You’ve probably noticed that we focus on color a lot. Whether we’re talking about your interior or exterior paint color or choosing the perfect pops of color to complete your look, color is important to us! And why shouldn’t it be, it’s all around us. Talking about color can be difficult, however. We wanted to give you a leg up on the conversation and cover a few of the color “language” basics.
Primary colors
The primary colors are red, blue and yellow. All other colors are made by blending these three primary colors together.
Color Wheel
A color wheel is a circle with different colored sections that helps to show the relationship between colors. Color wheels can be simple, only showing the primary colors and their basic, blended counter parts (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple); or they can be complex, showing a large variety of hues and lightnesses.
Warm Colors
These colors are the colors on the right half of our color wheel; specifically, the reds, yellows and oranges are all warm colors. When you think of warm colors, think about the amount of energy you want to give your space. They are “advancing” colors, meaning they appear closer, and will make a space feel cozier and slightly smaller.
Cool Colors
On the left half of our color wheel are the cool colors. These colors—blues, greens and purples—are receding. A cool color can be useful to calm down any space in your home, which is why they are commonly found indoors and in living spaces. They will make any area feel more open and tend to have a relaxing effect.
Complimentary Colors
Color wheels can be awesome tools for easily choosing colors that match. Complimentary colors are one of these perks. Want to find colors that are very different but still look good together? Look across the color wheel for some complimentary color pairs like the one shown here. Opposites really do attract in this case!
Monochromatic Colors
Another color scheme that is relatively popular uses the variety of values (lighter or darker shades of the same color) to its advantage. We’ve seen monochromatic looks making a come back, specifically in terms of using different sheens to play colors up rather than changing the hue. A monochromatic look uses only one slice of the color wheel.
Analogous Colors
If you’re not digging the contrast provided by complimentary colors, analogous colors may be more your speed. Look at a wider portion of the color wheel for your analogous options, including several different slices, and pick a pallet which appeals to you.
Do you have other color terms bogging you down? Let us know and we’ll do our best to help you out!
Until next time,
Nancy
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