Colors for Your Home The process of picking paint colors for your home may seem totally subjective--you simply pick the colors you prefer. That is merely partly true. While it makes sense to start out with the colors you like, other elements enter into play. For example, do the colors you've determined work well collectively? Do they work with furnishing, carpeting, and window treatments already in place? Picking paint colors is actually part skill 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 is a good way to see which colors work 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 blended 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 plan entails neighboring colors that share an underlying hue.
Complementary colors lie complete 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 consider a rosy pink room with sage green accents. The same complements in differing intensities can make attractive, relaxing combinations. A dual complementary color scheme involves an additional set of opposites, such as green-blue and red-orange.
Alternatively, you may opt for a monochromatic scheme that involves using one color in a variety of intensities. This ensures a harmonious color design. When creating a monochromatic scheme, 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 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 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 equally spaced round the wheel, such as yellow/green/purple/red, form a tetrad. If such combinations sound somewhat like Technicolor, remember that colors intended for interiors are hardly ever 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 nearby colors on the wheel less than halfway around.
Contrasting or complementary; strategies, derived from colors that are directly opposite on the wheel.
Interior Color Schemes Don't just choose one color; think in terms of deciding on a color design. Survey your furniture, curtains, draperies, and carpeting and rugs, and take note which colors might complement them.
Next, make note 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. The same is true of other trim, such as windows casings and seat rail.
How about the area where the walls meet up with the ceiling? Will you install crown molding or various other kind 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 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 producers, but they are essential because the sheen of paint impacts the color. A rule of thumb states that walls usually get flat or eggshell surface finishes whereas ceilings are almost invariably coated with a flat finish. Trim is normally painted with a semi-gloss or high gloss. These surface finishes are stronger and easier 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 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 check out color chips to obtain a true sense of your colors... however they are a good place to start. Actually, a seasoned sales rep 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 rep can suggest color chips that are typically associated with a scheme that has buttercup yellow as its anchor color.
When you have whittled down your color alternatives, go through the color chips or swatches in different types of light including natural light at different 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 greater swaths of color. Hardly any 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 over 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 degree of variant is usually equal to two shades. In the event that you pick the color chip you desire, step "back" two shades darker for a true representation of what the color can 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 at first. Wait around 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 to enable you to visualize it in different light and near different colored carpets and furniture.
Room Size and Color Colors can affect how you perceive the size of a room. Warm colors like reds, yellows, and oranges will make a space seem smaller because they can provide a cozy feeling to the space. 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 actually want to make an area seem large choose a vintage standby such as 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 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're applying two layers which is normal for some paint jobs, you'll be painting the area twice.
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