Picking Color Schemes The process of picking paint colors for your home may seem totally subjective--you simply pick the colors you like. That is only partly true. While it makes sense to begin with the colors you prefer, other elements enter into play. For example, do the colors you've determined work well alongside one another? Do they work with furnishing, carpeting, and draperies already in use? Picking paint colors is really part skill and part science. Let's focus on the science part first.
The Color Wheel The color wheel arranges the color spectrum in a circle. It 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 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 you've got a color wheel before you, make use of it to help you envision certain color combinations. An analogous scheme involves neighboring colors that share an underlying hue.
Complementary colors lie complete opposite one another on the color wheel and frequently work well in concert. For instance 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 varying intensities can make attractive, relaxing combinations. A double complementary color plan involves yet another set of opposites, such as green-blue and red-orange.
Alternatively, you may choose a monochromatic scheme which involves using one color in a variety of intensities. This ensures a harmonious color scheme. When developing 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 may 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, rather than teaming purple with yellow, change the mix to purple with orange-yellow and yellow-green.
Finally, four colors equally 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 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 get into these two basic camps:
Harmonious or analogous; schemes, 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.
Colors for the Interior Don't just choose one color; think in terms of picking a color plan. Study your furniture, curtains, draperies, and carpeting and rugs, and word which colors might go with them.
Next, be aware of how many colors you think you may be using. Will the baseboards be 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 windows casings and seat rail.
How about the area where the walls meet up with the ceiling? Do you want to install crown molding or some 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'll also need to look for the level of surface 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 change with paint producers, but they are essential because the sheen of paint affects the color. A guideline claims that walls usually receive flat or eggshell finishes whereas ceilings are almost invariably decorated with a flat finish. Trim is typically painted with a semi-gloss or high gloss. These coatings are more durable and simpler to clean than duller surface finishes.
Think in terms of groups of colors.
Paint manufacturers group like colors together like below:
Painting Interior Walls All paint stores can offer color chips of the paints they sell. Color chips will provide you with a small scale idea of what the colors can look like once applied. You need to do more than check out 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 rep 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, go through the color chips or swatches in several 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 just to get a concept of paints that you'll sample in greater swaths of color. Hardly any professional designers pick from chips, even though they may start their color selection from chips. If they do examine chips, they examine them one at a time on a white background.
Color Changes Take into account that large surface areas make any paint color seem darker than the color chip. The degree of variant 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 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 at first. Hang on until it dries.
If you are zeroing in on your final colors, paint a 2 x 3 ft. poster board or fabric material with the anchor color and stick it around the house so that you can visualize it in different light and near different colored floor coverings and furniture.
Color and Space Colors make a difference how you perceive the size of an area. Warm colors like reds, yellows, and oranges will make a space appear smaller because they can offer 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 really want to make an area seem large go with an old standby like a shade of white (there are dozens) or a neutral color.
Estimating Area Size As 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, 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 coats which is normal for most paint jobs, you'll be painting the area twice.
Sound Quality Painting
824 90th Dr SE suite B
Lake Stevens WA 98258
(425) 512-7400
https://sites.google.com/1upserve.com/painter-lake-stevens
