With more support and stimulation online than ever before; Today’s homeowners are in a unique position to benefit from these many and varied resources. Tips, tricks, and helpful information abound, yet it’s estimated that more than half of the questions asked on websites and in chat rooms involve home paint color selection. Year after year, selecting paint colors is high on the do-it-yourselfer’s dreaded to-do list.
But as with most things in life, the more we are exposed to certain activities, tasks, or experiences, the more we get used to it and begin to perceive the task as much simpler than we originally thought. When was the last time you bothered to lean on a small, pear-shaped leather saddle as you balance on two narrow, free-spinning rings as you propel yourself forward at ever-increasing speeds over concrete or asphalt pavement? If you’re like me…you don’t think twice about riding a bike…but only because you’ve done it dozens of times before.
Same with the paint selection; Spend a little time on color and color selection and the job becomes much easier.
When you look at a general-purpose color chart or color wheel, you’ll find 12 base colors, three primaries (red, blue, yellow), three secondary (orange, purple, and green), and tertiary colors (the results of mixing primary and secondary colors… giving you red-purple, blue-purple, blue-green, yellow-green, yellow-orange, red-orange). Each of these base colors includes an almost unlimited number of tints, tints, and tones. These combined create a ‘color family’. Turquoise, teal, and aquamarine are part of the blue-green color family, just as pink, magenta, fuchsia, and vermilion are part of the red color family.
Tint: A tint is created by adding white to a color. Pink and all its variations are a tint of red. Sky blue is a tint of blue.
Shade: A shadow is produced by adding black to a color. Navy is a shade of blue, while brick is a shade of red.
Hue: A hue is produced by adding gray to a color. Olive is a shade of green and is achieved by adding a considerable amount of gray to the green.
By first selecting a color family, when determining which color to use in your home, you can begin to play with hue, shade, and tone to customize your color scheme to your liking. Adding and subtracting moves you back and forth on the color chart. Play around with these direction changes until you find yourself in a color zone that feels comfortable to you.
