When I design a site, I look at what the overall purpose of the site is - I look at the target market of the site. Here are a few examples:

If I were creating an automotive site for antique cars - car collectors of early 1900 autos, I would choose colors and fonts that were popular back in that time period - such as brown and black.

If my site was for a five star hotel in New York City or Paris, France, I would pick an elegant font for the page names and simple yet classy - easy to read fonts - for the navigation and content etc. The colors would likely be gold and/or red - or black and gold - or navy blue and white etc. Look at other five star hotel sites and see what they are doing and do something similar but without violating any copyrights of their design schemes.

If I were making a website for crafts and hobbies, I might choose the popular colors that you see in craft stores and supplies. Since natural wood is often seen in craft stores before the item is painted, I would use beige colors and natural wood patterns or unpainted wood shapes as part of the design decor of the site.

If the site is for a hospital - use lots of white and pictures of rooms with natural sunlight coming through.

Hope that helps.