Choosing Color Schemes The procedure of picking paint colors for your home may appear totally subjective--you simply select the colors you like. That is only partly true. While it makes sense to begin with the colors you prefer, other elements enter into play. For example, do the colors you've preferred work well alongside one another? Do they work with furnishing, carpeting, and draperies already in use? Picking paint colors is really part art and part science. Let's start with the science part first.
Features of the Color Wheel The color wheel arranges the color spectrum in a circle. It really 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, etc). Secondary colors are created 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 you've got a color wheel in front of you, utilize it to help you envision certain color combinations. An analogous plan requires neighboring colors that share an underlying hue.
Complementary colors lie opposite each other on the color wheel and often work well in concert. Say for example a red and green living room in full intensity might be hard to stomach, but consider a rosy pink room with sage green accents. Similar complements in varying intensities can make attractive, comforting combinations. A dual complementary color plan involves yet another group of opposites, such as green-blue and red-orange.
Alternatively, you can choose a monochromatic scheme that involves using one color in a variety of intensities. This ensures a harmonious color design. When developing a monochromatic plan, 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 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 comprises three colors- one primary or intermediate and two colors on either part of its opposite side of the wheel. For example, rather than teaming purple with yellow, change the mix to purple with orange-yellow and yellow-green.
Finally, four colors evenly spaced around the wheel, such as yellow/green/purple/red, form a tetrad. If such combinations seem a little bit like Technicolor, remember that colors designed for interiors are almost never 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 fall into these two basic camps:
Harmonious or analogous; schemes, 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.
Color Schemes for the Interior Don't just choose one color; think in terms of picking a color scheme. Study your furniture, curtains, draperies, and carpeting and rugs, and note which colors might complement 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 shape and you do not want to call attention to it. The same is true of other trim, such as window casings and couch rail.
How about where the walls meet up with the ceiling? Will you 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 determine 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 producers, but they are important because the sheen of paint affects the color. A rule of thumb states that walls usually receive flat or eggshell finishes whereas ceilings are almost invariably decorated with a flat finish. Trim is typically decorated with a semi-gloss or high gloss. These surface finishes are more durable and simpler to clean than duller surface finishes.
Think in terms of groups of colors.
Paint manufacturers group like colors together like below:
Color Chips for Interior Walls All paint stores can offer color chips of the paints they sell. Color chips will give you a small scale idea of what the actual colors will look like once applied. You will need to do more than take a look at color chips to obtain a true sense of your colors... nonetheless they are a good place to start. Actually, a seasoned sales person 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 usually associated with a design that has buttercup yellow as its anchor color.
When you have whittled down your color choices, go through the color chips or swatches in different types of light including natural light at differing times of your day and in varying degrees of artificial light. Even then, this color chip process is just to get an idea of paints that you'll sample in much larger 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 one at a time on a white background.
Changes in Color Take into account that large surface areas make any paint color show up darker than the color chip. The amount of deviation is usually equal to two shades. In the event that 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 worry if the color doesn't look right at first. Wait until it dries.
When you are zeroing in on your final colors, paint a 2 x 3 ft. poster board or cloth material with the anchor color and stick it throughout the house so that you can see it in different light and near different colored floor coverings and furniture.
Color and Size Colors can affect how you perceive the size of a room. Warm colors like reds, yellows, and oranges can make a space seem smaller because they can provide a cozy feeling to the area. The so called cool colors like blues and greens may actually recede from you, making an area appear bigger than it truly is. If you actually want to make an area seem large select an old standby such as a shade of white (there are dozens) or a neutral color.
Estimating Area Size While 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 area occupied by the entrance doors, glass 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 some paint jobs, you will be painting the surface twice.
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