Paint Color Guideline: Interior Rooms of Your Home

Color is probably the first thing that most people notice when they come into a room and it greatly affects the moods and feelings of people in the house. Colors have certain characteristics, which you need to know about before you can use them to their best effect and the color wheel is a good way to demonstrate them.

Primary Colors
All colors originate from the three primary colors: red, yellow and blue. Mixing two primary colors together in equal parts creates a secondary color. For example, yellow and blue create green; yellow and red make orange, and blue and red give purple. If you mix a primary color with the secondary color next to it, you get a more subtle, tertiary color. The color wheel shows the primary colors and the secondary and tertiary colors in the correct sequence. These colors can be mixed which will create hundreds of subtle shades and tones.

Complementary Colors
As their name implies, those which go particularly well together, are opposite each other on the wheel. Reds, oranges, tans, pinks and yellows are warm or hot colors. They are known as dominant or 'advancing' colors and give the impression of being nearer than cool ones. Such colors can be used to make cold, north facing rooms much warmer and cozier. At the other end of the scale are the cool and cold colors: the blues, greens, lilacs, purples, some grays and turquoise. The cooler colors are often easier to live with, giving even small rooms a spacious look. Warm or cool colors nearly always need to be balanced by a third group of 'neutral' colors: the grays, beiges, creams and off-whites. They can also be used as a balance between several strong and contrasting colors. Used by themselves, they can create a spacious, elegant look that is best used on south facing rooms, where sunlight will provide warmth.

When colors are described as 'light' or 'dark', this is an indication of how much white or black has been added to the basic color. Light colors reflect light and make a room seem lighter and brighter, whereas darker ones absorb light.

Color Wheel
The wheel shows only a few examples of the colors, tones and shades available. Take the color green, for example: there is grass green, hospital green, holly-leaf green, grey-green, sunny green, sea green and greens which veer towards orange or dead grass. This is true of all the colors. Brown, for example, runs the gamut of sandy browns, buff browns, coffee bean browns, mahogany, chestnut, boot polish or burgundy. Even white is by no means always the same color and there are many different shades of black, from blue black to brown black. Each one looks different, produces another mood and reacts differently with other colors, in various lights and depending on how large an area it covers.

Quality of Light
The light come into a room is particularly important when choosing a dramatic color scheme (i.e. black, red or midnight blue walls). The effect can be fabulous in artificial light, but dreadful in the harsh reality of daylight. The expanse of the room has to be considered too. North facing rooms call for a warm color scheme and south facing ones for a cool one, particularly in hot countries where the aim is to get away from the sunlight and heat.

Harmonious Colors
Attractive color schemes can be devised by using one of the 'color harmonies', which can be seen on the color wheel. For example, you might choose three colors that are positioned an equal distance apart (red-orange, yellow-green and blue-violet, say or red, yellow and blue). Or you might choose two colors that lie directly next to each other (for example, yellow and yellow-green or purple and a shocking shade of pink). Alternatively, you might choose one color and its complementary color - the one directly opposite it on the wheel.

Monochromatic Scheme
A completely monochromatic scheme, using only one color, but in varying degrees of strength and tone; would need some positive 'complementary' accents to prevent it from becoming boring.