Complimentary Color Schemes The process of picking paint colors for your home may seem to be totally subjective--you simply select the colors you like. That is only partly true. Although it makes sense to begin with the colors you prefer, other elements come into play. For example, do the colors you've decided on work well alongside one another? Do they compliment furnishing, carpeting, and window treatments already in use? Picking paint colors is part artwork and part science. Let's start with the science part first.
Using 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 mixed to produce 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 design consists of neighboring colors that share an underlying hue.
Complementary colors lie opposite one another on the color wheel and often work well in concert. 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. The same complements in varying intensities can make attractive, calming combinations. A dual complementary color design involves an additional set of opposites, such as green-blue and red-orange.
Alternatively, you could choose a monochromatic scheme which involves using one color in a variety of intensities. This ensures a harmonious color scheme. When developing a monochromatic plan, lean toward several tints or several shades, but avoid too many contrasting values, that is, combinations of tints and shades. This may make your design look uneven.
If you need a more complex palette of three or even more colors, go through 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 side of its complete opposite side of the wheel. For example, instead of teaming purple with yellow, move the mixture 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 sound a little bit like Technicolor, understand that colors designed 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 close by colors on the wheel less than halfway around.
Contrasting or complementary; strategies, derived from colors that are directly opposite on the wheel.
Interior Colors Don't just choose one color; think in terms of deciding on a color structure. Review your furniture, curtains, window treatments, and carpets, and be aware which colors might complement them.
Next, take notice 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 do not want to call attention to it. Similarly it is true of other trim, such as home window casings and chair rail.
How about the area 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 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 fluctuate with paint producers, but they are essential 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 coated with a semi-gloss or high gloss. These coatings are more durable and easier to clean than duller finishes.
Think in terms of groups of colors.
Paint manufacturers group like colors together like below:
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 get a true sense of your colors... however 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. 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 scheme that has buttercup yellow as its anchor color.
When you have whittled down your color options, look at the color chips or swatches in different types of light including day light at differing times of your day and in varying levels of artificial light. Even then, this color chip process is just to get a concept of paints that you'll sample in bigger swaths of color. Very few 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.
Color Changing Take into account that large surface areas make any paint color appear darker than the color chip. The degree of variation is usually up to two shades. If you select the color chip you desire, step "back" two shades darker for a true representation of what the color will look like when dry. Also, paint always appears darker once it dries. So, when you finally apply the paint, don't worry if the color doesn't look right initially. Hang on until it dries.
If you are zeroing in on your final colors, paint a 2 x 3 ft. poster board or cloth with the anchor color and stick it around the house so as to see it in various light and near different colored floor coverings and furniture.
Room Size and Color Colors can affect the way you perceive the size of a room. Warm colors like reds, yellows, and oranges will make a space seem 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 an area appear bigger than it truly 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.
Sizing the Room 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, 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 coats which is normal for some paint jobs, you will be painting the area twice.
Sound Quality Painting
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