Color – An Important Element of Design
I. A color scheme is a likeable, livable group of colors that produce the right effect and create a mood.
· Color is a mood-setter, can be used as an optical illusion.
· Color reinforces the design idea.
· Color is found in paint, flooring, fabric, furniture and accessories.
o Primary areas of color: walls, floors and ceilings
o Secondary areas of color: window, area rugs and furnishings
o Tertiary areas of color: accessories and art work
II. Color Rules
o Rule of Thumb # 1: The greater area should be covered with the lighter value. The smaller areas can be more saturated with bolder, more intense colors.
o Rule of Thumb # 2:
· The use of darker colored, and warm colored walls can make a room seem smaller.
· The use of lighter colored, and cool colored walls can make a room seem larger.
III. Things to consider with color schemes:
· Desired mood: restful, playful, quiet
· People: favorite colors, color dislikes
· Style: shabby chic, country French, villa, coastal English manor
· Time: how much time will be spent in the room? Time of day the room(s) will be used?
· Existing colors: are there colors that you can not change?
· Adjacent rooms: Unity is desirable. Designers recommend a Signature Color be used. One color should run throughout the areas or home
· Lighting: daylight, fluorescent lighting, incandescent lighting
IV. Designers often use a paint deck. It is a collection of paint color samples that are grouped together vertically and horizontally by hues, tints and shades, when creating a color scheme.
V. The creation and use of a Sample Board is very helpful. Colors and fabric samples are arranged to reflect their physical relationships to other objects in the room.
The use of magazines and design books for color schemes and ideas is also helpful to designers.
Basics of Color Theory
I. Sir Isaac Newton, in the 1600’s, created the Color Wheel. It is a bent rainbow where the colors are in permanent positions.
II. Why do we see color? Light is both absorbed and reflected off the surface of an object. We see the hue that is reflected.
o Hue – the actual color
III. Cool colors (blue, green, violet) are calming, peaceful and restful. These colors are great for rooms with lots of sunshine and light, bedrooms or waiting rooms. Cool colors make a room appear to be larger in size.
IV. Warm colors (red, orange, yellow) are advancing, exciting and dramatic. These colors are great for rooms with less light, super for winter months and as accents. These colors are best used for public activity areas of homes and fast food restaurants. Warm colors make a room appear to be smaller is size.
V. Tint and Shades
o Tint- white added to the hue; it raises the value; examples: lavender, pink, peach
o Shade – black has been added to the hue; it darkens the value; examples: rust, navy, and maroon
o Tints and shades are known as color values.
VI. Intensity is the tone of a color. A color can be toned down by adding gray or the color’s complement. For example to tone down red, add gray or green to the red.
VII. Neutrals -Black, white and gray are not hues. They do not appear in the color wheel.
VIII. Levels of colors
o Primary Colors: Red, Yellow and Blue, these colors can’t be made by mixing other colors.
o Secondary colors: Green, Orange and Violet, created by mixing primaries together.
o Tertiary colors: Yellow-Orange, Blue-Violet, etc.; created by mixing a primary + a secondary color.
IX. Color Schemes:
· Monochromatic: a scheme in which only shades and tints of one color are used.
· Complementary colors: Opposites on the color wheel; purple and yellow; Red + blue = purple, yellow is the only primary color is not in that equation; therefore is becomes the complement to purple
· Analogous colors: neighbors on the color wheel; red, red-orange and orange.
· Split-complementary colors: a color and the 2 neighbors of the color’s complement; purple and yellow-green and yellow-orange.
· Triadic- any three equally spaced apart colors on the color wheel.