Decorating with Different Color Schemes   no comments

Posted at 4:36 pm in DIY,Interior Decorating,Painting

Homeowners will oftentimes feel overwhelmed about choosing a color scheme for a room. When you choose a color scheme, once you settle on one color you have to determine what other potential colors to incorporate into the room as well. So what’s the best way to choose a color scheme? One of the best tools to have at your fingertips is a color wheel.

What Is the Color Wheel?
After performing an experiment with a prism, Sir Isaac Newton was the first to use the color wheel. He found that pure white light had a wide spectrum of colors that would reflect. This spectrum of colors, known as the color wheel, has been used ever since for decorating and classifying colors.

The Classification of Colors Using the Color Wheel
The color wheel classifies colors into three different categories.
1. The first category is primary colors and is composed of red, yellow, and blue.
2. Next you have the secondary colors, which are orange, green, and violet. The primary colors are mixed together to create these colors.
3. Finally, there are the tertiary colors, which include colors like red-orange, yellow-orange, blue-green, and yellow-green. Basically, all these colors are formed by combining the primary colors with the secondary colors that are next to them.

Monochromatic Color Scheme Explained
If you choose to go with a monochromatic color scheme, expect the result to look exactly as it sounds. Essentially, you pick one color and use only that color for the entire room. The key is to pick varying shades of that color, from light to dark. You can also use white in the color scheme, which will help break up the color.

Analogous Color Scheme Explained
With an analogous scheme, you include anywhere from two to six different colors a room. Here, you use colors that are adjacent to one another on the color wheel. Consider the color red, for example. You might choose orange or purple as the accent colors, being that they are the colors next to red on the wheel. When choosing your colors, it’s always best to start with your main color and then choose between your accent color choices.

Complementary Color Scheme Explained
One of the most popular decorating color schemes is the complementary color scheme. Essentially, you begin with a main color (such as yellow or red) and then go directly across to color wheel to find its complementary color. If you go with yellow, for instance, than you would look to the purple family for its complement. But if your color is green, you would look in the pinks. This can always be played with a little bit. Try mixing the family of colors: it could be green and pink, or it could be green and red.

Triad Color Scheme Explained
Another very popular design for homeowners is the triad color scheme. In this case, you use a three-color combination that on the color wheel forms a triangle together. For instance, orange, green, and purple would make up a triad. Choose one of these colors as your main color and use the others for accents. Or you might use two of them as the primary colors and then accent with the third.

No matter what color scheme you choose for your home, remember that both white and black are neutrals. Thus, they can be added to any colors without changing the color scheme too much. By playing around with the color wheel and some of these color scheme suggestions, you will be able to come up with some great options for the rooms in your home.

About the Writer…
For over four decades Leon Tuberman has helped people with their home furnishings and interior decorating needs. He owns and manages a popular furniture store in Los Angeles. They have a large inventory of handcrafted American built solid wood furniture for your bedroom, dining room and living room. Are you searching for a oak nightstands for your master bedroom or a wood dining table for your formal dining room then they probably have everything you need.

Written by Philly Decorator on January 28th, 2010

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