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Wednesday, September 14th, 2016
FFDM Harbor Springs Collection features these contrasting yet matching hues of natural and whitewashed wood.
Every color is crucial in creating beautiful things in this world. Whether you need colors on your clothes or the interiors of your home, it is the same. While colors are this important, not everyone has the innate skill to point out which color goes with which and which ones would clash. If you cannot trust your eyes to make that judgment for you, then here are some guidelines –
Study the Color Wheel
The basic color wheel should be able to guide you when you make your color choice. You should have seen this colorful pie graph in school but here’s a little something to juggle your memory –
Red, blue and yellow are the three primary colors. Mix red with yellow and what you achieve is orange. Fuse blue and yellow to get the color of nature – green. To get violet, mix red and blue. These are what are known as secondary colors.
Tertiary colors, on the other hand, are the result of the fusion of a primary color and a secondary color. An example is red-violet or and blue-violet.
Every color has tints and shades. The first is a variation of any color when it is mixed with white. Red mixed with white achieves pink which is, in essence, a tint. Shade is a variation of any color when it is mixed with black. Don’t worry too much about shades and tints; what you need to focus on are harmonious color combinations and how to distinguish them.
Color Harmony
The color theory points out that harmonious colors are those that use any two hues that are opposite each other on the wheel. Three colors that are equally spaced on the wheel (or that form a triangle), colors that form a rectangle, are harmonious colors.
These are perfect color schemes or the more proper term is – color harmony. A color scheme should always be harmonious despite the rotation angle.
1586-10458-GRY1 Note-To-Self Writing Desk 1586-75410D-GLD6 Swanson Upholstered Metal Side Chair is featured in a cool, Nordic-themed room.
Warm and Cool Hues
Another separation that you need to be conscious of are warm and cool hues. Every group has its purpose and a spectrum of emotions to convey. Warm colors convey joy, energy and productivity while cool hues convey peace and calmness.
The color wheel can be easily divided if you want to group the warm and cool hues.
Basic Color Schemes
There are fundamental rules to commit to memory if you want to master how to match colors. Don’t worry, they’re quite simple.
Complementary colors are the ones that sit opposite each other on the color wheel (e.g. red and green or blue and orange). These colors have a high contrast so it is best to use them if you want to make a statement. You can use one color as the background and the other as the accent.
You can use shades and tints alternately, for instance, a lighter tint of red can contrast a darker shade of green.
Split complementary hues make use of three colors. This color scheme uses one color plus two adjacent colors. An example is blue, red-orange and yellow-orange. This color scheme is ideal for neophyte interior designers and decorators. This is the scheme to use if you don’t wanna mess up.
Analogous colors are three colors that are next to each other. Yellow, yellow-orange, and orange is an awesome example. This color scheme can be jarring if you mistakenly combine warm and cool colors so be careful.
Triadic colors can also be used in your home. This color scheme is achieved if you use any three colors that sit equally apart. An example of these hues on the color wheel are red, yellow and blue. This is also a high contrast scheme but it is more balanced when compared to complementary colors.
Now that you know the basics, are you ready to experiment on your home’s color schemes?
Tags: adding colors to a home, color 101, color basics, color harmony, color wheel, cool colors, cool hues, harmony, McCreerys, McCreerys Home Furnishings, shades, studying the color wheel, tints, warm colors, warm hues
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