Color Theory Relationships

A basic understanding about color theory will help you use color in your home with more confidence.

Color is a versatile tool and is the easiest way to improve space but there are so many options in which to use it, paint color, fabrics, wallpaper and flooring that it can become overwhelming.

We start to feel intimidated and fearful about using color at all and stay with the neutrals when we don't need to.

Saturation, intensity, and value are interrelated terms that describe color and color theory.

Sky blue, cornflower and cobalt are all variations of blue but each hue is distinct and differentiated by its saturation, intensity and value.

The intensity can be lowered by adding white or black.

Lower intensity colors are subtle and serene and create a calming space.

High intensity colors generate more energy and depending on your style of furniture can be dynamic and richly elegant.

Color theory is the key behind creating successful schemes by maintaining the balance of interior design colors and to keeping the intensities of color equal or nearly equal.

If you love drama and want to use strong colors and know the color meanings, pair them up with strong partners.

A saturated color calls for an intense color as a partner, where a muted color of lower intensity requires an equally muted color to balance.

If you were to paint your walls in a deep berry color for example, the upholstery or other elements in the room would need to be equally strong in order to balance.

Say your sofa is white but you still want a deep color on the wall, find balance through an area rug, a chair and jewel tone pillows on the sofa.

Pairing colors of different intensities often creates a feeling of being out of balance.

Saturation: the degree of purity of a hue.

The pure hue represents the most intense of a color. Adding the compliment color will soften the color so that it becomes less intense.

Value: referring to the lightness or darkness of a color.

You are probably attracted to colors not only for their specific hue, red, blue-green or yellow, but for the values of pink, aqua, and amber.

A hue’s value will become lighter with the addition of white, and darker with the addition of black.

Sky blue and robin’s egg blue are light values of blue, while navy and cobalt are dark values.

Light and medium values live most comfortably with each other, but introducing an accent color of a darker value in a light value scheme will add some punch and keep the room from becoming boring.

A French country kitchen of light blue and light yellow can have a touch of navy blue with the addition of French canisters or other accessories to give the color scheme some depth.

Terms that refer to a variation of a hue are tint and shade. Tints are lighter values and shades are darker values of a color. You will more than likely be using tints and shades of a color in your decorating as opposed to the pure hues.

Instead of going with the intense and pure hue of green, you may opt to use the dark shade of olive or the light tint of sage in a room.

Modern color theory offers the easiest way to visualize how hues relate to each other with the use of a color wheel.

With a color wheel you can see at a glance that purple, as an example relates to both red and blue and those relationships will harmonize in a room with each other.

The color wheel, also referred to as a color circle is a presentation of colors arranged according to their chromatic relationships.