Choosing Color Schemes The process of picking paint colors for your home may seem totally subjective--you simply select the colors you prefer. That is only partly true. Although it makes sense to get started on with the colors you prefer, other elements come into play. For instance, do the colors you've preferred work well collectively? Do they work with furnishing, carpeting, and draperies already in place? Picking paint colors is really part skill and part science. Let's focus on 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 there is a color wheel before you, put it to use to help you envision certain color combinations. An analogous scheme includes neighboring colors that share an underlying hue.
Complementary colors lie opposite each other on the color wheel and frequently work well in concert. 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. Similar complements in differing intensities can make attractive, relaxing combinations. A double complementary color design involves an additional group of opposites, such as green-blue and red-orange.
Alternatively, you may opt for a monochromatic scheme which involves using one color in a number of intensities. This ensures a harmonious color scheme. When developing a monochromatic scheme, lean toward several tints or several shades, but avoid too many contrasting values, that is, combinations of tints and shades. This may make your plan look uneven.
If you want 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 part of its opposing side of the wheel. For example, instead of teaming purple with yellow, switch the mixture to purple with orange-yellow and yellow-green.
Last but not least, four colors equally spaced about the wheel, such as yellow/green/purple/red, form a tetrad. If such combinations sound a little like Technicolor, understand that colors designed for interiors are rarely 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 get into these two 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 Complementary Colors Don't just choose one color; think in terms of picking a color structure. Study your furniture, curtains, draperies, and floor coverings, and be aware which colors might go with them.
Next, be aware of just how many colors you think you might be using. Will the baseboards be 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 home 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 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 will also need to determine the level of 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 manufacturers, but they are essential because the sheen of paint influences the color. A guideline says that walls usually get flat or eggshell finishes whereas ceilings are almost invariably decorated with a flat finish. Trim is normally decorated with a semi-gloss or high gloss. These finishes are stronger and simpler 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 provide color chips of the paints they sell. Color chips will provide you with a small scale idea of what the colors will look like once applied. You need to do more than check out color chips to obtain a true sense of your colors... but they are a good place to start. In fact, a seasoned sales rep at your neighborhood paint store can help you decide on color chips in a scheme. In the event that you choose a buttercup yellow for the walls, the sales rep can suggest color chips that are typically associated with a scheme that has buttercup yellow as its anchor color.
When you yourself have whittled down your color options, look at the color chips or swatches in various 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 a concept of paints that you'll sample in much larger swaths of color. Very few professional designers pick from chips, even though they may start their color selection from chips. If indeed they do examine chips, they examine them individually over a white background.
Changes in Color Keep in mind that large surface areas make any paint color seem darker than the color chip. The degree of variation is usually up to two shades. In the event that you pick the color chip you want, step "back" two shades darker for a true representation of what the color will look like when dry. 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 initially. Wait until it dries.
When you are zeroing in on your final colors, paint a 2 x 3 foot poster board or cloth with the anchor color and place it around the house so that you can view it in various light and near different colored carpets and furniture.
Color and Size Colors make a difference how you perceive the size of a room. Warm colors like reds, yellows, and oranges can make a space appear smaller because they can offer a cozy feeling to the area. The so called cool colors like blues and greens appear to recede from you, making a room appear bigger than it really is. If you really want to make a room seem large choose an old standby like a shade of white (there are dozens) or a neutral color.
Estimating Room Size When 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 entry doors, house 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're applying two layers which is normal for most paint jobs, you'll be painting the surface twice.
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