Evaluate the colors of your home for a decorating solution that aids you in creating an atmosphere that harmonizes with your personality. A Lesson in Designer Color
The simplest means of visualizing how various hues relate with one another is to study the color wheel. There are three primary colors red, yellow and blue from which all the other colors on the wheel can be combined together by traditional artists.
Technically this may be true; however an artist cannot actually develop a pure purple or green from the primaries as the intensity of mixing colors will never equal the value of its parents.
However, for the purpose of making decisions concerning decorating you only need to know that green comes from blue and yellow and purple is made up of blue and red. This means that because of those relationships these colors will harmonize well with one another.
Reading the Color Wheel
Commonly the color wheel will display the pure hues of colors such as red, blue and green. However, while decorating, you will most likely be using tints which are the lighter values and the tones which are also called shades which are the darker values in colors. For instance, you may not care to use intense green in a room, more than likely you will chose a deep hunter green or a soft sage instead.
The complementary colors of the wheel are those which lie opposite of one another. Each of these will enhance the vivid appearance of the other.
Corresponding colors are those hues that lie next to one another and they always look great together since they share a common hue.
Any three equally spaced colors on the wheel are the triads. These colors offer a resilient and balanced combination. However, using this scheme may seem a bit unsettling unless you allow one color to dominate and make us of the other two colors in lesser amounts or as your accents.
Stirring Emotions
1. You can identify cool and warm hues with the color wheel.
2. One side of the color wheel is stimulatingly warm and advancing.
3. Such descriptions reflect the emotional correspondences such as fire is red and orange and the sun is yellow. However, it is based in physiology. For instance, the human eye cannot focus on the red and purple ends of the color spectrum simultaneously; therefore it recognizes red as advancing or becoming nearer.
4. The other half of the wheel associates with coolness as these colors commonly seem to recede. Therefore, a small room will visually benefit by opening the walls up with a receding cool color of paint such as green, blue or purple.
5. Purple or green may seem to either recede or advance depending upon its context. This is the reason why some interior designers consider that they can compliment any color as they are neutral colors.
Color Tips!
1. Cool color schemes require a bit of warmth to liven things up, therefore a bit of red can perk up a white or blue room.
2. Warm color schemes require a bit of a cool hue in order to appear complete and well balanced. For instance, a green plant displayed in a yellow room.
Color Value
Value relates to the darkness or lightness of any particular color. The value of a hue becomes lighter while using white or darker in value by adding black or umber. For instance, robin’s egg blue and sky blue are light values and cobalt and navy are dark values of blue.
Balance with Accents
Medium and light values compliment each other best, however in order to eliminate boredom of a light value scheme, use accents of darker values. For instance, decorate a room in light blue and yellow and then add a bit of cobalt or navy blue to ground and deepen the scheme.
Color Intensity
The saturation or intensity of any color is another faucet. A pure hue will characterize the most saturated expression or intensity of any color.
Including the complement hue will muddy or gray a color creating a color that is less intense, soft and muted.
Generally, the lower intensity colors create a calm, serene and subtle mood.
More saturated, high intensity colors produce a more dynamic energy of rich elegance, depending upon the particular colors and your furniture style.
Equal Partners
Balance is essential for the success of a color scheme, since strong colors require strong partners in both intensity and value. For instance, navy walls require an equally intense red or yellow in order to balance this color scheme.
Intensities should be kept equal or nearly equal. Saturated red requires the intensity of yellow-green or green as a partner. A low intensity muted red-orange calls for an equally muted yellow-green. Therefore, paring various intensities can create an atmosphere of tranquil balance.
