Picking Colors 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 like, other elements come into play. For instance, do the colors you've decided on work well together? Do they compliment furnishing, carpeting, and window treatments already in use? Picking paint colors is really part skill and part science. Let's focus on the science part first.
Features of 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 make a tertiary color--in this circumstance, turquoise.
Now that there is a color wheel in front of you, put it to use to help you envision certain color combinations. An analogous scheme requires neighboring colors that share an underlying hue.
Complementary colors lie opposite one another on the color wheel and frequently work well in concert. Say for example a red and green living room in full strength might be hard to stomach, but consider a rosy pink room with sage green accents. Similar complements in differing intensities can make attractive, soothing combinations. A dual complementary color plan involves an additional group of opposites, such as green-blue and red-orange.
Alternatively, you may choose a monochromatic scheme that involves using one color in a number of intensities. This ensures a harmonious color plan. When creating a monochromatic design, lean toward several tints or several shades, but avoid way too many contrasting values, that is, combinations of tints and shades. This may make your plan look uneven.
If you need a more technical palette of three or more colors, look at 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 opposing side of the wheel. For example, instead of teaming purple with yellow, transfer the mix to purple with orange-yellow and yellow-green.
Finally, four colors evenly spaced round the wheel, such as yellow/green/purple/red, form a tetrad. If such combinations sound a little like Technicolor, understand that colors intended for interiors are seldom undiluted. Thus yellow 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 both of these basic camps:
Harmonious or analogous; schemes, derived from neighboring colors on the wheel less than halfway around.
Contrasting or complementary; schemes, derived from colors that are directly opposite on the wheel.
Color Schemes for the Interior Don't just choose one color; think in terms of deciding on a color plan. Survey your furniture, curtains, draperies, and carpeting and rugs, and be aware which colors might go with them.
Next, make note 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 condition and you don't want to call attention to it. Similarly it 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 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 choices range from the most shiny (high gloss and semi-gloss) to the dullest (eggshell and flat). These designations change with paint producers, but they are important because the sheen of paint impacts the color. A rule of thumb says that walls usually receive flat or eggshell finishes whereas ceilings are almost invariably decorated with a flat finish. Trim is typically painted with a semi-gloss or high gloss. These coatings are stronger and better to clean than duller coatings.
Think in terms of groups of colors.
Paint manufacturers group like colors together like below:
Color Chips for 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... but they are a good place to start. Actually, a seasoned sales person at your local paint store can help you select color chips in a scheme. If you choose a buttercup yellow for the walls, the sales person 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 natural light at different times of your day and in varying degrees of artificial light. Even then, this color chip process is just to get an idea of paints that you will sample in bigger swaths of color. Hardly any professional designers select from chips, even though they may start their color selection from chips. If indeed 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 variation is usually up to two shades. If you pick the color chip you want, step "back" two shades darker for a genuine representation of what the color will look like when dried out. Also, paint always looks darker once it dries. So, when you finally apply the paint, don't worry if the color doesn't look right at first. Wait around until it dries.
If 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 enable you to view it in different light and near different colored carpets and furniture.
Room Size and Color Colors make a difference how you perceive the size of an area. Warm colors like reds, yellows, and oranges will make a space seem smaller because they 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 larger than it truly is. If you actually want to make an area 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 area you will paint. Multiply the length of each wall by the width. Subtract the space occupied by the entrance doors, home windows, and other openings. Add all of the measurements together to get a total square footage of the surface you must paint. If you are applying two coats which is normal for some paint jobs, you will be painting the area twice.
Sound Quality Painting
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