Understanding Color Schemes!

Spring is almost here…hopefully! With that being said, now is a perfect time to start thinking about freshening up your space. The easiest way to do this and by far the most followed method, is changing up your color palette. This doesn’t mean to go out and just pick some colors that stand out as appealing to you. If you were to ask a professional, they would most likely start at the basics by deciding on a color scheme and sticking to it. So what exactly is a color scheme? It’s a combination of colors that have a particular relationship to each other based on their location on the color wheel; and it’s definitely worth understanding.

We’ll start with my favorite of all the color schemes – monochromatic. This is the color scheme where you would pick one color and use either shades or tints of that same color to create your palette. A shade is when black is added to a color to make it darker and a tint is when white is added, to make it lighter. For example, when you go to the paint store and pick out a grey sample paint strip and it looks like the same color on the strip just going from a gradient of light to dark, this is a monochromatic color scheme. This scheme is my absolute favorite because it gives a sense of simplicity and has a very clean look to it. Due to this, it can have a very calming effect, especially since it is so easy on the eyes.

- monochromatic -

Moving on to a fairly similar color scheme, we have analogous. Analogous schemes use more than one color, in fact they use three and they are adjacent to each other on the color wheel. Some examples of this scheme would be green, green-blue and blue. As you can see, these colors are just steps away from each other, not as big of a jump as something like red, green and yellow. It’s similar to the monochromatic scheme in the sense that it’s not jumping all over the color wheel; the difference is that it offers more shades of color. Due to this, a rich and fairly vibrant color scheme can be achieved. When using this scheme it’s important to remember some helpful hints, such as not mixing warm and cool colors. Keep the idea of simplicity in mind and try not to over stimulate the eye. Lastly, throwing either a black, white or grey into the mix with these colors will really help set off your colors.

- analogous -

Next we have the triadic color scheme; colors that are evenly spaced apart on the color wheel. You may be the most familiar with the example of red, blue and yellow – the primary colors. This scheme is popular with people that like color, balance and strong visual contrast. Since the distance between each hue is the same on the color wheel, this color scheme can bring about a harmonious effect naturally. It is important that while using this scheme, you choose one color that will play the biggest role. It may help to choose a vibrant hue of one of your colors and using a lower saturated hue for the other two colors. To create a lower saturated hue, you will need to add more grey to it until you find the tone that you’re satisfied with. Without doing this, this color scheme in an interior can look fairly overpowering.

- triadic -

The last main color scheme that I’ll go over is complementary. Unlike the other schemes that I’ve mentioned, this one only contains two colors and these colors are exact opposites of each other on the color wheel. Unlike the analogous colors, the complementary scheme feeds off mixing warm with cool colors. Some examples of this scheme are red and green, blue and orange or yellow and purple. This scheme is great for those who love high contrast. When used at full saturation, this is by far the most vibrant of all the different color wheel patterns. Similar to the other schemes, it will be beneficial to choose one main color for your dominant color and the complementary hue for the accent to avoid a jarring effect. Balance is important in any design, especially when it comes to color.

- complementary -

Of course, there are even more color schemes that you can follow such as split complementary, double complementary, tetradic/rectangle or square. It’s all about the rules of the color wheel and balance when it comes to color. The possibilities are endless!