Picking Colors The procedure of picking paint colors for your home may seem to be totally subjective--you simply select the colors you prefer. That is only partly true. While it makes sense to get started on with the colors you prefer, other elements come into play. For example, do the colors you've picked work well together? Do they compliment furnishing, carpeting, and window treatments already in use? Picking paint colors is part art 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 really 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 merged to produce a tertiary color--in this case, turquoise.
Now that you've got a color wheel before you, make use of it 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 together. Say for example 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. Exactly the same complements in differing intensities can make attractive, relaxing combinations. A dual complementary color scheme involves yet another group of opposites, such as green-blue and red-orange.
Alternatively, you might choose a monochromatic scheme that involves using one color in a number of intensities. This ensures a harmonious color design. When creating a monochromatic plan, lean toward several tints or several shades, but avoid too many contrasting values, that is, combinations of tints and shades. This can make your scheme look uneven.
If you need 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 part of its opposite side of the wheel. For example, instead of teaming purple with yellow, transfer the mix to purple with orange-yellow and yellow-green.
Lastly, four colors equally spaced round the wheel, such as yellow/green/purple/red, form a tetrad. If such combinations seem a little bit like Technicolor, understand that colors intended for interiors are rarely 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 fall into both of these basic camps:
Harmonious or analogous; strategies, derived from nearby 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 design. Study your furniture, curtains, draperies, and carpeting and rugs, and word which colors might supplement them.
Next, make note of just 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. Similarly it will additionally apply to other trim, such as windows casings and seat rail.
How about where the walls meet up with the ceiling? Will you 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 determine 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 manufacturers, but they are important because the sheen of paint impacts the color. A guideline says that walls usually get flat or eggshell surface finishes whereas ceilings are almost invariably painted with a flat finish. Trim is normally painted with a semi-gloss or high gloss. These coatings 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 Wall Colors All paint stores can 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 need to do more than look at color chips to get a true sense of your colors... nevertheless they are a good place to start. In fact, a seasoned sales rep at your local paint store can help you decide on color chips in a scheme. If 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 alternatives, look at the color chips or swatches in several types of light including day light at different times of your day and in varying levels of artificial light. Even then, this color chip process is merely to get an idea of paints that you will sample in much larger swaths of color. Hardly any 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 on a white background.
Color Changes Keep in mind that large surface areas make any paint color appear darker than the color chip. The degree of variation is usually equal to two shades. In the event that you select the color chip you want, step "back" two shades darker for a genuine representation of what the color can look like when dried out. Also, paint always looks darker once it dries. So, when you finally apply the paint, don't panic if the color doesn't look right initially. Hang on until it dries.
When you are zeroing in on your final colors, paint a 2 x 3 ft. poster board or cloth material with the anchor color and stick it throughout the house so as to view it in various light and near different colored rugs and furniture.
Color and Space Colors can affect how 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 bigger than it truly is. If you actually want to make an area seem large select a vintage standby like a shade of white (there are dozens) or a neutral color.
Sizing the Area 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 space occupied by the entrance 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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