Family of related colors blend best in a well-coordinated room

While some designers bring a bold palette of contrasting colors into a room, others adhere to a longstanding rule that hues from a color family blend best together.

RealSimple.com recommends picking a color and sticking to its variations. For accent, choose brighter members of the same color family for a major piece of furniture such as a sofa, or bring the brights together in accessories clustered into an arrangement.

A window treatment is an excellent place to continue a color combination in a room. Fabric roller shades come in a variety of colors and patterns that can be coordinated with any décor. They can be paired with drapes in a living room or used alone on a window for a more informal look in a den or family room.

The late designer David Hicks, who counted Prince Charles among his clients, advised taking color combo inspiration from the fashion runway, the movies and high-end department store windows, the website reports.

He was an early advocate of using color families. "There are a set of loose rules, which when applied to color cannot fail," wrote Hicks in his book, David Hicks on Decoration. "All reds go together, all pinks go together, just as all blues, greens, yellows, browns and all grays do."