The biggest difference between a house and a home lies in the livability of the house. The livability is most often determined by the colors within it, the items and furnishings placed in it, and the ultimate combination of both. Some people refer to this combination as the ambiance of the home, while others prefer the term "mood".
If you plan to live in your home for a very long time, creating a certain mood within the home is very important. The first thing you need to do is look at the overall lay-out, the overall "shape", of the house to determine which color or colors would fit well. If you want the overall mood of your home to be cozy, than you should consider the darker of the earth tones for the coloring. This is especially helpful also if you have large rooms, as darker colors tend to make the space that it is covering seem smaller. Choose furnishings that will blend well with that color scheme, such as wood or rattan, and place them in such as a way so as to invite closeness for the people in the house. That is not to say you want to bunch them together, but you will not want a lot of open spaces either.
You should also look at your own personality and pick out a color scheme that matches. If people describe you as an extrovert, then bright, active colors would suit you and your home very well. People like this seem to instinctively choose homes with open floor plans because they are after all open people. For the main areas of your home you do not want to be that "loud" with the colors of course, so you might do well with off shades of the primary colors. With smaller spaces such as hallways, closets, and bathrooms you should be able to get away with pastels. The furnishings here should be more modern in nature and more spaced out so as to be inviting to more people. The colors and furnishings alike should be comfortable for people.
Homeowners that work a lot and do not spend much time in their home find it a bit harder to pinpoint exactly what type of mood they want their house to reflect. If you want to construe that indecision as a mood then sparse, or even particle, might be the best way to sum that up. Physically, the homeowner is not there a lot and when he or she is, they only do what they need to do. Taking that kind of "mood" into consideration, the best colors here would be non-colors or neutral colors. The furnishings should reflect that they are there to do a job so they should remain practical. Modern-stylish furniture does well for this purpose as does track lighting. The people for whom this is the best way to go now will more than likely change their lifestyle in a few years, so this arrangement serves a dual purpose. It fits their lifestyle at the moment, but s it is very easy to change at a later date.