Easter Color Palettes for Handmade Decorations

Choosing an Easter color palette before you cut or paint anything is the quickest way to make handmade pieces look as if they belong together. A garland, a bowl of eggs and a wreath made on three different days will still read as one scheme if they share the same few colors.

The five palettes below all work with common craft paints, cardstock and felt. Each comes with a note on where it suits best, followed by a simple rule for limiting colors and a way to test a scheme before you commit to it.

The rule of three colors plus a neutral

Most rooms look calm with three colors and one neutral. More than that and handmade decor starts to look like leftovers from several projects.

• The main color covers about half of what you make.
• The second color covers about a third.
• The accent appears in small touches: a ribbon, one egg in a bowl, the center of a flower.
• The neutral (white, cream, natural wood, twine or linen) fills the gaps and gives the eye a rest.

The proportions do not need to be exact. What matters is that the colors are not used in equal amounts, because an even split tends to look busy.

Five palettes that work

1. Soft pastel

Blush pink, butter yellow and sky blue with white. This is the classic spring scheme. To keep it grown-up, choose pastels that are slightly dusty rather than candy bright, and let white do a lot of the work. It suits paper garlands and eggs in a white bowl.

2. Sage and cream

Sage green, cream and a small amount of blush, with natural wood as the neutral. Quiet and easy to live with, this palette sits comfortably beside houseplants, linen and wooden furniture. It is a strong choice for wreaths, because real or faux greenery already matches.

3. Blush and terracotta

Blush pink, terracotta and a warm peach, with cream. Warmer and earthier than pastels, it works well in rooms with brick, clay pots or warm wood floors. Terracotta is strong, so use it as the second color or the accent rather than the main one.

4. Blue and white

Mid blue, pale blue and white, with a touch of soft gray. This scheme borrows from painted china and looks crisp on a table. Fine brush patterns show up clearly in blue on white, which makes it a natural fit for painted wooden Easter eggs.

5. Yellow and gray

Butter yellow, soft gray and white, with a darker charcoal used sparingly. Gray calms the yellow and gives the scheme a modern feel. It suits simple shapes: plain eggs, bold bunny silhouettes and striped ribbon.

Palette	Main color	Accent	Neutral
Soft pastel	Blush pink	Sky blue	White
Sage and cream	Sage green	Blush	Natural wood
Blush and terracotta	Blush pink	Terracotta	Cream
Blue and white	Mid blue	Soft gray	White
Yellow and gray	Butter yellow	Charcoal	White

Using the color wheel to find pairs

If none of the five suits your room, a color wheel will help you build your own. Two relationships are the most useful for decorating.

• Neighbors: colors that sit side by side on the wheel, such as yellow, yellow-green and green. They blend quietly and rarely clash.
• Opposites: colors that face each other, such as blue and orange or pink-red and green. They make each other look brighter, so one should be used in a much smaller amount than the other.

For spring decor, soften whichever colors you pick. Mixing a little white into a craft paint turns it into a pastel, and a tiny amount of its opposite color dulls it slightly. Blush and sage are simply softened versions of red and green, which is why they sit so well together.

Start from what the room already has

Your walls, sofa and rug are part of the palette whether you plan for them or not. Look at the largest surfaces first and choose a scheme that includes one of those colors, or at least does not fight it. A gray sofa already supplies the neutral for yellow and gray. Warm wood shelves suit sage and cream or blush and terracotta.

The same thinking applies to the table. If your plates and linens are fixed, build the palette around them; the guide to Easter table decor ideas shows how to carry a scheme from the centerpiece to each place setting.

Test before you commit

1. Paint a swatch of each color on white paper, roughly 2 in (5 cm) square, or cut squares from your cardstock and felt.
2. Let the paint dry fully; many craft paints dry a shade darker. Drying takes roughly 20 to 30 minutes, but check the label.
3. Lay the swatches side by side in the proportions you plan to use: large, medium, small.
4. Carry them to the spot where the decorations will go and look at them in daylight and again in the evening.
5. If one color jumps out, swap it for a softer version or demote it to the accent.

Carrying the palette through the house

Once a palette is settled, write the colors down or keep the swatches in your supply box. Use them for everything made this season, including small things that are easy to forget, such as ribbon, tags and paper. Even wrapped presents can follow the scheme; see the Easter gift wrapping ideas for ways to use the same colors on baskets and parcels.