Colour Tips
The only way to accurately select suitable paint colours is to test swatches on the walls to be painted. The way a colour reacts is dependent largely on light, which can change a colour drastically, either animating it by warming it up or by softening it with a subtle bluish cast to cool it down. Colour is also affected by other surfaces in the room it reflects off.
Considerations in choosing colour.
Nature conditions us to expect ....
The darkest value at our feet
The medium value at eye level
The lightest value above us
Avoid monotony. Treat the eye and psyche to at least moderate variety. Visual stimulus or relief is vital. To create interest and contrast consider the following:
Warm and cool colours
Light and dark
Bright and dull
Smooth and textured
In most successful colour schemes, one colour is dominant, one is subordinate, and one is for accent or trim.
Avoid clashes. Your eye and gut will know! If you grit your teeth or get a knot in your stomach, don’t use it!
Avoid assumptions!
Colour is a chameleon, it...
Changes depending on adjacent colour
Reflects onto adjacent colour
White or beige will take on the tint of adjacent colour
Differing adjacent colours will appear more intense
Generally...
Cool colours and tints will make a space appear larger
Warm colours and shades will make a space appear smaller (and sometimes smaller is desirable)
Cool colours and tints make an object appear smaller and lighter in weight
Warm colours and shades make an object appear larger and heavier in weight
Contrasting colours contract space
Similar colours or values expand space
White, grey or colourless spaces are poor choices where people are to gather and interact
Perception of time and temperature differs depending on colour
Time seems to pass more quickly in warm spaces
Time seems to pass more slowly in cool spaces
Temperature is perceived as hotter in warm spaces
Temperature is perceived as colder in cool spaces
Warm colours and earth tones encourage and maintain body warmth and physical action
Cool colours are conducive to mental activities, project and research
Cool colours can have a dampening effect on the level or quality of conversation
Exercise extreme care in using white for highly illuminated spaces
Can create glare and headaches
Is easier to make mistakes
Comments from some pros
John Soladino
"A house in the south is very different in terms of how you colour it than one in the North. You can use more colour vivid colour in warm climates where the sun is so intense, because it absorbs colour."
Georgina Fairholme
"People shouldn't hesitate to use colour with wood. Even barn-sided dens - you could use wonderful colours. Pinks, reds, apricots, salmon and blues all would work with wood."
"A bright blaze of spring colours on walls and accessories can create a happy, cheerful place to live."
"If you want to incorporate a mammoth piece of furniture that's not particularly fine in a room, stripping it and painting it the colour of the walls will make it blend into the scheme."
John Dickinson
"colour can cover up many errors in detail, scale and proportion because the eye is caught by the colour and you don't really have a chance to realize that a detail has not been well thought out."
Mario Buatta
"Take the time of day into account. Day rooms often look best in light colours, night rooms in dark colours. Light floors look marvellous in a day room, but they don't work visually in a night room unless the walls are very dark."
"It takes courage to fill a room with strong colour. colour, used lavishly, can take over a room, become its identifying mark."
Elizabeth Meehan
"Contrast influences how you see. colour surrounded with white looks crisp, fresh and bright: surrounded by black or a very dark colour, it looks rich, dense"
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