Using Color
Interior Decorators & Designers;
Home Designing & Planning
This is where the fun begins. Adding color to a room makes it feel warm and cozy or cool and sleek. There are an endless number of colors to choose from and narrowing a selection can often be difficult. Once a prime color is chosen, what other colors complement it best? Gaining a basic understanding of color will provides some much needed guidance to create a balanced and harmonious room.
Color Wheel
A standard color wheel consists of 12 basic colors. Each of these colors is categorized as follows:
Primary Colors: These are colors that cannot be created by mixing any colors together. They are red, yellow and blue.
Secondary Colors: Secondary colors are created by combining two of the primary colors together. Example: Orange – mixture of red and yellow; Green – mixture of yellow and blue.
Tertiary Colors: Tertiary colors are created by combining a secondary color with a primary color. Example: Blue-purple – mixture of purple and blue; Yellow-green – mixture of yellow and green.
Additional colors are created by adding white, black or gray to each of the 12 colors. Depending on the amount added to the basic color, it can dramatically lighten or darken the color. The following terms indicate which color element has been added to create a new color.
Shade: Adds black to the color
Tone: Adds gray to the color
Tint: Adds white to the color
Color Schemes
Using the color wheel as a guide, a variety of color schemes can be developed to create a dramatic or harmonizing effect. Some of the basic color schemes are as follows:
Analogous: Combines colors that are adjacent to each other on the color wheel. This
combination is found often in nature and creates a harmonious feel that is pleasing to the eye. Ideally, one color should dominate and the other color or colors support.
Complementary: Each color has a complementary color that is found on the opposite side of the color wheel. This color scheme uses a combination of these two colors. As the colors are opposites, this scheme is more vibrant and dramatic and can be overwhelming is used in their full strength. Complementary colors can blend more when using a shade, tone or tint of the opposite color.
Triad: Combines three colors evenly distanced from one another on the color wheel. Used
in their full strength, it can produce a vibrant look and even scaled down versions of the color can still be dramatic. To create a more harmonious blend, focus on one lead color and use the others as supporting colors.
Split Complementary: As a softer version of complementary, this scheme employs one prime
base color with the two colors that are on either side of its complementary color. It also creates a vibrant and dramatic look but with a softer feel.
Tetrad: Combines two complementary pairs of colors. Using this combination creates a
rich look by employing both warm and cool colors in the scheme. In order to balance the look, let one single color dominate and the remaining colors support.
Square: Similar to the triad, this scheme combines four colors that are evenly distanced from one another. The combination should be used similarly to the tetrad by combining variations of these warm and cool colors while having one single color lead.
Employing Color
Once a color scheme is chosen, how each color is used in the room dramatically changes the look. The amount of color and the intensity of the hue alter the appearance of the space.
Enlarge a Room: Use a light hue to make the room seem bigger than it really is. Painting the ceiling white makes it appear taller than its actual height.
Shrink a Room: Larger spaces are closed in using darker hues. Continuing that color or a darker color on the ceiling makes it feel lower as well.
Create Warmth: Reds, oranges, and yellows create a feeling of warmth to a room as they are associated with heat. Evoking a resemblance to fire and sunshine, these colors make rooms feel inviting.
Cool Down: Blues, purples and greens create a feeling of cool as they are most associated with oceans and meadows. Drawing from a resemblance to nature, these colors evoke a feeling of relaxation and tranquility.
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