49 gorgeous website color schemes and how to use them

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There are many ways to choose how to make a website that stands out online—among them is choosing a unique color scheme. Whether you’re designing and starting a blog, online store, personal website or more; your website’s palette is one of the first things visitors will notice, and it will make a lasting impression.

With a rainbow of options out there, how do you determine the perfect hues for your own web design? When planning the primary (“dominant”), secondary and accent colors for your site, consider:

To identify the right mixture of hues, you can get the help of a color palette generator or color picker. You can also take a look at the color wheel, the RGB color model and the commonly used web colors or explore the Pantone color of the year. We also recommend browsing live websites for inspiration to see how they put color combinations into play within and throughout their page layouts. In this article, we’ll discuss the designs of 49 Wix users (hand-picked by yours truly) whose website color schemes make a powerful visual impact.

Designers Boot Camp organizes traveling residencies for professionals within their industries. An explosion of color sets the mood for potential participants upon entering their website. The bold brown contrast with daring yellow, pink and green elements, evokes a playful vibe that’s sure to get visitors’ creative juices flowing.

Interior designer Veronica Solomon has created a strong brand identity using a luxurious website color scheme. A black, gray and gold palette is combined with sensational pink to represent Solomon’s chic approach to design. Merged with images of past projects, Solomon’s website color palette sheds light on her passion and distinct style.

As a nutrition and lifestyle counseling service, Somni places a special focus on clients working night shifts. Somni’s dark website embodies this unique niche, using deep hues of black and grey to set a calming tone. Navy blue, camel brown and other night shades are infused into the aesthetic, resulting in an interesting website color scheme and a well-rounded composition.

A dreamy website background sets the stage for Buzz Shirts’ website color scheme, inspiring a spectrum of hues extracted from the sunset image. The visual is not too distracting—especially when paired with black elements and a prominent gallery, which help the most relevant info and calls-to-action stick out.

Using a gradient background on your website background when making your site can set the tone for a color palette with a wide range. In the case of Foodie Marketing, a burst of pink and orange hues inspire a cool contrast of teal, blue and lime green. The white logo, text and buttons add a professional touch to the site’s vibrant mood.

Designer and illustrator Ivy Chen has formed an unusual combination of bright red and pale pink. Chen’s online portfolio includes the perfect dosage of each hue—employing the lighter as the site’s primary color and red as an accent using thin lines and small type. White margins frame each page, pulling the design’s color scheme together.

Miko Design uses soft shades of color with plenty of white space on her website’s homepage. A grid layout is used to situate blocks of color, imagery and text, harnessing the delicate shades of pink and green amongst more natural hues for an uplifting vibe.

Audrea Wah’s design portfolio jumps out from the crowd, thanks to the electric statement of her site’s fluorescent color scheme. When set against a black background, the neon green, blue and pink hues have an engaging effect.

Designer and art director Brooke Cavallero sets a captivating mood on her portfolio website, choosing a color scheme of rich greens and enchanting pink hues. The website's unique serif typography stands out, but only compliments the attractive photos in her gallery of work.

Dennis Krawec’s portfolio website proves how seemingly “clashing” colors can work together to result in an attractive design. He’s gone for retro shades of pink, paired with neon aqua, yellow, green, and orange. This daring combination works well thanks to a consistent and carefully arranged website layout.

Gradients are definitely in vogue, and Defne Kaynak has mastered this web design trend on her site. Sleek dark tones melt behind white elements and bright shades of blue, yellow and green, resulting in a vibrant look. For websites with dark backgrounds, contrasting bright colors can be used to add balance and make certain elements stand out.

Roshini Kumar’s website color scheme says “more is more,” and is as fearless as her personal mission. The artist, influencer and activist’s site is alive with bright shades of pink, blue, yellow—and the occasional green. Kumar’s daring palette works, thanks to the consistency throughout her site’s striking text, images and 90s inspired patterns.

Ceramics studio Noni São Paulo’s color palette perfectly reflects their brand and products. The online store’s warm shades of brown and other earthy tones match the studio’s beautifully designed mugs. A light blue background compliments the natural shades, paired with parallax scrolling effects to ensure the website looks professional and high-end.

Designer Sarah Stern uses a dynamic yellow foundation and tone for her website color scheme. Paired with equally striking black and white elements, along with Stern’s gallery of work, the online portfolio has a sharp aesthetic. In general, going for black, white, plus one striking color is a good option if you want to keep things professional, but interesting.

The golden shades on Jen Pierce’s photography website conjures a sense of class and elegance. Pierce’s photo gallery naturally gives her site a golden foundation and tint. When combined with elements of white and brown tones, it results in a delicate and subtle color scheme.

Scottish coffee wholesalers, Unorthodox Roasters, stick to a contemporary website color scheme that’s in line with their branding. They’ve created an engaging contrast using natural hues from their background image, paired with the lively magenta of their logo and favicon, and navigation details in strategic black and gray.

Food blogger Dan Pelosi opts for a striking—and clean—cobalt blue with white color scheme. The clean contrast helps his website details stand out, ensuring a legible and accessible website design. By adding bright red into the mix as an engaging hover and accent color, Pelosi invites us to dive into his blog and favorite home recipes.

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To create visual harmony and invoke the concept of colorfulness, within visual designer Linda Zhou’s colorful world, her website sticks with two colors—pastel purple and deep green—for the site’s main elements. Zhou proves pastels can compliment a bright color scheme to ensure the site doesn’t appear too busy.

Matched with the natural setting of her background video, the organic hues used in nutritional consultant Mikaela Ruben’s site make a truly refreshing color palette. Minimal use of black keeps the atmosphere wholesome and welcoming, perfectly reflecting Ruben’s professional reputation for making healthy food delicious (and vice versa).

Designer Ilaria Bonardi’s website incorporates minimal amounts of color for maximum effect. The top fold of her online jewelry shop is navy blue and white, set against her colorful product photography, which guarantees her designs stand out. She’s merged a cool shade of blue with a warm orange—two complementary colors that work especially well together.

Neighborhood Provisions' poignant color scheme instantly creates a cozy, autumnal atmosphere for this food delivery service website. Fall shades of orange, brown and beige hold the visitors’ attention, resulting in a pleasant browsing experience when seeking their favorite meals and products.

IAMEVE has crafted a striking color scheme for her music website. The range of purple hues used throughout the site express luxury and mystery, perfectly representing the musician's hypnotic sounds. When merged with a dramatic full-screen gradient and sparkly imagery, the entire composition creates a mystical effect.

From its logo to the navigation menu and Wix chat box, online grocery store Verde Market has gone for a cool palette with various shades of green and blue. The effect of this website color scheme is highly professional, and can easily fuse with a few extra hues (such as Verde’s orange color) to make the site more dynamic

Catering company Clever Chefs implement bold, cheerful colors, succeeding in a fun vibe - invoking happiness - while maintaining a professional look. The vast empty spaces, black text and crisp shapes help keep the vibrant website design balanced, readable and easy to navigate.

Ceramic artist Valeria Monis’ works are all made of just two colors - royal blue and white. She’s designed her whole website accordingly, going for a clean white background and dark blue text. If you go for such a minimal color palette, you can always subtly add a third shade to soften up the aesthetic. In this case, Valeria has included a pale blue background that is barely visible, but helps add variation.

Illustrator Jennifer Xiao’s portfolio features a stimulating color palette and charming details. She uses a wide range of delectable colors—merging baby pink with yellow, red, purple, turquoise and other shades. The playful look is balanced with thin black lines and a generous portion of white space.

Artist Ellen Von Wegand has gone for a classic color combination, using a cloudy shade of light gray to outline her own gallery of peaceful hues. A white background breaks up the website’s hushed blues and natural greens, providing contrast for these understated elements.

From the first look at Bhroovi Gupta’s website color scheme, it’s clear she’s full of creativity—and has a knack for good design. The bright gradients and imagery evoke an upbeat spirit, setting an intriguing mood as we scroll further down her portfolio website.

Instead of a typical monochrome palette, consider adding a surprising display of color, like graphic designer Stephen Bradbury. He’s gone for a sleek foundation of black and white, with a striking splash of carrot orange revealed using discreet animations.

Designer Tracy Turco certainly has an eye for color. Instead of a solid website background, she’s used a bright pattern with summertime hues that compliment her unique work. This color palette is 100% retro, with shades of red, pink, orange and yellow. The range of colors work together for a fun, energetic approach.

Black backgrounds can make a big statement in website design—and multidisciplinary designer Tiffany Cruz has got it just right. The dark backdrop makes her edgy portfolio pop out, bringing the visitors’ focus to the main event.

If you want to keep your design simple and aesthetic, you can always go for the stark black and, white, plus one color. In this example, Modern Bakery creates a unique website with just a few hues. The minimal palette of muted yellow hues with contrasting black compliment the bagel shop’s appetizing visuals.

Digital design studio Extraweg by Oliver Latta combines their website’s monochromatic spectrum of pink with a metallic touch, resulting in a surrealistic aesthetic. If you go for the monochrome look, applying various tones and textures is a good practice to achieve visual hierarchy and depth.

While the action-filled visuals on trainer Donna Gavriel’s fitness website showcase a wide range of classes and activities, the core color palette stays cohesive. Largely made up of hot pink and royal blue, these youthful shades stand out against the background and compliment the gallery of images.

Art director Mariela Mezquita has a website color scheme with a distinctly modern influence. She’s chosen a unique palette of pastels and bright tones, combined with a chromatic mixture of abstract shapes. The result is innovative and playful, while still feeling professional thanks to the grounding black and white text.

Creative agency By Experience uses a refreshing sea of blue tones in their website color palette. An energetic blue background matches perfectly with the site’s light blue imagery and white text, resulting in an efficient and unified aesthetic.

When it comes to food, color plays a key role. Chef Jean-François Bury experiments with a black and white contrast, along with the temptingly fresh colors in his food photography. The bright colors set against the dark background really jump out, making the mise-en-place seem almost grabbable.

CBD edible company OK Drugs implement a warm, soft color theme for their website. The different colors have a similar level of tonality, making them work well together. For contrast, they’ve added black text and a pale website header, which stand out from the warm orange background and colorful imagery.

The deep tones in film director Moe Najati’s website conjure a romantic atmosphere. A mosaic of film stills sets the stage for visitors, reminiscent of a dark movie theatre setting where visitors play the role of the muse. Large white text adds contrast to the mystic color scheme in order to make Najati’s site readable and watchable.

A neutral background brings images of Bubble Wrap’s sweet creations to the forefront. To further spark our attention, the restaurant website is paired with a spectrum of red accent colors for contrast and depth. Whether intentional or not, red is said to increase the appetite, and is often a popular color choice for restaurant interiors.

Multidisciplinary design director Liron Ashkenazi pairs her vibrant works with an equally eclectic color scheme on her portfolio website. The site’s aesthetic is influenced by the presence of indigo and earthly tones throughout her work. Black, white and grey elements give the site balance, fostering an intriguing browsing experience for visitors.

The bold choice of pink, red and pink on Magic John’s pizza delivery website orange immediately evokes positive vibes, especially when paired with cool textures and animation. In addition to this very lively color scheme, they’ve opted for a secondary color of cobalt blue, as opposed to black, to keep the tone friendly and approachable.

Using a sea inspired color palette on their website design, Manalulu’s precise color scheme is made up of layers of refreshing blues and comforting greens. Vibrant photos of their products paired with ocean waves and plant life imagery stand out strongly against the soft gradient background—and make a strong case for their sustainable products.

HEReroines Inc. is a non-profit organization whose mission is to empower women. Their website’s hues reflect this—providing a sweep of resilient feminine shades. The no-holds-bar approach to color is effective in creating a distinct design that sets a positive tone for the organization and triggers feelings of empathy too.

This minimalistic photography portfolio by Hillary K. has just the right amount of each hue from her website’s elegant color palette. The general tone is light—with pale rose, grays and browns. Vast use of white space also adds an original touch to Hillary’s website layout, allowing enough space to highlight both the color and black and white photos.

While primary colors may seem basic, there’s a lot you can play around with to create an elegant design. Graphic designer Tata Resko has done just that, opting for retro tones of bold red, yellow and green paired with black. The overall aesthetic is chique, while maintaining a touch of playfulness.

The unusual palette chosen by Extra and Ordinary design studio makes their site stand out. Presenting a one-of-a-kind collection of work, the unique color scheme merges with intriguing products, providing a strong sense of creativity. It’s clear that every detail has been purposefully placed in this tasteful design.

Interior design studio Aurelia Petitet has implemented a subtle approach to color. An earthy green background is balanced with coral pink accents that repeat throughout the site’s menu, buttons and other small details. The image gallery, which highlights materials such as wood, adds a tactile quality to the site.

Designer and artist David Milan uses a minimalistic color scheme. Playing around with light and shadow, he creates a palette of a wide range of grays, from dark to light. To shake it up, the site’s details are paired with a bright, lemon yellow that adds a pop of color to the predominantly grayscale theme.