Palette builder

Each color with its role, its source, the surfaces it lands on and the rooms where it repeats, with a schematic view of the proportions.

Palette: colors, roles and surfaces

Use your own words in the label column ("the warm white," "sofa green"); paint names and codes belong in the reference column, and only once a candidate exists (Module 8). The "approximate screen swatch" is optional and exists so the printed sheet has a visual reminder beside the word; it is not the color. Status: confirmed means fixed, or seen in the room and chosen (a real sample beside the main things it lives with, looked at once in daylight and once at the hours the room is mostly used, with a line noted, is enough for most decisions); provisional means assigned but not yet seen in the room; unresolved means a question is open (which of two directions, whether a bridge is needed, whether the household agrees).

Distribution preview

Drawn from the rows above: every row with a role of dominant, secondary, accent or anchor is given a share by its size class (large counts six, medium three, small one, multiplied by the number of surfaces named in its surfaces column) and placed in a schematic room by role. A row without a valid hex swatch is drawn as a neutral gray placeholder (#9a9a9a) labelled "(no swatch)" so it still takes its share. It updates as you type. It is approximate and it only shows proportion by size class; it does not show your room, your light, or what any paint will look like.

Palette reasoning

Six short answers that explain the palette to anyone who reads the workbook later, including you. Module 5 names the directions; Module 6 asks how the palette serves your brief; Module 7 asks what, if anything, you want to carry from room to room.

How to use this sheet

• Anchors first. Enter every fixed material and every kept belonging that will shape the room as its own row, source "fixed material" or "kept belonging," role "anchor" (or "undecided" for a belonging whose role is not yet clear), status confirmed. The rest of the palette is chosen against these rows, so they go in before anything is chosen.
• One role per row; the roles are a checklist, not a quota. A palette often has one dominant, one secondary, one or two accents, a trim, sometimes a ceiling that differs from the trim, and a bridge where two fixed materials argue. A room can do without some of these or double one on purpose. If a role is empty or doubled, say in the notes whether that is deliberate; when a room feels off and you cannot say why, an empty or doubled role is one place to look.
• Surfaces and size shape the result as much as the swatch does. Write every surface a color lands on, separated by commas, and choose the size class of the largest of them. The preview's shares come from this column, which is the point: the same color on a wall and on a cushion are two different decisions.
• Repeated or single, on purpose. If a row's surfaces column names only one surface, the color appears once. That can be the deliberate point of the room (one painting, one red chair) or an accident; say which in the notes. Repeating a color at a second size is a useful experiment when a room feels scattered (Module 6), not a requirement.
• Tick "repeats across rooms" honestly. Tick the colors you actually plan to carry between rooms that see each other (often the trim, the floor's wood tone and one accent, though your plan may differ); the rooms tool records where each one appears.
• The reference column is the record. For a paint candidate: brand, name and code, product and sheen, copied from the chip or can, once Module 8 has produced a shortlist. For a textile or object: what it is and where it is from. The hex swatch beside it is a reminder for the print-out, never the specification.
• Promote, do not overwrite. When a provisional row is seen in the room and chosen, change its status; when it is rejected, keep the row, change the status to unresolved and write why in the notes. The rejected rows are your reasoning.