Color Terms You Need to Know When Decorating
by Jude Wright
Description: Tips for understanding color terms and choosing paint for your home decor.
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Color is the key to successful decorating. You can have the
most expensive furnishings you can find, but without the right
color scheme, they mean nothing. Color can work magic in a room
by taking disparate furnishings and uniting them with color.
Adding color to a room is quite inexpensive. A new color of
paint and fabrics can totally change a room.
The human eye can perceive approximately 10 million different
colors. Just imagine all of the different color combinations
that can be created. Even so, some color combinations are
definitely better than others.
When looking at colors, there are eleven different terms that
you should know:
1. Primary colors are the three main colors that every other
color is made from: red, blue and yellow. Primary colors are
often used in children's rooms because they are bright and will
catch a child's attention.
2. Secondary colors are the colors that are created when you
combine equal parts of the three primary colors. The color
orange comes from red and yellow; green is from yellow and
blue; and violet is from blue and red.
3. Tertiary colors are the result of combining a primary color
with the nearest secondary color to it on the color wheel. The
colors would appear as blue-green, yellow-green, yellow-orange,
red-purple, and blue-purple.
4. Related color schemes result from combining secondary and
tertiary colors. For instance, the colors blue-green and green
will evoke a calming effect because there are no jarring
changes in color.
5. Complementary colors are located directly opposite each
other on the color wheel. They would turn gray when they are
mixed together in paint, but they can be used together -
carefully - when decorating a room. Sometimes these color
combinations can be too overwhelming so care is needed when
using them.
6. Hue is a descriptive word for color, such as leaf green,
robin's egg blue or burgundy.
7. Saturation means how saturated (how much color) there is in
the basic color. For example, light blue and navy are both
still blue. Navy is more saturated with the blue color.
8. The value of a color is how light or dark a color is. White
has the brightest value and black has the darkest value.
9. Tints represent the colors that are closest to white in
value. These would be pastel colors.
10. Shades are the colors that are closest to black in color,
like hunter green or deep purple.
11. Neutrals are the "non" colors, like black, white, gray,
brown and beige. They can produce a pleasing color scheme on
their own or mixed with other colors.
Color plays an important part in decorating. The entire feel of
a room can be changed just by changing the color scheme.
Jude Wright is the owner of
http://decoratingsimple.com where you can find great decorating
ideas for those on a budget. Stop by and get your free ebook,
"Home Decor Ideas for Those on a Budget."
Related articles:
Painting Wall Murals - Tips for Do-It-Yourself Projects
7 Easy Faux Painting Techniques
Decorating with Sponge Painting
