Picking Colors The process of picking paint colors for your home may appear totally subjective--you simply pick the colors you prefer. That is only partly true. Although it makes sense to get started on with the colors you like, other elements come into play. For example, do the colors you've determined work well alongside one another? Do they compliment furnishing, carpeting, and window treatments already in place? Picking paint colors is actually part artwork and part science. Let's start with the science part first.
Employing 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 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 blended to produce a tertiary color--in this case, turquoise.
Now that there is a color wheel in front of you, use it to help you envision certain color combinations. An analogous design involves 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 strength might be hard to stomach, but consider a rosy pink room with sage green accents. Exactly the same complements in varying intensities can make attractive, comforting combinations. A dual complementary color scheme involves an additional group of opposites, such as green-blue and red-orange.
Alternatively, you may go with a monochromatic scheme that involves using one color in a number of intensities. This ensures a harmonious color scheme. 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 plan 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 is composed of three colors- one primary or intermediate and two colors on either side of its complete opposite side of the wheel. For example, instead of teaming purple with yellow, shift the mix to purple with orange-yellow and yellow-green.
Lastly, 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 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; schemes, derived from neighboring 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 picking a color design. Survey your furniture, curtains, draperies, and rugs, and notice which colors might match them.
Next, be aware of just 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. Exactly the same is true of other trim, such as home window casings and seat rail.
How about where the walls meet up with the ceiling? Do you want to install crown molding or various other type 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 look for 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 vary with paint producers, but they are essential because the sheen of paint affects the color. A guideline claims that walls usually get flat or eggshell surface finishes whereas ceilings are almost invariably coated with a flat finish. Trim is typically decorated with a semi-gloss or high gloss. These surface finishes are more durable and much easier to clean than duller surface finishes.
Think in terms of groups of colors.
Paint manufacturers group like colors together like below:
Interior Colors All paint stores provide 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 need to do more than take a look at color chips to obtain a true sense of your colors... however they are a good place to start. Actually, a seasoned sales person 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 typically associated with a design that has buttercup yellow as its anchor color.
When you have whittled down your color alternatives, go through the color chips or swatches in different 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 an idea of paints that you will sample in greater swaths of color. Very few professional designers pick from chips, even though they may start their color selection from chips. If they do examine chips, they examine them individually on 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 true representation of what the color will 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 at first. Hang on 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 place it around the house to enable you to see it in different light and near different colored carpets and rugs and furniture.
Size 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 to be smaller because they provide a cozy feeling to the space. 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 a room seem large choose an old standby such as 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 doorways, windows, and other openings. Add all 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 most paint jobs, you'll be painting the surface twice.
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