Choosing the colour scheme for an entire house is a daunting task for most people. I once had a “design 911” call from a woman while the painter was on the ladder with half the room painted. Her predicament; she liked the colour in a friend’s house but hated it in her own.

Without going into the whole history of colour, there is a simple starting off point when looking at painting a whole house. It's what we refer to as the “public colour”. This is the colour that remains the same throughout the hallways of the house, as well as in any room where there is no natural break from the hallways. It is the colour with which all of the others must work, and that will set the tone palate for the house.

Colours, generally speaking, can be separated into warm ones - such as red, orange, yellow, beige and brown - or cool ones - such as blue and violet. (Green can be either, depending on whether it's influenced by yellow or blue.) If your public colour is a warm one, you want the room colours to co-ordinate with that.

It doesn't matter if the colours of the individual rooms co-ordinate with one another, provided they work with the public colour. For instance, we worked on a house that was serving double duty as a live/work space. The main floor was a living space and the second floor was used as offices for a television production company. The owner wanted the production areas to have very vibrant colours conducive to the kind of work he was trying to do there, while the main floor was to have the elegance of an older Annex house.

As a public colour we chose Benjamin Moore's HC 18 - a warm colour similar to coffee with lots and lots of cream. It worked well with the living room colour, Farrow and Ball's Indian yellow - a warm, golden yellow. In the editing room on the second floor, we used Benjamin Moore's 2157-10, which is an electric orange. It, too, worked well with the HC 18. If the Indian yellow had sat side by side with the electric orange, it would have looked like the inside of a food processor after you had made that special curry dip.

There is no real science to choosing a public colour, but start noticing the spaces that you like - are they painted in warm tones or cool tones? (We are attracted to colours for unknown reasons, just as we are to people.) Once you have a feel for that, go to a paint store and look at similar colours. It is worth the little money it costs to get a “large chip” and carry it through out the main hallways of the house.

Colour is greatly affected by light and each of those spaces will have a different light quality. Because you like the colour in someone else’s space doesn’t guarantee that you will like it in yours. Another great tip for looking at colour chips is to hold them on the same plane as the plane you are painting, (i.e. wall colours are held vertical and ceilings and floors horizontal). The way the light hits those surfaces will also change your perception of colour.

Once you have chosen the public colour, you need to make a decision about sheen level. Sheen refers to the amount of light that is reflected off the wall. Usually, these are described as matte, egg shell, medium gloss and high gloss (every company uses slightly different terms).

Matte tends to hide the most sins in older homes - uneven walls and plaster - but it is the least amenable to cleaning. It may work fine in adult-only homes. But for families, where walls are likely to be touched often or used as a place to experiment with those new crayons, eggshell is a better finish.

The ceiling and trim should also be thought of as public colour. Keep them the same throughout - it will give the feeling of flow from room to room. I don’t recommend using a real white as it contains a blue tinge and hence will give all of the rooms a cold hue. Try something with a slightly creamy tone which will still seem white in contrast to the other colours.

Always choose a matte finish for the ceilings. As for trim, choose a colour a few shades darker than the ceiling - definitely use an eggshell finish here. Be brave with colour. It's only paint and can easily be redone if you really don't like it - miles away from changing jobs or choosing a spouse!

With a bit of time spent on the process of selection, you can avoid a “design 911” call. Instead you will be calling friends and speaking about how happy you are with the house and joking about how you can “freshen up your spouse”!

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