Choosing Colors The process of picking paint colors for your home may seem to be totally subjective--you simply select the colors you prefer. That is merely partly true. Although it makes sense to get started on with the colors you like, other elements enter into play. For instance, do the colors you've determined work well together? Do they compliment furnishing, carpeting, and draperies already in use? Picking paint colors is part art and part science. Let's focus on the science part first.
Using 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, and so on). 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 combined to produce a tertiary color--in this case, turquoise.
Now that you've got a color wheel in front of you, use it to help you envision certain color combinations. An analogous plan will involve neighboring colors that share an underlying hue.
Complementary colors lie opposing one another on the color wheel and frequently 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. Exactly 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 can choose a monochromatic scheme that involves using one color in a number of intensities. This ensures a harmonious color plan. 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 can make your design look uneven.
If you want a more complex palette of three or 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, move 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 somewhat like Technicolor, understand that colors intended for interiors are seldom 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; techniques, 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 Colors Don't just choose one color; think in terms of deciding on a color design. Study your furniture, curtains, window treatments, and carpeting and rugs, and notice which colors might supplement them.
Next, take notice 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 don't want to call attention to it. The same will additionally apply to other trim, such as window casings and chair rail.
How about the area where the walls meet up with the ceiling? Do you want to install crown molding or various 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 will 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 companies, but they are essential because the sheen of paint influences the color. A guideline says that walls usually receive 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 surface finishes are more durable and better to clean than duller surface finishes.
Think in terms of groups of colors.
Paint manufacturers group like colors together like below:
Interior Walls 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 need to do more than take a look at color chips to obtain a true sense of your colors... nevertheless they are a good place to start. In fact, a seasoned sales person 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 person can suggest color chips that are typically associated with a design that has buttercup yellow as its anchor color.
When you yourself have whittled down your color selections, go through the color chips or swatches in different types of light including day light at different times of your 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. Very few professional designers select 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 appear darker than the color chip. The amount of variance is usually equal to two shades. If you select the color chip you want, step "back" two shades darker for a true 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 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 foot poster board or cloth material with the anchor color and stick it throughout the house so as to see it in various light and near different colored carpets and furniture.
Color and Room Size Colors can affect the way you perceive the size of an area. Warm colors like reds, yellows, and oranges can make a space seem smaller because they 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 larger than it truly is. If you really want to make a room seem large go with a vintage standby like a shade of white (there are dozens) or a neutral color.
Estimating Room Size While you get closer 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 doors, house windows, and other openings. Add all of the measurements together to get a total square footage of the area you must paint. If you're applying two layers which is normal for some paint jobs, you'll be painting the surface twice.
Sound Quality Painting
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