Complimentary Color Schemes The procedure of picking paint colors for your home may seem totally subjective--you simply select the colors you prefer. That is merely partly true. While it makes sense to start with the colors you prefer, other elements enter into play. For instance, do the colors you've decided on work well collectively? Do they compliment 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.
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, 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 circumstance, turquoise.
Now that you've got a color wheel in front of you, use it to help you envision certain color combinations. An analogous design will involve neighboring colors that share an underlying hue.
Complementary colors lie opposing each other on the color wheel and often work well in concert. Say for example a red and green living room in full strength might be hard to stomach, but look at a rosy pink room with sage green accents. The same complements in differing intensities can make attractive, calming combinations. A double complementary color design involves yet another group of opposites, such as green-blue and red-orange.
Alternatively, you might go with 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 too many contrasting values, that is, combinations of tints and shades. This may make your scheme look uneven.
If you need a more technical palette of three or even 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 opposing side of the wheel. For example, instead of teaming purple with yellow, transfer the mixture to purple with orange-yellow and yellow-green.
Lastly, four colors similarly spaced around the wheel, such as yellow/green/purple/red, form a tetrad. If such combinations seem a bit like Technicolor, remember that colors designed for interiors are almost never 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 these two basic camps:
Harmonious or analogous; schemes, derived from close by colors on the wheel less than halfway around.
Contrasting or complementary; plans, derived from colors that are directly opposite on the wheel.
Interior Paint Schemes Don't just choose one color; think in terms of picking a color scheme. Survey your furniture, curtains, draperies, and carpets and rugs, and take note which colors might supplement them.
Next, take 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 condition and you do not want to call attention to it. Exactly 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? Do you want to install crown molding or some other type 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'll also need to determine the level of surface 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 fluctuate with paint producers, but they are important because the sheen of paint impacts the color. A rule of thumb states that walls usually get flat or eggshell finishes whereas ceilings are almost invariably decorated with a flat finish. Trim is normally decorated with a semi-gloss or high gloss. These coatings are more durable and easier 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 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. In fact, a seasoned sales person 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 yourself have whittled down your color options, go through the color chips or swatches in various 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 just to get a concept of paints that you will sample in bigger 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 individually over a white background.
Color Changes Take into account that large surface areas make any paint color show up darker than the color chip. The amount of deviation is usually equal to two shades. If you select the color chip you desire, step "back" two shades darker for a true representation of what the color can look like when dried out. 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 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 with the anchor color and place it around the house so that you can see it in various light and near different colored floor coverings and furniture.
Size and Color Colors can affect the way you perceive the size of a room. Warm colors like reds, yellows, and oranges can make a space seem smaller because they can offer a cozy feeling to the area. The so called cool colors like blues and greens appear to recede from you, making a room appear bigger than it truly is. If you actually want to make a room seem large opt for an old standby like 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 space occupied by the entrances, glass windows, and other openings. Add all the measurements together to obtain a total square footage of the surface you must paint. If you're applying two layers which is normal for some paint jobs, you will be painting the surface twice.
Sound Quality Painting
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