What’s the right color for your home?  This Number One interior design question applies to floors, too, because they all feature color, even if it’s beige!

Considering that flooring is at least 20 percent of your decorating surface, your floor’s color will play a critical role in a harmonious design. So, you’ll need to decide if your floor will be a background, like the canvas of a painting upon which your “homescape” is created, or if it is to be the focal point of the room.

Begin your decor and flooring selection by first determining the purpose of your room, then the mood you want to create. Is this to be a subtle, sophisticated living room, a calming inviting bedroom or a creative and energetic family area? 

Your mood will be established by the tones you select - cool, warm or neutral colors. In every case, your color choices will play an important role, and truly inspired color schemes can be found among your precious personal possessions.

Flooring choices like ceramic and porcelain tile and carpet, of course, immediately come to mind because of their broad color ranges of warm (reds and oranges), cool (blues and greens) and neutral (whites and beiges), but designers and consumers are discovering the wonders of color in wood. Warm reds, cooler yellows and blondes, neutral browns and the unexpected new tones from exotic woods from around the world - like blue!

Even if your affinity runs to beiges and whites, each offers color, too. There are all kinds of white and beige. Even among these colors your selection presents the opportunity to create a neutral background or to complement the dominant colors in your decor.

It’s a matter of defining color as you would coffee-cappucino, espresso or latte. Like flooring, each seems similar, yet each is for very different tastes. So it’s best served up by a specialist!