Perfecting the Perfect Website Color Palette

Perfecting the perfect website color palette will give your visitors the right impression and vibe about you. via TheEssentialWebsite.com

“Color is a power which directly influences the soul.” ~ Wassily Kandinsky

When you’re building your new website, choosing the perfect color combination is one of the big-dog processes of the visual design (just like choosing the fonts and images), and getting it right is essential. Good news is, it’s one of the fun aspects of a new website design, too!

Is your website’s color scheme producing the response you intended?

Plan your website's color palette via TheEssentiaWebsite.comYour web color palette should work together to evoke a feeling, inspire, and enhance your user’s experience.

When planned carefully – with your visitor and brand message in mind, of course – good the perfect color choices will evoke trust, portray professionalism, ensure readability and increase visitor engagement. Perfecto!

Though, making the right color choices to convey the perfect culture, instinct, mood (+ more) for your business takes a bit of brain psychology.

“Colors must fit together as pieces in a puzzle or cogs in a wheel.” – Hans Hofmann

Choosing your website colors is more than sticking with what YOU like personally but rather by ringing true to your brand culture and digging into what resonates with your dream client.

Whether we realize it or not, color does have meaning, and when we visit someone’s website, their website colors do spark feelings in our brain.
Plan your website's color palette via TheEssentiaWebsite.com

  • Reds: Energy, power, courage, love and desire
  • Oranges: Creativity, wisdom, action, joy and health
  • Blues: Trustworthiness, truth, wisdom, loyalty, integrity, healing, tranquility and understanding
  • Greens: Growth, harmony, freshness, healing, safety, nature, wealth and peace
  • Yellows: Joy, happiness, intellect and energy
  • Pinks & Purples: Love, friendship, royalty, luxury, creativity, beauty and excellence
  • Beige, Browns, Tans: Comfort, friendliness, dependability, nature, productivity and strength
  • Whites: Purity, clean, light, perfection and goodness
  • Blacks, Greys, Silvers: Elegance, power, style, high quality, classic and dramatic
Colors on a website aren't just woo-woo...they send your brain messages. Click To Tweet
Where do you start?

If you have specific colors for your brand, start there. These are the colors you want to use on your website. Of course, there are exceptions, like…if you have way too many colors, those colors won’t look good or are too loud, too stark, etc., or if you’re in the process of updating your brand – in which case, always do that first. Once your brand design is complete, your web designer will use your new color scheme to create the perfect vibe for your online home.

Our favorite color tools:

When you need a little inspiration for the perfect palette, try these:

When you’re planning your new website be sure to choose the perfect colors to reflect your brand and connect to your visitors in a positive way.

We love color tools, so if you’ve found other places for pretty palettes, please share! 🙂

In need of a brand makeover sweetie? We can help.

About Janet

Hi there! I’m Janet Hoover, designer, code techie, dog lover and co-founder of The Essential Website. Our big thing is helping people bring their online visions to life more beautifully, polished and smarter! We create custom-crafted, hand-coded WordPress websites for biz-builders, action-takers and dreamers who are ready to GROW and shine online! We’re here to help you stop dreaming and start doing with the perfect online solution for your one-of-a-kind biz.

29 Comments

  1. Valerie on December 29, 2016 at 9:01 am

    Oh how I love the color wheel. According to this chart yes I created the right vibe on my site.

    • Stefani on December 29, 2016 at 9:04 am

      Yay! And your colors are quite beautiful, if we may say so! 🙂

  2. mounika talluri on December 29, 2016 at 10:23 am

    I am gonna try these color tools. Thanks for sharing 🙂

    • Janet on December 29, 2016 at 10:43 am

      Have fun with it Mounika!

  3. carolina santamaria on December 29, 2016 at 11:53 am

    Love this post! I use dusty pink, white, black and grey. The pink is not so much for “girly” themed content but for creativity as mention on this post 😀

    • Janet on December 29, 2016 at 12:39 pm

      That sounds like a great color combo and exactly hitting the creativity vibe!

  4. Kate Doster on December 29, 2016 at 12:57 pm

    Lovely article Janet. Like most design-challenged soloprenurs when picking out my brand & website colors I just picked colors that I like the best dark turquoise and melon.
    However, I’m glad that they ended up capturing vibe I wanted to get off – a mix of trustworthiness, integrity, creative and action.

    I used color.adobe.com to get the actual color palette and hex codes.

    • Janet on December 29, 2016 at 1:12 pm

      Sounds like you nailed it and color.adobe.com is a great tool! Thanks Kate!

  5. Sheri on December 29, 2016 at 3:24 pm

    This is a great source of information and I have gone back and forth so many times about the colours I want and now I am sticking to what I have. I love posts like this that help newbies especially.

    • Janet on December 29, 2016 at 3:38 pm

      Thanks Sheri!

    • Stefani on December 29, 2016 at 3:51 pm

      Aww, thank you, Sheri! We’re so glad it was helpful!

  6. Amber Myers on December 29, 2016 at 3:42 pm

    Awesome, I will keep this in mind! I plan on updating my website look. Thank you for the helpful information.

    • Stefani on December 29, 2016 at 3:52 pm

      You are very welcome, Amber :).

  7. Rose on December 29, 2016 at 4:56 pm

    Thank you for the tip! I know that I hadn’t paid much attention to the colors on other blogs nor did I skip reading a blog based on color. I do however hate some fonts. I will skip over a blog based on fonts.

    • Stefani on December 29, 2016 at 5:40 pm

      Ha – we totally hear you on that! 🙂 You’re very welcome for the tip!

  8. Isaly Holland on December 29, 2016 at 9:53 pm

    I use different oranges and sometimes greens. I love how you broke down what the colors mean (:
    xoxo

    • Stefani on December 30, 2016 at 7:50 am

      So glad you liked it! Oooh, oranges and greens are fun!!

  9. Patricia at Grab a Plate on December 29, 2016 at 10:27 pm

    Thanks for the resources! Your post came at a great time for me — my husband is having a site designed for his business – so much good info about colors! Love this – thanks!

    • Stefani on December 30, 2016 at 7:49 am

      So glad it was helpful! Great timing indeed!

  10. Swaps - Online architect and interior designers on December 29, 2016 at 11:03 pm

    Grt post… I have been thinking about it..
    I would like to use it to show to my clients…
    Thx love..

  11. Ellie on December 30, 2016 at 9:21 am

    I just switched from Blogger to WordPress.com and I miss my old Pipdig template, it was black and white and so clean and elegant looking but I’m going to switch up to WordPress.org so that I can get another gorgeous template. It really does make a huge difference to your blog look and how people view your site/ how much interaction/ engagement you receive.

    • Stefani on December 30, 2016 at 9:43 am

      Congrats on making the switch! And yay for switching to .org in the future. It’s definitely the way to go if you want to add more functionality and have more flexibility! 🙂

  12. Blair Villanueva on December 30, 2016 at 10:53 am

    Oh I guess I hit the color palette that my blog signifies 🙂 Now it looks simple and easy to read 🙂

    • Janet on December 30, 2016 at 10:55 am

      That’s great! Clear and easy to read is the goal! Perfecto! 🙂

  13. Roxy on December 30, 2016 at 11:16 am

    This is really cool. While my website is still pretty young, I’ve thought about re-branding and colors are so important when designing a site!

    • Janet on December 30, 2016 at 11:25 am

      Oh we can relate Roxy lol! The cool thing though is that as our business evolves, our brands do too. So it’s ok to change! Before you do, give your new brand a little time to grow – feel it out, get feedback, etc. But…you know best, what’s really you…what your followers/clients a drawn to, etc. Love your logo and tag line! Best wishes!

  14. Divya @ Eat Teach Blog on December 30, 2016 at 11:32 am

    Colors make all the difference. I find that when I come across a website that has harsh, bright, neon colors, I’m more likely to close out of the window faster than when it’s easy on the eyes!

    • Janet on January 8, 2017 at 3:30 pm

      Us too! Thanks for reading Divya!

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