How to Work Flowers into Different Color Schemes

Interior design is more than the arrangement of furniture and fittings. For example, choosing interior colors, that are the foundation for what happens next.

To create the right ambience in a room, e.g. for a special occasion or to match the season, many designers look to flowers. You won’t need a florist to do this for you, in this post we dive into the world of color theory and how to match up flowers with your color schemes.

Color Theory

As with any artistic practice, the usefulness of color theory in floral design remains incredibly important to the industry. Why? Well, it carries the first impression of the piece, or in this case, arrangement.

To express cheerfulness, sadness or give any room a modern twist, the starting point to getting the right ambience is understanding how to mix and match different color schemes with floral hues.

What is the Color Wheel?

The color wheel is an abstract illustration organization of different color hues around a circle that shows the relationship between primary, secondary, and tertiary colors. Red, yellow and blue is used as primary colors, as all other colors on the wheel derive from mixing one or more of these colors. The color wheel also determines what hues will look better beside each other.

There are a few color rules you can use to seek inspiration from. You can use both the flowers colors and the color schemes in your home, to find the perfect bouquet.

Complementary Colors

On the color wheel, a complementary color consists of two colors opposite each other. An example of commonly seen complementary colors is red and green because of their association with Christmas. If you have a red wall in your home and want to add a more festive look, pick bouquets that have an abundance of green leaves and red flowers that match your wall.

Green is also great to place in any room because the chromophil within those leaves contains a whole range of health benefits, including removing pollutants from the air. If green and red isn’t your style, though, you can choose teal and orange for a bold look or gold and purple if you want to give the impression of luxury and high class.

Monochromatic Colors

In a monochromatic bouquet, choose one color and place one or two darker or lighter colored flowers of the same shade in the vase. Various shades of red and pink are popular on Valentine’s day, but they’ll look great in your home against a white wall. Yellow tulips and carnations will also stand out in an orange or grey color scheme.

Split-Complementary Colors

Split-complementary colors include a trio of one color and the two colors besides its opposite. An example of this would be Fuschia, orange and green or red, teal, and chartreuse. You can either use bold flowers for a striking combination or choose softer hues to overwhelm the rest of your home. If you aren’t careful, you may have too many colors in one room.

If you want to use this scheme, use Fuschia and orange flowers against a green wall or any colors.

Don’t forget that you’ll need to include the flower branches and leaves in this color scheme, which could complicate the arrangement.

Analogous Colors

Analogous color schemes are simple to pull off in a home because they’re colors that are beside each other on the wheel. You can use two, three, or four colors but typically, using two colors works best. For example, if you have a yellow wall, adding chartreuse or gold flowers to a bouquet will blend well with the rest of your home.

Triadic Colors

In a triadic color scheme, choose any three colors that are equally distant on the color wheel: purple, orange, green or blue, red, and yellow.

To use this color scheme properly, pick between primary, secondary, or tertiary colors to make a fantastic and breath-taking bouquet. If you love bright colors that stand out against a muted wall, triadic will work wonders.

If you want to tone down this combo, try adding groups of muted flowers rather than sticking to a bold template only. For example, use a soft purple and green and add a deeper orange as an accident for a jewel-toned arrangement.

Mix and Match

There’s a lot more to matching color with floral design, and now you know how to approach it your next goal is to choose the right interior design software – see our Top 5.