Colors for Your Home The procedure of picking paint colors for your home may seem totally subjective--you simply pick the colors you prefer. That is only partly true. Although it makes sense to start with the colors you prefer, other elements enter into play. For instance, do the colors you've chosen work well together? Do they work with furnishing, carpeting, and window treatments already in use? Picking paint colors is really part skill and part science. Let's start with the science part first.
Features of the Color Wheel The color wheel arranges the color spectrum in a circle. It really 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, etc). 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 combined to produce a tertiary color--in this case, 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 includes neighboring colors that share an underlying hue.
Complementary colors lie complete opposite each other on the color wheel and often work well in concert. 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. The same complements in varying intensities can make attractive, comforting combinations. A dual complementary color design 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 number of intensities. This ensures a harmonious color plan. When creating 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 can make your design look uneven.
If you want a more complex 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 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 evenly spaced round 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 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; plans, derived from nearby colors on the wheel less than halfway around.
Contrasting or complementary; schemes, derived from colors that are directly opposite on the wheel.
Colors for the Interior Don't just choose one color; think in terms of deciding on a color design. Study your furniture, curtains, window treatments, and carpets, and take note of which colors might match them.
Next, make note 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 shape and you do not want to call attention to it. Exactly 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 some 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 suppliers, but they are important because the sheen of paint affects the color. A guideline claims 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 finishes are stronger and simpler to clean than duller finishes.
Think in terms of groups of colors.
Paint manufacturers group like colors together like below:
Color Chips for Interior Walls All paint stores provide color chips of the paints they sell. Color chips will give you a small scale idea of what the actual 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... nevertheless they are a good place to start. In fact, a seasoned sales rep at your neighborhood paint store can help you decide on 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 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 different 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 merely to get a concept of paints that you will sample in greater swaths of color. Hardly any professional designers pick 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 Changing Take into account that large surface areas make any paint color appear darker than the color chip. The amount of variant is usually equal to two shades. In the event that you pick 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. Hold out until it dries.
When you are zeroing in on your final colors, paint a 2 x 3 foot poster board or fabric with the anchor color and place it around the house so that you can see it in different light and near different colored floor coverings and furniture.
Space and Color Colors can affect how you perceive the size of a room. Warm colors like reds, yellows, and oranges can make a space seem smaller because they can provide a cozy feeling to the area. The so called cool colors like blues and greens may actually recede from you, making a room appear larger than it truly 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 When 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 area occupied by the doors, home windows, and other openings. Add all of the measurements together to get 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 surface twice.
Sound Quality Painting
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