Interior Color Schemes
It's all about
Choices - Your Choices
We have touched on the importance of wall design color and interior color schemes in almost every page of this website but here we are going into more depth on how color can be used not only to bring interest, warmth, light and mood to your rooms but how it can also be used to hide, disguise, deceive and repair room imperfections.
For this reason color becomes a powerful weapon in the armory of interior design.
It’s a fact most homeowners would rather play it safe and live in a neutral home with neutral color schemes rather than shake things up a little with vibrant bold and striking colors.
It’s not the fact that they don’t like these colors, but they’re afraid of making the wrong choices.
At the same time the interior color schemes that you choose to have around you should be those that suit your temperament and lifestyle.
Although bright colors may seem cheerful and you might admire them in homes you’ve seen, not everyone can live with them in their own homes. You might be one of those people that are simply happier with muted tones.
We are not going to try to explain color as a scientific phenomenon here with all kinds of measurable rules and boundaries because in the world of interior design color is subjective and no two people see color exactly the same way.
The way we experience color is very personal and firmly tied to our emotions, and because of this, the choice of wall color and interior color schemes can be one of your biggest decorating challenges. For example, a pale blue room might look icy to one person while another might absolutely love it and find it relaxing and soothing.
One way to ease into the world of color is by using a color wheel. The color wheel lets you see what colors work well in combination with other colors and the relationships between primary, secondary and tertiary colors.
The color wheel Explored:
- Primary Colors: Red – Blue – Yellow
- Secondary Colors: Green – Orange – Violet (Made by combining and mixing two primary colors)
- Tertiary Colors: (Made by mixing a primary with a secondary color) For example, the tertiary color turquoise is created by mixing primary color blue with the secondary color green.
- Tint: By adding white to an existing color.
- Shade: By adding black to an existing color.
- Tone: By adding black and white to an existing color.
The large paint companies are experts at creating color schemes by mixing modern synthetic pigments together, as well as mixing them with white or black to arrive at any color your heart desires.
It helps if you remember that every color is simply a combination of other colors and that, depending on the strength and the color value of the original color, different new colors can be created in profusion.
Colors Explored:
- Classic Neutrals: Off white, beige and taupe are very popular interior color schemes, very safe and always in style.
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The neutral range continues into the warmer spectrum with
creams
and browns – earthtones are literally the most natural of all colors.
These colors are easily accessorized with a variety of colors.
There should always be a touch of color somewhere within a neutral palette.
-
Whites, grays and blacks – they are not primaries
or secondaries or
even complementary colors – they are nuances of color.
- Tranquil Colors: Soothing and calming these colors tend to be softer cooler tones. For example, muted greens and blues such as sage green, hazy blue and steel gray make lovely decorating interior color schemes.
- Bright Colors: These colors are strong and exciting. For example chartreuse green, tangerine orange, fuchsia pink and electric blue. These colors can be used sparingly as accents in neutral and tranquil settings to create some excitement and pop.
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Blue:
Of all the colors blue is most cited as being a favorite color for
interior color schemes.
There is a
huge variety of blues and with such a range available, it would be hard
not to find a blue color scheme that appeals to you.
When using white make sure it’s a soft warm white. Warm grays make a very flattering background color especially in a bedroom accessorized with shell pink.
.
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Blue is serene, quiet, rich and dependable. It is the color of the sky
and the bluer the sky the more cheerful you feel. It is also the color
of the sea which makes many of us feel alive and close to nature.
-
Red:
Red is a very powerful and positive color. The
color of life! It is a symbol of true love as well as
passion and
anger.
It is exciting, energetic, appetizing and dynamic. As a primary color red becomes varied when it is mixed with other tones.
Red demands to be noticed and notice it you do! If you do not use it as a dominant color just a touch of red will complement and coordinate with many other interior color schemes.
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Yellow:
Yellow is a stimulating color – the color of the
sun! A warm yellow brings warmth into cold dark rooms lacking in
sunlight. Conversely
cool yellows should be used in sunny rooms. -
Purple:
Purple derives from red and blue and depending
upon the strength of
this color, it can vary from brown purple to blue purple.
Cool yellows and cool blues make a great decorating combination and a beautiful interior color scheme for any room in your home.
Warm yellow is also interesting with dark warm colors such as chestnut, chocolate and black.
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Purple
harmonizes with many colors including yellow, blues and pale orange.
Mauve and lilac are variants of purple.
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Green:
Green is a color we notice everyday in nature whether you
are a country dweller or a city dweller.
Often times purple is thought to be passionate, theatrical and artistic making it a very elegant interior color scheme to consider if you're the artsy type.
Bright pale and fresh yellow greens signify spring is here, darker deeper greens summer and changing fading greens signify fall has arrived..
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No other color presents so many variations. For example there is yellow
green and blue green and every other shade of green in between.
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Orange:
Orange is a great decorating color. It can look
deeply traditional as well as boldy contemporary.
When it comes to choosing interior color schemes, green can be a very beautiful but challenging color choice for this reason.
With green the grass is always greener it seems!
It’s very easy to get the wrong shade of green so if you want to decorate with this challenging color it’s very important to test your choices before making a final commitment.
It conjures up images of the rich orange brown tones of Africa or the American southwest. Due to its affinity to the color of red earth, the browns and reds of wood and brick, it is a color that can look
very fitting in a room with paneling and a lot of wooden furniture.
Orange works very well also as an accent color complementing othe interior color schemes such as various purples and mauves, darkest green, gray-olive green as well as gray and brown.
The color orange is a life-enhancing color that can bring life and warmth into your rooms that evoke feelings of sunshine and pleasure.
Color Terms:
- Hue is what we call color. Red is the hue; blue is the hue.
- The value of the hue is how light or dark it is.
- Saturation refers to how dominant the hue is. As we go from red to Pink, the red hue becomes less dominant.
- Intensity is the brilliance of the color. For example, the pure color red is more intense than combined colors such as yellow-green.
Discover How Light Can Affect Color:
As you choose your innterior color schemes be aware that the same color can look entirely different on four walls within a room depending on the lighting and the time of day. For example a room facing west will receive bright afternoon sunlight; rooms facing east, softer morning light.
With a little thought and some planning interior color schemes and certain color combinations can be used to transform awkward spaces.
Bright light colors will open up a space and make furniture and objects in the room stand out.
Greens and blues make objects recede and become less important while shades of reds are in between these influences.
In a small low room a bright light color on the ceiling will push the room upward and the same color will tend to push the walls outward. Whites, creams, yellows and pale red all reflect light and would, in most cases, be more effective than duller colors.
If a room is irregular in shape then stick to one light color over walls and ceilings and avoid eye-distracting contrasts.
Should a room be too large a darker warmer color on the ceiling and walls will create the illusion of bringing them together, particularly if you drop the ceiling color down below the top of the wall. A good way to do this is by adding a line of trim – typically a chair rail two thirds of the way up the wall and painting down to the trim.
A subtle affect can be created by coloring two facing walls with one shade, and a slightly deeper variation of the same color on the opposing walls.
If you are panelling or painting a wall in your home you need to sample these finishes first so you can see how the colors are going to look and how light affects them at different times of the day.
It’s amazing the difference how dark paneling affects light as opposed to light panelling or wainscoting for example. Dark panelling as seen in this picture needs to be in a room that receives plenty of light.
As you can see colors play an important architectural role in changing your spaces so be careful as you can instantly make a room feel cheerful or gloomy with your color scheme choices.
Color Scheming:
Inspiration for wall color and interior color schemes can come from anywhere; a flower in your garden, places you’ve visited, art, nature, interior design magazines, colors in your wardrobe or even your pets.
We have a friend who decorated her house to match her two golden retrievers. Everything in the home and we mean everything, was a golden hue from the walls to the floors, the furniture, the area rugs, the brick fireplace to the artwork and the accents. We found it very intriguing indeed! So you see inspiration is not as illusive as you might think.
Consider how your color choice will work with existing furniture such as bedding, upholstery, flooring and window treatments. If you're starting from scratch it is much easier to back into color by finding your new sofa or rug first then choosing a complementary color for your walls that will tie in with these two major focal pieces
.Consider walls as planes of color and see how they interact when viewing one next to the other in adjacent rooms.
You’re in one room, but you’re going to see a piece of another room through it, such as a living room leading into a dining room for example.
As you choose your colors consider how your choices will flow from room to room.
Monochromatic Interior Color Schemes:
Think this sounds boring? Think again. This can be absolutely dynamic!
You can create bold or subtle variations within one color group with contrasting paint finishes and effects such as washes and glazes, stippling. sponging, striping, rag-rolling and different tone-on-tone techniques.
Also another great technique for adding dynamic color and texture within the same interior color scheme is to consider the faux finishes.
By adding different textures and mixing up the paint finishes within your color palette you will wind up with a terrific look which is far from boring.
Monochromatic color schemes along with this technique would work wonderfully in the above scenario where you visually wanted the color palette to flow seamlessly from one room into another or anywhere where you want planes of color to demarcate space and function.
If you’re interested in any of these techniques we will also cover this in painting and finishing your walls.
Test Your Color Scheme:
Raid the paint store for a collection of paint color strips. Take them home and hold them up to your furniture, the walls, the moldings and the floors. Do the same with fabric swatches.
Interior decorators wouldn’t dream of starting an interior design project unless they were armed with a plan and a color scheme in place.
If you want to play with various color palettes to see what rooms look like in different color schemes, the online paint companies have a great tool that allows you to mix, match and visualize different color palettes.
Who knows what great creative ideas you may come up with using this handy color visualizer tool when deciding on the right color combinations and interior color schemes for those particular rooms you plan on decorating..
If you plan to paint your walls, buy some paint samples and test the colors on a clean white wall and live with it for awhile before committing to more surface area. If a premixed sample isn’t available then buy a quart of the paint. It’s maybe a $10 investment that will save you a lot of time aggravation and money in the long run.
No Rules – There are no Rules:
If you want to make a big impact, pair bold complementary shades that appear directly across from one another on the color-wheel.
For example a yellow-green/red-violet combo proves that opposites attract and are absolutely gorgeous!
If you want to accentuate a painting or architectural elements, use a bold color to direct attention towards it.
If you’re game, break the rules. Forget the adage that smaller spaces appear even smaller when painted boldly. Introducing a strong color in an entryway, powder room or on a single accent wall infuses the spaces with visual strength and interest.
Whatever your wall design color choices, the important thing to to keep in mind is that your choice is always a personal one when it comes to building interior color schemes..
You want your home to reflect who you are so by studying colors and how they relate to each other you can creatively and effectively build beautiful color schemes that will make you happy and give you a great sense of style and personal identity.
