, cover them up with patterns. Patterned rugs and chairs can tie your color scheme together while adding visual interest to a space; just remember to match the colors of the pattern to the colors of your inspiration piece.

The last color of the three will be the color of your wall. It should be the calmest color, acting as a backdrop for your bright accessories. But finding a paint color is a matter of trial and error. A paint swatch that looks green in the store may look yellow under the lights in the living room. Choose a couple of shades that seem to match your third color choice, and purchase sample pots of those shades at the hardware store. Paint swatches on your walls and look at them throughout the day to see which matches the color of your inspiration piece. Don’t worry if you make a mistake – you can easily paint over the wrong color with the right one.

Think this is too much color for one room? You’re right: a riot of color can easily overwhelm the eye, creating a visually jarring room. To create the beautiful room you’re after, you’ll need to inject a healthy dose of neutrals into your space. This is easy to do: keep the more expensive items in your room neutral. Floors, kitchen cabinets, and sofas should be in shades of white, cream, black, and brown. Colors eventually wear down your welcome: think avocado green and vintage gold. Replacing a decorative piece is affordable. However, replacing an avocado green kitchen costs thousands of dollars. By keeping these expensive items neutral, you’ll create a beautiful and timeless space that won’t cost a fortune to update in five years.

The color is intimidating; most homeowners would rather paint their walls beige than choose the wrong shade. But you don’t have to live in a drab house. Creating a color scheme is easy if you start with an inspiration piece that you love. If you are still not sure about designing your own interior or choosing the right colors for yourself, an interior designer would be a great help. Genchi Interior Design Group, an Orange County interior design firm, offers color consulting as one of its specialty services.