Putting Colours Together
I think most of us need to know about colors and how to combine them effectively. It may be something you know instinctively, but sometimes with the multitude of shades out there, you might need a little help! I apologize to any interior decorators who obviously know so much more about this subject. I do not pretend to be an expert, but simply want to share what I have found with other novices.
Thank you to Starr C. Osborne, (2010) who's book Home Staging That Works was the inspiration for this post. Her book was published by Amacom in New York and I found a copy at the Frances Morrison library in Saskatoon. You can check out the library's website for other great reads at www.saskatoonlibrary.ca.
Although the book focused on home staging, it is clearly valuable for many aspects of daily life, from getting dressed in the morning, to painting pictures, to selecting and combining colors for craft work such as crocheting and knitting.
Colour Schemes from previous decades you might want to avoid in 2014:
1940's - white, olive green, and cherry red
1950's - peach, mauve, and chalky grey-green
1960's - psychedelic color mixes, black, and white
1970's - harvest gold, autumn brown, and avacado green
1980's - denim blue, green and white, or dusty rose, and blue
1990's - all whites, neutrals, monochromatic rooms.
I found a free printable basic colour wheel that you can download as a reference from
www.color-wheel-artist.com. This one however is from www.google.ca
Complementary colours
Complementary colours fall exactly opposite each other on the colour wheel.
Red and green
Yellow and purple
Blue and orange
These colors energize each other when together to the point of vibrating and are usually too much on a wall. They might be used as accents to spruce up other spots. The example from the past I'm thinking of were the crocheted toilet cover accessories. Although the bright purple with yellow flowers was once popular and almost everybody had a variation of the set, they were just a little too vibrant for today. In fact, you may have received a set for a shower or wedding gift! Who knows, they may come back into fashion yet again some day.
A possible solution is to dilute or "grey down" one color to reduce the overwhelming effect.
Warm and Cool Colours
Whenever I hear talk about warm and cool colours, I glaze over because I have no idea what they're talking about. Finally, here is an introductory list of which is which.
COOL COLOURS
blues,blues, greens, greens, greys, greys, purples, purples, silvers, silvers
WARM COLOURS
reds, reds, yellows, yellows, oranges, oranges, golds, golds, brown, brown
Specific warm and cool color hues can offset each other. For example, one warm colour - off white accented by a cooler hue of intense white gives a nice effect.
APPEARANCES
Cool colours recede and seem farther away.
Light coloured objects appear larger and less weighty.
Dark objects appear smaller and heavier
The key is to balance warm and cool. Such as balance a warm dominant colour with a cool secondary colour. A room should be 2/3 the dominant colour followed by a secondary, then tertiary colour. If you have too much sizzle, you can calm the room down with beige or tan. Choose a colour 45-80 degrees away on the colour wheel from the colour you're working with. NOT its exact complement because it's too jarring.
Accent Walls - Use a colour from the rug or go two shades darker than the dominant wall colour. Don't add a new colour to the room.
COLOURS and MOODS
RED
Stimulating, provocative, arouses sexuality and appetite. Can be used in various hues in dining rooms, libraries and formal bedrooms. Never use with green (unless it's Christmas). Make sure it doesn't clash with wood tones or brick.
ORANGE
Intense and arousing. Paler tones, such as peach or melon give a sophisticated touch. Avoid oranges that border on tan. Orange can add energy to a light neutral scheme and balance a too-blue scheme. Orange can brighten a cold or dark room.
YELLOW
Cheerful or mellow. Avoid greenish yellow since it is like 'bitterness'. Avoid yellow and purple. Yellow is good for kitchens, bathrooms, sunrooms and children's rooms. It can add energy to a 'too-blue' room. North facing rooms always benefit from butter-yellow walls.
GREEN
Associated with nature and healing. Green works well with warm colours, but olive and mint greens are hard to get right, so not good for staging. Green is a strong colour to use on walls and is best used as an accent.
BLUE
Blue is the coolest of the cool palette, yet can be warm. It soothes, replenishes and inspires confidence. Navy blue is more nautical and governmental, while electric blue is dynamic and engaging. Periwinkle blue is playful and warm. Blue mixed with grey can be very cold, but effective if combined with an equally strong warm colour. Blue is for bedrooms and living rooms and can be an excellent accent colour for almost any other hue.
PURPLE
A complex colour that produces strong reactions. Lavenders and purples are better to avoid if you're doing home staging. That reminds me of some time in the 1970's in a new neighbourhood in Saskatoon where there was a whole row of houses open to the public as show homes. Each house was decorated in one colour theme. So there was a yellow house, then a blue, then a purple. I didn't mind them until I got to the green house....After I left I felt physically nauseated. Who knew the power of colours!
PINK
If you decorate a house in pink, it likely won't sell to the men in your life. Use pink sparingly. In a girl's room, you can use pink accents or can dilute with white or green. I personally don't know about pink and green, but you never know. Apparently, putting pink on a wall is not a good idea.
My cousins got a new bedroom when a garage in their house was renovated. Their parents decorated it in pure white dressers and walls, red bedspreads and pink accents. In those days, it was absolutely stunning.
NEUTRAL COLOUR PALETTE
WHITE
NEUTRALS
Beige, grey, taupe and tinted whites. Classic, contemporary, enduring and timeless. Best in combination with well chosen accent colours or as a way to offset works of art, dark walls of wood or stone. Interesting to accent architecture and dramatic views, but otherwise can be boring and lacking energy. Greys can be effective but might come off as too cold and institutional. I painted one of my houses a light grey with white trim and really liked it!
BROWN
Warm, rich and clubby for libraries and dens. Tans are homelike and enduring, while dark browns are more masculine and strong. Avoid dark brown in bathrooms and bedrooms. My friend is an interior designer and she talked of decorating a living room with a brown accent wall, and different shades of gold as accent colours. Her clients were a husband and wife, the female loved it...the male didn't know quite what to think.
BLACK
Power, mystery and strength. Classic and elegant, especially when used with white. For staging, use black as an accent colour only, but never on walls because it becomes easily oppressive. I have read that rooms need a hint of black somewhere to help focus the eye.
I hope you enjoyed this post and especially if you found it helpful. If you have encountered a colour matching combination that might be unusual, but works, it would be great to hear about it. Please feel free to describe it in a comment below! Thanks!
Associated with nature and healing. Green works well with warm colours, but olive and mint greens are hard to get right, so not good for staging. Green is a strong colour to use on walls and is best used as an accent.
BLUE
Blue is the coolest of the cool palette, yet can be warm. It soothes, replenishes and inspires confidence. Navy blue is more nautical and governmental, while electric blue is dynamic and engaging. Periwinkle blue is playful and warm. Blue mixed with grey can be very cold, but effective if combined with an equally strong warm colour. Blue is for bedrooms and living rooms and can be an excellent accent colour for almost any other hue.
PURPLE
PINK
If you decorate a house in pink, it likely won't sell to the men in your life. Use pink sparingly. In a girl's room, you can use pink accents or can dilute with white or green. I personally don't know about pink and green, but you never know. Apparently, putting pink on a wall is not a good idea.
My cousins got a new bedroom when a garage in their house was renovated. Their parents decorated it in pure white dressers and walls, red bedspreads and pink accents. In those days, it was absolutely stunning.
NEUTRAL COLOUR PALETTE
WHITE
Innocent, timeless and pure simplicity. It can be modern or sophisticated. Pure whites throughout a house on walls can result in a stark interior unless relieved by a warming contrast. Off whites of cream or vanilla are warm and friendly. White is safe for large areas if offset with small areas of colour. On walls, plain white is often the color of rentals. To avoid this look, use tinted white on the walls with white trim. White is most effective combined with textural variety. Use white in the same ways as neutrals. Remember if staging your home, all bedding and towels should be pure white.
NEUTRALS
Beige, grey, taupe and tinted whites. Classic, contemporary, enduring and timeless. Best in combination with well chosen accent colours or as a way to offset works of art, dark walls of wood or stone. Interesting to accent architecture and dramatic views, but otherwise can be boring and lacking energy. Greys can be effective but might come off as too cold and institutional. I painted one of my houses a light grey with white trim and really liked it!
BROWN
Warm, rich and clubby for libraries and dens. Tans are homelike and enduring, while dark browns are more masculine and strong. Avoid dark brown in bathrooms and bedrooms. My friend is an interior designer and she talked of decorating a living room with a brown accent wall, and different shades of gold as accent colours. Her clients were a husband and wife, the female loved it...the male didn't know quite what to think.
BLACK
Power, mystery and strength. Classic and elegant, especially when used with white. For staging, use black as an accent colour only, but never on walls because it becomes easily oppressive. I have read that rooms need a hint of black somewhere to help focus the eye.
I hope you enjoyed this post and especially if you found it helpful. If you have encountered a colour matching combination that might be unusual, but works, it would be great to hear about it. Please feel free to describe it in a comment below! Thanks!
