What's in a Colour?

As a parent you never stop helping your children even when they are adults, so on the weekend my husband and I found ourselves helping to build a picket fence.

Now we have done this before but the tricky part came when colours were being decided.

Desert sand posts with white pickets….. easy. No it wasn’t! The discussion on white, off white, and antique white was long and vocal.

In the end the antique white won and it does look good but it made me wonder where we go when we aren’t sure and need some assistance in the ever changing world of colour.

Many years ago houses were painted white, then beige. Who remembers mission brown architraves?

Nowadays we want a feature wall or two in a bright bold colours or antique white walls and ceiling with white furniture, with splashes of color in rugs or cushions.

You will need to decide which colours combine well, whether they are toning, harmonious or complementary. By coming to grips with the rules of colour, you can give any room a professional look.

Primary colours are three key colours - Red, Blue and Yellow. They cannot be made from any other colour.

Secondary colours: Your Secondary colours if you mix equal amounts of the primary colours, are- Purple, Green and Orange.

Red + Yellow = Orange
Red + Blue = Purple
Blue + Yellow = Green 

Tertiary colours: If you mix a primary with a secondary colour, in a ratio of 2:1, you get a Tertiary colour. Red-Orange, Blue-Green.

Cool versus hot Yellow, red and orange are 'warm' or 'hot' and blue, green or mauve are 'cool' or 'cold'.

This is useful when you want to create a mood or feature in a particular room or need to make your space cosier or lighter.

Neutrals Neutrals are one of the easiest groups of colours, or non-colours to work with. They don't appear on the colour wheel and include Black, Grey, White and sometimes Brown and Beige. They all go together and can be layered and mixed and matched. No neutral colour will try to dominate over another.

Accent colours and Feature walls. An accent colour is a colour used in quite small quantities to lift or to add punch to a colour scheme.

• An accent colour should be in a complementary colour. It works best if it's a bright, vibrant colour. Accent colours are perfect if you're scared of using strong colour - simply add a splash of an accent colour with a cushion, a vase or a throw or go all out and do one wall in a room.
• Keep most of your room in shades and variations of one single colour. Choose a number of items in a harmonious colour. Then your feature wall or furniture piece will be the room statement.

So now back to painting the fence! Enjoy your painting and never be afraid to use different colours as you can always paint again!

Jane
www.ecosleepaustralia.com