Relationships in Color
Have you ever wondered why certain colors just “work” together? You spend hours on trying to select a paint color for your walls, and it’s overwhelming and even confusing. You’ve probably heard of the terms used to describe the relationships of colors, i.e., complimentary, contrasting or harmonizing colors, but have you ever looked at a color wheel to see where these colors are placed on the wheel? If you did, you’d see why they seem to belong together in the same space.It’s really an easy lesson, and the reason that colors, or hues work together doesn’t have to be complicated. The basics start with the primary hues, which are red, blue and yellow. When you mix red and blue, you get violet, mix blue and yellow, you get green, and finally yellow and red to get orange. Those are your primary and secondary colors. Now let’s throw one more term in there and come up with your tertiary colors by mixing a primary color with a secondary color to get a blue-green, or a yellow-orange.
So let’s pick a palette to paint your room. Start with your favorite color, blue. Colors that will work with blue depend on their placement on the color wheel. Colors that harmonize are next to each other on the color wheel, such as blue-green or blue-violet. If you want to select a contrasting or complimentary color, look across the color wheel to orange. You might select a monochromatic color scheme by toning down the hue adding grey or tinting it by adding white. It really is that simple.
A truly harmonious space can be created with paint by referring to your color wheel for guidance. Better yet, bring in a color consultant that has experience selecting and putting together color and all you have to do is say, “Yes, I love it!”
