Finding Pleasing Colors The process of picking paint colors for your home may appear totally subjective--you simply select the colors you prefer. That is only partly true. While it makes sense to start with the colors you like, other elements come into play. For example, do the colors you've selected work well alongside one another? Do they compliment furnishing, carpeting, and window treatments already in use? Picking paint colors is really part art and part science. Let's focus on the science part first.
Employing 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, etc). 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, put it to use to help you envision certain color combinations. An analogous design involves neighboring colors that share an underlying hue.
Complementary colors lie opposite one another on the color wheel and often work well together. 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. Similar complements in varying intensities can make attractive, soothing combinations. A double complementary color plan involves yet another group of opposites, such as green-blue and red-orange.
Alternatively, you might select a monochromatic scheme which involves using one color in a number 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 may make your design look uneven.
If you need a more complex 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 is composed of 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.
Last but not least, four colors similarly spaced about the wheel, such as yellow/green/purple/red, form a tetrad. If such combinations seem somewhat like Technicolor, remember that colors intended 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 fall into both of these basic camps:
Harmonious or analogous; schemes, derived from nearby colors on the wheel less than halfway around.
Contrasting or complementary; techniques, 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. Survey your furniture, curtains, window treatments, and floor coverings, and notice which colors might supplement them.
Next, be aware of how many colors you think you might be using. Will the baseboards be considered a different color than the walls? They usually are unless the trim is in bad condition and you don't 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 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 choices range from the most shiny (high gloss and semi-gloss) to the dullest (eggshell and flat). These designations fluctuate with paint companies, but they are important because the sheen of paint influences the color. A rule of thumb claims that walls usually get flat or eggshell surface finishes whereas ceilings are almost invariably decorated with a flat finish. Trim is typically decorated with a semi-gloss or high gloss. These finishes are stronger and simpler to clean than duller coatings.
Think in terms of groups of colors.
Paint manufacturers group like colors together like below:
Color Chips for Interior Walls All paint stores can provide color chips of the paints they sell. Color chips will give you a small scale idea of what the colors can look like once applied. You need to do more than take a look at color chips to get a true sense of your colors... but 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 usually associated with a design that has buttercup yellow as its anchor color.
When you have whittled down your color choices, look at the color chips or swatches in several types of light including natural light at differing times of your day and in varying levels 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 select from chips, even though they could start their color selection from chips. If they do examine chips, they examine them one at a time on a white background.
Changes in Color Keep in mind that large surface areas make any paint color seem darker than the color chip. The amount of deviation is usually up to two shades. In the event that you select 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 stress if the color doesn't look right initially. Wait 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 that you can visualize it in various light and near different colored carpets and rugs and furniture.
Space and Color Colors make a difference how you perceive the size of an area. Warm colors like reds, yellows, and oranges will make a space seem to be smaller because they provide a cozy feeling to the space. The so called cool colors like blues and greens may actually recede from you, making an area appear bigger than it really is. If you really want to make an area seem large select an old standby like a shade of white (there are dozens) or a neutral color.
Estimating Room Size As 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 entrance doors, house windows, and other openings. Add all the measurements together to obtain 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 area twice.
Sound Quality Painting
824 90th Dr SE suite B
Lake Stevens WA 98258
(425) 512-7400
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