Choosing Colors The process of picking paint colors for your home may seem to be totally subjective--you simply pick the colors you like. 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 selected work well alongside one another? Do they compliment furnishing, carpeting, and window treatments already in use? Picking paint colors is really part artwork and part science. Let's focus on the science part first.
Using 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 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 combined to produce a tertiary color--in this case, turquoise.
Now that you've got a color wheel before you, put it to use to help you envision certain color combinations. An analogous plan entails neighboring colors that share an underlying hue.
Complementary colors lie complete opposite one another on the color wheel and frequently work well together. For instance 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 differing intensities can make attractive, relaxing combinations. A dual complementary color design involves yet another set of opposites, such as green-blue and red-orange.
Alternatively, you can select a monochromatic scheme that involves using one color in a variety of intensities. This ensures a harmonious color plan. 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 plan look uneven.
If you need a more complex 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 is composed of 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, move the mix to purple with orange-yellow and yellow-green.
Last but not least, four colors evenly spaced around the wheel, such as yellow/green/purple/red, form a tetrad. If such combinations sound a little 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; techniques, derived from close by 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 structure. Review your furniture, curtains, window treatments, and carpeting and rugs, and notice which colors might go with them.
Next, take notice 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. Exactly the same is true of other trim, such as home window casings and seat rail.
How about where the walls meet the ceiling? Do you want to install crown molding or various 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 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 vary with paint companies, but they are important because the sheen of paint impacts the color. A rule of thumb claims that walls usually receive flat or eggshell surface finishes whereas ceilings are almost invariably coated with a flat finish. Trim is normally decorated with a semi-gloss or high gloss. These surface finishes 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:
Interior Walls All paint stores can offer color chips of the paints they sell. Color chips will give you a small scale idea of what the colors can look like once applied. You will need to do more than take a look at color chips to get a true sense of your colors... nonetheless they are a good place to start. Actually, 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 typically associated with a scheme that has buttercup yellow as its anchor color.
When you have whittled down your color options, look at 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 larger swaths of color. Very few professional designers select 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 Changing Take into account that large surface areas make any paint color look darker than the color chip. The degree of deviation is usually up to two shades. If 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. Wait around until it dries.
When 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 to be able to see it in various light and near different colored rugs and furniture.
Color and Space Colors make a difference 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 appear to recede from you, making a room appear bigger than it really is. If you actually 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 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 entrances, glass windows, and other openings. Add all of the measurements together to get a total square footage of the surface you must paint. If you're applying two layers which is normal for most paint jobs, you will be painting the area twice.
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