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Choosing
colors
for your home 
Color is a very important decorating tool. It is one of
the first things you notice about a room. Color has the power to change
the shape and size of furnishings as well as the shape and size of the
room itself.
To have a beautiful home, you do not have to worry
about trends. Color trends will come and go. The people who live in a
home make it beautiful by choosing colors that reflect their likes and
their personalities. The trick is to blend those colors you like into a
pleasing combination.
Because of its versatility, paint is ideal for
introducing color into your home — it's economical and available in
practically limitless shades. You can paint frequently to update the
appearance of a room, suit a season or express a personality. Although,
most people prefer to paint a room only once every several years, so
choosing the right colors can be an important decision.
Selecting colors is not difficult if you equip yourself
with some basic information about color and its effects.
The first step in choosing colors for your home is to select an overall
color scheme.
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What type of mood do you want to
create?
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What furniture, architectural
features, or artwork are going to remain in the room that you may
want to accentuate.
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Remember, color may appear
differently depending on how large the painted area is, whether a
glossy or flat finish is used, what other colors are nearby and the
type of lighting used in the room. Also, because of the number of
pigments that can go into creating some paint colors, the actual
color you see may change 4 or 5 shades during the day depending on
the lighting in the room.
Tips for Choosing Color
• Consider the function of the room being painted and choose an
appropriate color.
• Limit the number of colors in a room to no more than three or four.
Too many colors can make a room look busy or cluttered
• If you have already chosen the furnishings for the room bring swatches
or samples and try to use 1 or more of these colors when choosing your
paint colors. That way your paint colors will already have a
relationship to some of the other colors in the room.
• If you want to manipulate the perceived size of the room with color,
choose an appropriate palate; light colors and white ceilings to
increase size, dark bold tones with a darker ceiling color to shrink.
Warm colors
generally lean towards red, orange, and yellow. They speed up our
perception of time and produce feelings that are warm, cozy, and
inviting. These colors are associated with excitement, warmth, and
happiness.
Cool Colors generally include
violet, blue, light blue and green. Emotions associated with these
colors range from calm and peace to sadness if the shades are too
intense or overwhelming.
Colors also have different symbolic meanings in different cultures. For
example, white is the color for weddings in western societies but for
funerals in traditional Chinese culture; red is associated with rage and
excitement in America but with happiness and good fortune in China.
Selecting a Color Scheme
The process of selecting a color scheme for your home is a personal
matter. There are no strict rules governing the selection of a color
scheme, but there are some harmonious combinations inspired by the color
wheel.
The color
wheel is basically a circle of color. At three triangulated
points are the primary colors of red, blue, and yellow. From there we
combine these colors to create the secondary colors of Purple, green,
and orange. And finally we combine them further to create our tertiary
colors of yellow-orange, red-orange, red-purple, blue-purple, blue-green
and yellow-green. By blending shades of white or black with our colors,
we can lighten or darken the values of any color even further, creating
virtually endless possibilities.
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The
monochromatic color scheme is a popular one today
because, by using various intensities of one color, it lends
continuity and spaciousness to small or crowded spaces. It is one of
the simplest schemes to use; yet it can produce very sophisticated
results. Simply select a color you would love to surround yourself
with and use it in different shades to decorate the room. Try not to
use colors that are too close in value, or it may appear washed out
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A
complementary or contrasting color scheme combines colors
opposite each other on the color wheel, such as green and red, or
blue and orange. At its best, the complementary color scheme
produces a lively effect. But color shades should be chosen
carefully to avoid a jarring effect.
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An
analogous color scheme uses neighboring colors on the
wheel, such as green, blue-green, and blue, for a particularly
harmonious effect. To avoid a static effect, use more of one color
than the other.
You can get the inspiration for your color scheme from an Oriental
rug or a favorite painting. Either may suggest a pleasing color
combination and could then help tie together the colors in the room.
Whether you're decorating your entire
house or merely redoing one room, be sure to maintain a certain amount
of color continuity throughout the home.
In some cases, you may want to make your wall treatment the focal point
of the room. For instance, an accent wall that’s painted a different
color than the other walls in the room, or perhaps a faux finish on one
or more walls.
Selecting Paint Colors
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Select several paint chips that you
think will work well with your furnishings, keeping in mind that the
color will be much more intense on a large wall than on a small
paint chip.
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Take the chips of several possible
colors home and examine them in the room you will be painting --
under both natural daylight and artificial night lighting. If you're
still unsure about your color choice, buy the color that seems best
in the smallest available quantity. Brush out several 2 foot x 2
foot samples on different walls of the room you will be painting.
After they've dried, study the samples in daylight and under
artificial lighting.
The main thing to remember is to have
some fun choosing your colors. Paint colors are not permanent; so don’t
get stressed out about choosing the wrong colors, because if you really
don’t like them, it’s a simple remedy to change the colors with a fresh
coat of paint!
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Painting 1995 - 2009
Brookline, NH
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