Picking Color Schemes The procedure of picking paint colors for your home may seem totally subjective--you simply pick the colors you prefer. That is merely partly true. While it makes sense to start out with the colors you prefer, other elements enter into play. For instance, do the colors you've preferred work well together? Do they work with furnishing, carpeting, and draperies already in use? Picking paint colors is actually part skill and part science. Let's focus on the science part first.
Features of the Color Wheel The color wheel arranges the color spectrum in a circle. It really is a good way to see which colors work well together. It includes primary colors (red, blue, and yellow), secondary colors (green, orange, violet), and tertiary colors (red-blue, blue-red, etc). Secondary colors are made by mixing two primaries together, such as blue and yellow to make green. A primary color such as blue and a secondary color such as green can be blended to produce a tertiary color--in this case, turquoise.
Now that there is a color wheel before you, use it to help you envision certain color combinations. An analogous scheme involves neighboring colors that share an underlying hue.
Complementary colors lie opposite one another on the color wheel and frequently work well together. For instance a red and green living room in full intensity might be hard to stomach, but look at a rosy pink room with sage green accents. Similar complements in differing intensities can make attractive, relaxing combinations. A double complementary color plan involves an additional set of opposites, such as green-blue and red-orange.
Alternatively, you might select a monochromatic scheme which involves using one color in a variety of intensities. This ensures a harmonious color plan. When creating a monochromatic design, lean toward several tints or several shades, but avoid too many contrasting values, that is, combinations of tints and shades. This may make your scheme look uneven.
If you want a more technical palette of three or even more colors, look at the triads formed by three equidistant colors, such as red/yellow/blue or green/purple/orange. A split complement is composed of three colors- one primary or intermediate and two colors on either side of its opposing side of the wheel. For example, instead of teaming purple with yellow, transfer the mix to purple with orange-yellow and yellow-green.
Finally, four colors similarly spaced about the wheel, such as yellow/green/purple/red, form a tetrad. If such combinations seem a little like Technicolor, remember that colors intended for interiors are hardly ever undiluted. Thus yellow might be cream; blue-purple, a dark eggplant; and orange-red, a muted terra-cotta or whisper-pale peach. With less jargon, the color combinations get into these two basic camps:
Harmonious or analogous; plans, derived from nearby colors on the wheel less than halfway around.
Contrasting or complementary; techniques, derived from colors that are directly opposite on the wheel.
Interior Complementary Colors Don't just choose one color; think in terms of picking a color design. Study your furniture, curtains, window treatments, and carpets, and be aware which colors might supplement them.
Next, make note of just how many colors you think you may be using. Will the baseboards be considered a different color than the walls? They usually are unless the trim is in bad shape and you don't want to call attention to it. Exactly the same is true of other trim, such as home window casings and chair rail.
How about where the walls meet the ceiling? Will you install crown molding or various other type of cornice treatment there? Or are you considering painting the walls and demarcating the ceiling and wall junction with a color change?
In addition to paint colors, you'll also need to look for the level of surface finish or sheen the paint will have. The choices range from the most shiny (high gloss and semi-gloss) to the dullest (eggshell and flat). These designations fluctuate with paint suppliers, but they are important because the sheen of paint influences the color. A guideline states that walls usually receive flat or eggshell finishes whereas ceilings are almost invariably painted with a flat finish. Trim is normally decorated with a semi-gloss or high gloss. These coatings are more durable and easier to clean than duller coatings.
Think in terms of groups of colors.
Paint manufacturers group like colors together like below:
Painting Interior Walls All paint stores provide color chips of the paints they sell. Color chips will provide you with a small scale idea of what the actual colors can look like once applied. You will need to do more than take a look at color chips to get a true sense of your colors... nevertheless they are a good place to start. In fact, a seasoned sales rep at your local paint store can help you select color chips in a scheme. In the event that you choose a buttercup yellow for the walls, the sales person can suggest color chips that are typically associated with a design that has buttercup yellow as its anchor color.
When you have whittled down your color choices, look at the color chips or swatches in various types of light including day light at differing times of the day and in varying levels of artificial light. Even then, this color chip process is just to get a concept of paints that you will sample in greater swaths of color. Very few professional designers pick from chips, even though they could start their color selection from chips. If indeed they do examine chips, they examine them individually over a white background.
Changes in Color Keep in mind that large surface areas make any paint color appear darker than the color chip. The degree of variation is usually equal to two shades. If you select the color chip you want, step "back" two shades darker for a genuine representation of what the color can look like when dried out. Also, paint always looks darker once it dries. So, when you finally apply the paint, don't stress if the color doesn't look right initially. Wait until it dries.
If you are zeroing in on your final colors, paint a 2 x 3 foot poster board or cloth material with the anchor color and stick it around the house to enable you to visualize it in different light and near different colored carpets and rugs and furniture.
Color and Space Colors make a difference how you perceive the size of an area. Warm colors like reds, yellows, and oranges can make a space appear smaller because they provide a cozy feeling to the area. The so called cool colors like blues and greens appear to recede from you, making a room appear larger than it really is. If you actually want to make a room seem large select an old standby such as a shade of white (there are dozens) or a neutral color.
Estimating Area Size When you get nearer to buying paint, determine the square footage of the area you will paint. Multiply the length of each wall by the width. Subtract the area occupied by the doors, glass windows, and other openings. Add every one of the measurements together to obtain a total square footage of the surface you must paint. If you are applying two layers which is normal for most paint jobs, you will be painting the surface twice.
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