Rule 3: Hone Hues

The character of light coming through your windows - warm or cool, green or gray, abundant or limited - will affect the way your eye perceives color and determine how intense your palette should be.

Much is determined by geography. Clarke finds that light in California (particularly at the beach) is cleaner and greener than light in New York City, for example, simply because there is less smog and because light reflects off the ocean, the blue sky, and abundant greenery. "The light in New York reflects off hard, gray surfaces. It is very different," he says. "You have to be careful that the colors don't get too bright, because gray light can make them brighter." His suggestion for gray-light homes: muddy, dark colors that will look rich and saturated. As an example of the contrast, Clarke points to the watermelon red in this beach house versus the cranberry reds he typically uses in New York. "The L.A. red doesn't need to be as complex," he says.

Ad for the Midwest? Consider the extreme contrasts in light as the weather changes. You have to play it somewhere in the between seasons, Clarke says (and he's a Kansas native, so he knows). Try lots of paint samples on the walls, observe them at different times of day, and choose what looks best to you. "Don't get too chilly and gray, because in the winter you won't want to feel like that," Clarke cautions.

The size of your windows and the view also affect the way the colors interact. The Malibu living room and master bedroom have enormous openings that face the ocean, bringing expanses of turquoise to the scheme. Colors there "need to be fresh and clean, but bright colors would be hard to live in," Clarke says. He chose a pinky-red color for the living room to play against the blue of the ocean.

The master bedroom teaches yet another lesson in light: White can work with pale colors. More sky is visible in this upper-level space, and the light sky is paler. "The subtlety of all the layers of pale colors would be noticed here, but downstairs it would all look white," Clarke says. "White is an amazing thing. It's not necessarily what the color is on its own, it's the way it looks next to another color. I also intended that the room look like it was washed out by years of salt and sand," Clarke explains - which, after all, takes us back to the easygoing vibe this beach house longed for in the first place.