A Quick Education on Color

In remodeling and even in redecorating, color is very important. There are a few basic, but vital, data everyone must have when picking out color schemes for their home. These data are based around color harmony, color depth and color associations.
We will start with color associations. You may have noticed that there are certain colors that people tend to associate with certain emotions or feelings. These associations can vary from place to place. For example, the color Red is often associated with Love or passion, but in China it is associated with courage and fortune. Blue is often seen as a color of trust or represents calmness. In most places Green is often is associated with energy or refreshment, but the Thai word for green actually means “smelly” and thus has an unpleasant association.

When picking out the colors for a home, you should take a look at what emotions or feelings are associated with certain colors to ensure the colors you choose match the tones or the feelings you want to create in each room.
The next datum we will take up is color depth. Color depth in a home is not as important as it would be in say a movie set or perhaps in a photograph, but it is something to keep in mind as it can have an effect in the appearance of a space. For example, on a white background, something blue is going to look very close to the viewer, whereas on a black background something blue would look further away.

Red is further away on a white background and closer to the viewer on a black background.

This datum would be something to keep in mind if you were going to be painting your walls a very dark color or stark white. Different colors will have a different appearance of depth depending on the main color you choose.

The last and most key datum one needs to have when choosing colors for a home is that there are very specific color harmonies that one must use. The four main harmonies are Direct, Related, Split and Triadic.
Direct harmony is the color directly opposite of the main color and is also referred to as a complimentary color. Related harmony is when you use a color that is directly next to the main color on a color wheel. Split harmony is when the accent color is directly next to the complimentary color—these should be used sparsely. The last harmony, triadic, is when the color used is two spaces to either side of the main color’s complimentary color.

All these colors look good together because they are all harmonious. One must remember that in choosing the colors for a home that the harmonies are properly used. All these accent colors should be used sparingly. If you use the above data, you cannot fail in selecting your home color scheme.