Finding Pleasing Colors The process of picking paint colors for your home may seem to be totally subjective--you simply pick the colors you like. That is merely partly true. Although it makes sense to start out with the colors you like, other elements enter into play. For example, do the colors you've selected work well together? Do they compliment furnishing, carpeting, and draperies already in place? Picking paint colors is part art and part science. Let's start with the science part first.
Working with the Color Wheel The color wheel arranges the color spectrum in a circle. It is a sensible way to see which colors work very well together. It includes primary colors (red, blue, and yellow), secondary colors (green, orange, violet), and tertiary colors (red-blue, blue-red, and so on). 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 mixed to make a tertiary color--in this circumstance, turquoise.
Now that you've got a color wheel before you, put it to use to help you envision certain color combinations. An analogous design consists of neighboring colors that share an underlying hue.
Complementary colors lie opposing one another on the color wheel and frequently work well together. Say for example a red and green living room in full strength might be hard to stomach, but look at a rosy pink room with sage green accents. The same complements in varying intensities can make attractive, soothing combinations. A double complementary color plan involves yet another set of opposites, such as green-blue and red-orange.
Alternatively, you could select a monochromatic scheme that involves using one color in a variety of intensities. This ensures a harmonious color scheme. When developing a monochromatic scheme, lean toward several tints or several shades, but avoid way too many contrasting values, that is, combinations of tints and shades. This may make your plan look uneven.
If you want a more technical palette of three or more colors, go through 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 complete opposite side of the wheel. For example, instead of teaming purple with yellow, transfer the mixture to purple with orange-yellow and yellow-green.
Finally, four colors equally spaced round the wheel, such as yellow/green/purple/red, form a tetrad. If such combinations seem a little like Technicolor, understand that colors intended for interiors are hardly ever undiluted. Thus yellowish 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 both of these basic camps:
Harmonious or analogous; techniques, derived from neighboring colors on the wheel less than halfway around.
Contrasting or complementary; plans, derived from colors that are directly opposite on the wheel.
Interior Color Schemes Don't just choose one color; think in terms of deciding on a color structure. Review your furniture, curtains, draperies, and carpeting and rugs, and take note of which colors might match them.
Next, make note of 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 condition and you don't want to call attention to it. Exactly the same is true of other trim, such as home window casings and couch rail.
How about where the walls meet the ceiling? Will you install crown molding or some other kind 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 finish or sheen the paint will have. The options range from the most shiny (high gloss and semi-gloss) to the dullest (eggshell and flat). These designations change with paint makers, but they are essential 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 typically painted with a semi-gloss or high gloss. These coatings are more durable and better to clean than duller finishes.
Think in terms of groups of colors.
Paint manufacturers group like colors together like below:
Interior Colors All paint stores can provide color chips of the paints they sell. Color chips will provide you with a small scale idea of what the actual colors will look like once applied. You will need to do more than check out color chips to get a true sense of your colors... nevertheless they are a good place to start. Actually, a seasoned sales rep at your neighborhood paint store can help you decide on color chips in a scheme. If you choose a buttercup yellow for the walls, the sales rep 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 options, go through the color chips or swatches in different types of light including natural light at differing times of the day and in varying degrees of artificial light. Even then, this color chip process is merely to get an idea of paints that you'll sample in much larger swaths of color. Hardly any professional designers select from chips, even though they could start their color selection from chips. If they do examine chips, they examine them individually on a white background.
Changes in Color Take into account that large surface areas make any paint color look darker than the color chip. The degree of deviation is usually up to two shades. In the event that you select the color chip you want, step "back" two shades darker for a true representation of what the color can look like when dry. 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 at first. Wait until it dries.
If you are zeroing in on your final colors, paint a 2 x 3 ft. poster board or fabric with the anchor color and stick it throughout the house to be able to see it in different light and near different colored carpets and rugs and furniture.
Size and Color Colors make a difference the way you perceive the size of a room. Warm colors like reds, yellows, and oranges will make a space appear smaller because they can offer a cozy feeling to the area. The so called cool colors like blues and greens may actually recede from you, making an area appear larger than it really is. If you actually want to make an area seem large go with an old standby like a shade of white (there are dozens) or a neutral color.
Size Estimation As you get nearer to buying paint, determine the square footage of the room you will paint. Multiply the length of each wall by the width. Subtract the space occupied by the doorways, windows, and other openings. Add every one of the measurements together to get a total square footage of the area you must paint. If you are applying two coats which is normal for most paint jobs, you will be painting the area twice.
Sound Quality Painting
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