Choosing Color Schemes The process of picking paint colors for your home may seem totally subjective--you simply select the colors you like. That is merely partly true. Although it makes sense to get started on with the colors you like, other elements enter into play. For example, do the colors you've picked work well together? Do they work with furnishing, carpeting, and draperies already in use? Picking paint colors is really part artwork and part science. Let's focus on the science part first.
Employing the Color Wheel The color wheel arranges the color spectrum in a circle. It really is a good 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 combined to make a tertiary color--in this circumstance, turquoise.
Now that there is a color wheel before you, make use of it to help you envision certain color combinations. An analogous scheme will involve neighboring colors that share an underlying hue.
Complementary colors lie opposing each other on the color wheel and often work well together. For instance 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 differing intensities can make attractive, soothing combinations. A dual complementary color scheme involves an additional set of opposites, such as green-blue and red-orange.
Alternatively, you could opt for a monochromatic scheme that involves using one color in a variety of intensities. This ensures a harmonious color design. When developing a monochromatic design, lean toward several tints or several shades, but avoid way too many contrasting values, that is, combinations of tints and shades. This can make your design look uneven.
If you want a more complex 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 comprises three colors- one primary or intermediate and two colors on either part of its complete opposite side of the wheel. For example, instead of teaming purple with yellow, switch the mixture to purple with orange-yellow and yellow-green.
Finally, four colors equally spaced about the wheel, such as yellow/green/purple/red, form a tetrad. If such combinations seem a bit like Technicolor, understand that colors intended for interiors are seldom 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 fall into both of these basic camps:
Harmonious or analogous; plans, derived from neighboring colors on the wheel less than halfway around.
Contrasting or complementary; schemes, derived from colors that are directly opposite on the wheel.
Interior Color Schemes Don't just choose one color; think in terms of picking a color structure. Survey your furniture, curtains, window treatments, and rugs, and take note which colors might supplement them.
Next, take notice of just how many colors you think you might 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 do not want to call attention to it. Similarly it will additionally apply to other trim, such as windows casings and couch rail.
How about where the walls meet the ceiling? Do you want to install crown molding or some other type of cornice treatment there? Or will you be 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 options range from the most shiny (high gloss and semi-gloss) to the dullest (eggshell and flat). These designations differ with paint suppliers, but they are important because the sheen of paint impacts the color. A guideline claims that walls usually get flat or eggshell surface finishes whereas ceilings are almost invariably decorated with a flat finish. Trim is typically decorated with a semi-gloss or high gloss. These coatings are stronger and much easier to clean than duller finishes.
Think in terms of groups of colors.
Paint manufacturers group like colors together like below:
Interior Color Chips All paint stores provide color chips of the paints they sell. Color chips will give you a small scale idea of what the specific colors will 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... but they are a good place to start. In fact, a seasoned sales person at your neighborhood paint store can help you select color chips in a scheme. If 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 alternatives, look at the color chips or swatches in various types of light including natural light at different times of the day and in varying levels 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 pick 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.
Changing Color Take into account that large surface areas make any paint color seem darker than the color chip. The amount of variation is usually equal to two shades. In the event that you pick the color chip you desire, step "back" two shades darker for a genuine representation of what the color will look like when dried out. Also, paint always appears darker once it dries. So, when you finally apply the paint, don't panic if the color doesn't look right initially. Hold out until it dries.
If you are zeroing in on your final colors, paint a 2 x 3 foot poster board or fabric material with the anchor color and stick it throughout the house so that you can view it in various light and near different colored floor coverings and furniture.
Color and Space Colors make a difference the way you perceive the size of a room. Warm colors like reds, yellows, and oranges can make a space seem to be smaller because they can offer a cozy feeling to the space. 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 really want to make an area seem large select a vintage standby like a shade of white (there are dozens) or a neutral color.
Sizing the Area While 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 space occupied by the doorways, house windows, and other openings. Add every one of the measurements together to get a total square footage of the surface you must paint. If you're applying two layers which is normal for most paint jobs, you'll be painting the area twice.
Sound Quality Painting
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(425) 512-7400
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