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 We all know that painting is one of the least expensive ways to dramatize and personalize your home. You can paint frequently to update the appearance of a room, create a mood, or suit a season. If you're tired of your color scheme, change it - quickly and easily with paint!
To start, decide on the color scheme for your home. Yellows, oranges and reds are warm colors. Greens, blues and purples are cool colors. Consider the temperature of a color if you want to warm up a room on the shady side of the house or cool off a room with a southern exposure. Light colors such as white and yellow are airy, expansive and cheerful. Use them in small, dark areas that you want to appear larger and brighter. Dark colors such as navy blue or brown can create a cozy, sophisticated feeling in oversized rooms.
With the right painting techniques you can accentuate good architectural features and camouflage unattractive ones. A handsome piece of furniture or a beautiful art object can be accentuated by placing it against a wall painted a contrasting color. Molding can be emphasized by painting it a darker or lighter color than the walls. Color can establish a focal point or create interest where there is none. For instance, a perfectly square room can be made more interesting by painting one wall in an accent color.
There are no strict rules for selecting a color scheme, but there are some harmonious combinations inspired by the color wheel. The monochromatic color scheme uses various intensities of one color, lending continuity and spaciousness to small spaces. It is one of the simplest schemes to use, yet it can produce very sophisticated results. Select a color you love and use it in different shades to decorate the room. A complementary color scheme combines colors opposite each other, such as green and red, or blue and orange; but selecting the right shade is important.
By combining any three colors equal distance apart on the color wheel, you can create a triad color scheme. A combination of purple, orange and green may sound awful, but subtle shades of those colors used in varying amounts can be an attractive scheme. Choose one shade as the predominant color, another as a secondary color and the third shade as an accent color. An analogous color scheme uses neighboring colors on the wheel, such as green, blue-green, and blue, for a particularly harmonious effect. To avoid a static effect, use more of one color than the other.
Whether you're painting your entire house or merely redoing one room, be sure to maintain a certain amount of color continuity throughout the home. Develop an overall plan and then decide how each room will be integrated into it. |
