How to pick paints that make good neighbors

Maria Bortugno calls it "the patchwork quilt effect."

It happens with homeowners who fall in love with a color but have a wandering eye when it comes to the other rooms in the house.

You know you've found the patchwork effect, says Bortugno, owner of B Designs in Latham, N.Y., when you stand outside the house and there's a different color of blind in every window.

"You want harmony in your home," she says. "[But] I don't want to tell people just paint their house white, because that's really not a solution. That's just fear. It doesn't need to be boring, but it does need to be harmonious."

So how do you use color from room to room without your house looking like your 3-year-old's latest art project?

Find something that you love and then work from there.

If you have a favorite upholstered chair, set of china, rug or painting, the colors that are within that likely work well together or the piece wouldn't have been created that way, says Nancy Smith, owner of Saratoga Signature Interiors in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.

An open floor plan gives homeowners a great opportunity to then use that inspirational painting or rug in a central location, tying all the rooms together.

Having upholstered furniture that coordinates with everything else in the house also allows those pieces to be moved from room to room, giving a homeowner a chance to mix things up.

For homeowners who don't know where to start with color, Bortugno suggests they look inside their closets. Most people wear their favorite palette without even realizing it, she says. And often, there's some built-in color coordination.

Tying the colors together from room to room, however, is sometimes the trickiest part. Bortugno suggests using a bold color in one room and then employing neutrals on the neighboring walls. Smith says an accent color in one room can be used as the dominant color in the next room, providing continuity.