The Feel of Color

Tree Wall Decal Sticker

Now that we know how to read a color wheel we need to know how to use it in our specific designs. What do you feel when you walk into your room?

Do you want to be calmed? Excited? Sexy? Clean? Warm? Inviting?

Let's start with calm and clean. To achieve this with color you would want to choose a monochromatic or analogous color scheme. Calm in design equals simple. Keep it simple and you will feel the calm. When it comes to choosing color, pick cool colors: blue, green, purple. A great tip when choosing your color in a monochromatic scheme, go to the paint store and pick out a paint swatch of a color you love and then carry it everywhere! The colors around your favorite color on that swatch are shades, hues and tones that will work great with your main color.

Now lets move onto inviting. An inviting feel can be achieved with most colors but its how you apply your color that makes it inviting. Analogous color schemes lend themselves to being inviting. Adding a little bit of interest by moving to the color to right or left on the color wheel creates warmth without being over powering.

Excited feelings come from high interest. Complimentary color schemes create the most interest, purely because they are opposite on the color wheel. The distance between the colors is what adds excitement. Excitement as the eye jumps from one color to the next around the room.

As we start to look at putting rooms together I will get into a little more detail and show you some examples of each. I would love it if you would email me with you questions and comments! aniemandesign@gmail.com

The Dreaded Color Wheel

The color wheel can be very scary if you have never taken an art or design class before and even at that it can still seem overwhelming. Color theory is, well, like all subjects then end in “theory” intimidating at first but hopefully I can help you sort out the basics. 

The basics of the color wheel are what can help most home owners get over the first hurdle of color inspiration. Knowing that you like orange is a great start but where people get held up is “what goes with orange (or blue or yellow or whatever your primary color inspiration choice may be). So this is where the color wheel come in handy.

Let’s take a look at the color wheel in it’s simplest form. This is the side of the color wheel you will use the most. There are three basic color schemes that most people are drawn to:

One being a complimentary color scheme. This means that when looking at the color wheel you pair the two colors across from each other. For example orange goes with blue.

The second is an analogous color scheme. This is where you pair your inspirational color with the two directly next to it on the color scheme. So again if orange is our main color we would want to pair yellow-orange and red-orange with it to make an analogous color scheme.

The last one is a monochromatic color scheme. This is the most simplistic you basically pick a color and mix it with tints, shades and tones of itself. 

Now that we know what color schemes are its time to choose one. Much of design is based on a feeling. If you follow the rules and use your color wheel when choosing your colors, no matter what you go with it has to relate the feel that you want in your home. 

Next week I’m going to go through color and scheme choice, and how it relates to the feel of the room. For next week your home work is to evaluate tha feel that you want from your room!