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 Colors, Texture, & Materials

Choosing the perfect color for your home is a very big challenge for most individuals. The issue can get even more complicated when all opinions from family members come into play. To help simplify the problem and to achieve a look, feel, and style for your home that is a reflection of your own personality, it is best to have a basic understanding of color and its effects.

The color wheel provides an excellent starting point to understand how colors work and interact. Basic knowledge of the wheel will help you pick complimentary colors to create an appealing color scheme for your home. As a result of this knowledge, you will also be able to avoid pairing colors that do not work well together.

The three primary colors, red, yellow, and blue, are the basic colors of the color wheel. Through the combination of equal parts of the primary colors, the secondary colors, green, orange, and violet, are created. Lastly, the tertiary colors, the colors situated between the primary and secondary colors on the wheel, are made by blending greater parts of one primary color than the other.

There are three attributes of a color:

•Hue is the base color (like red or blue).

•Value is the lightness or darkness of the color.

•Intensity, or saturation, is the strength of a color, like its brightness or dullness.
Each hue has either a warm or cool temperature that creates a different emotional effect. To add richness and vitality to your home, include both warmer and cooler color schemes from room to room. The use of different temperatures, as well as rooms with neutral color schemes, will help balance the overall feeling in the house.

The colors with warmer temperatures include the hues between red and yellow, and also brown and tan. These colors tend to stimulate and add liveliness to an environment. The cooler colors, on the other hand, are the colors ranging from blue-violet to blue-green and also include most grays. Cooler colors are used to relax and calm a room.

Varying the value of a color, with a tint or shade, will affect the character of a room. The tint of a color is created by adding white and a shade is created by adding black. For example, pink is a tint of red, whereas maroon is a shade. Lighter values of a color can be cheery, airy, and uplifting. In contrast, darker values can be calming, but also gloomy if used incorrectly.

The following common color schemes work well in interior design:

•Complimentary colors are the colors that appear

directly opposite each other on the color wheel. When placed next to each other, their pairing creates an intense contrast that makes an energetic and stimulating room. In order to release the tension and calm the mood, one or both colors can be lightened or darkened. White can also be added to help balance the interaction between the colors.

•Analogous colors sit side by side on the color wheel and provide harmony when used together. These colors work well without clashing because they are related and the same base color. For example, the use of yellow, yellow-green, and green creates a unified look and visual experience that easily blends from one color to the next. This color scheme works best when the colors are from either warm or cool colors, but not a combination of both.
•Monochromatic colors are all the tints, tones, and shades of a single hue. A monochromatic color scheme creates a cohesive look that is sophisticated and soothing. The use of a wider variation of tones helps avoid a bland room. Additionally, blacks and whites can be added to enhance the color scheme
Transform the visual feeling of a space with color with these guidelines:

To expand the space, use: Cool colors, Light colors, Dull colors and Limited (if any) contrasts.

To shrink the space, use: Warm colors, Dark colors, Bright colors or Several contrasts.

To lower the ceiling, use: Warm colors, Dark Tones, Strong saturation.

To heighten the ceiling, use: Cool colors or Light Tints.

To shorten a narrow wall of a room, use: Warm colors, Dark Colors or Strong saturation.

To lengthen a room, use: Cool colors, Light colors, Dull colors and Limited, if any, contrasts.

Tips to help you find the perfect color:

Gather ideas and keep them in your idea file!

•Look through magazines and tear out pictures you like.

•Look closely to see what primary and accent colors appeal to you.

•Is there a similar color pattern or color combination that you are attracted to?

 

Creating an Idea File

Last Updated on Tuesday, 10 April 2012 21:28