Picking Color Schemes The procedure of picking paint colors for your home may seem totally subjective--you simply select the colors you like. That is merely partly true. Although it makes sense to start with the colors you prefer, other elements come into play. For example, do the colors you've determined work well together? Do they work with furnishing, carpeting, and window treatments already in use? Picking paint colors is part skill and part science. Let's start with 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 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 merged to make a tertiary color--in this circumstance, turquoise.
Now that there is a color wheel in front of you, utilize it to help you envision certain color combinations. An analogous scheme consists of neighboring colors that share an underlying hue.
Complementary colors lie complete opposite each other 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 consider a rosy pink room with sage green accents. Similar complements in differing intensities can make attractive, calming combinations. A dual complementary color design involves an additional group of opposites, such as green-blue and red-orange.
Alternatively, you could opt for a monochromatic scheme which involves using one color in a variety 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 can make your design look uneven.
If you need a more technical palette of three or even 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 part of its opposing side of the wheel. For example, rather than teaming purple with yellow, switch the mixture 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 sound somewhat like Technicolor, understand that colors designed for interiors are seldom undiluted. Thus yellowish 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 both of these basic camps:
Harmonious or analogous; strategies, 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.
Interior Colors Don't just choose one color; think in terms of deciding on a color structure. 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 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 window casings and chair rail.
How about 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 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 companies, but they are important because the sheen of paint influences the color. A guideline claims that walls usually receive 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 coatings are more durable and simpler to clean than duller finishes.
Think in terms of groups of colors.
Paint manufacturers group like colors together like below:
Interior Colors All paint stores can offer color chips of the paints they sell. Color chips will give you a small scale idea of what the specific colors can look like once applied. You need to do more than take a look at color chips to obtain a true sense of your colors... nonetheless 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 person 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 various types of light including natural light at different times of the 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 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 over a white background.
Color Changes Keep in mind that large surface areas make any paint color seem darker than the color chip. The amount of variance is usually equal to two shades. In the event that you select the color chip you desire, step "back" two shades darker for a genuine representation of what the color will look like when dried out. Also, paint always looks darker once it dries. So, when you finally apply the paint, don't stress if the color doesn't look right at first. Wait until it dries.
If you are zeroing in on your final colors, paint a 2 x 3 foot poster board or cloth with the anchor color and stick it around the house to enable you to view it in various light and near different colored floor coverings and furniture.
Room Size and Color Colors make a difference the way you perceive the size of an area. Warm colors like reds, yellows, and oranges can make a space appear smaller because they can 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 larger than it really is. If you really want to make an area seem large select a vintage standby such as a shade of white (there are dozens) or a neutral color.
Size Estimation While you get closer to buying paint, determine the square footage of the area you will paint. Multiply the length of each wall by the width. Subtract the area occupied by the entry doors, windows, and other openings. Add every one of the measurements together to get a total square footage of the surface you must paint. If you are applying two layers which is normal for some paint jobs, you'll be painting the area twice.
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