The first article of Painting Tips on our new Phoenix Faux Finishing and Murals site is courtesy of Jan D’Atri of the Arizona Republic Newspapers, paraphrased and edited by myself.
No. 1 Home Improvement Project
The number one home improvement project today may have you feeling a bit green and your pocketbook red unless you get a few good tips on how to do it right prior to taking a gallon home and dousing your walls.
Splashing color on the walls tops the list of do-it-yourself projects, and has for quite some time! The industry has done a wonderful job painting the perfect picture in colors – Golf Tee White, Alazarian Crimson, Emerald Vestment Green and Walker Lake Blue – you would think it would make the selection process easier. Ha!
I know you don’t want to hear this next bit of information, but the truth is, even though there are only three primary colors in paint – red, blue and yellow – the human eye can see millions and millions of color combinations. So, how do we know which colors to select? How much of one color do we use in a room and where in the heck is that color wheel when you need it? The broad stroke here is that many of us could use a palette of pointers as well as a palette of paint!
Why do we want to use a color wheel?
We choose paint much like we choose our homes. It’s an immediate and emotional reaction to something that just ‘feels right’. A color wheel helps you to understand why that is. Simply put, the wheel tells you whether colors will harmonize or compete with each other. That is important, especially when you are creating a palette, which is a collection of colors.
Color wheels are available at most paint, hardware stores and books. So now what?
If we have decided on two or three colors, how do we know how much of each to use in a room?
Many designers follow a theory based on percentages, which I am certain will please many of us! For example, the primary color should cover a little more than half of the room. The secondary color is used on about a third, and the final accent color completes the palette.
The ASID Test
The American Society of Interior Designers offers us some great painting tips, courtesy of Marc McCauley, author of Color Therapy at Home. His suggestion is to replicate nature by ‘choosing darker values of color for the floor (ground), medium values of color for the walls (trees and mountains) and light values of colors for the ceiling (sky).
He believes that if you divide your colors by value from dark to light as you decorate vertically in the room, you’ll get an interior design that looks good every time.
Another simple tip from McCauley helps us with color and the effect light has on it. The direction of the room’s natural light will affect how a color appears in the room. “Dark colors tend to look darker in rooms with northern exposures,” he said, so you may want to lighten the color values to reflect that. “The opposite is true for rooms with southern exposures,” he offered, where colors appear lighter.
Do I have a coloring book for you!
Let’s cut to the chase, here. Picture yourself standing warily in front of “the wall of paint swatches,” hoping against hope that you will be able to freshen up or restyle your room, only to have your self-confidence take a nosedive when you get home. Close your eyes and see yourself standing in that very large room with a very small paint square in your hand…Will it be a part of the perfect palette, or a recipe for disaster? Gasp.
Don’t the words informative and fun come to mind right about now?
That’s TheNew Color Book (Chronicle Books) that has 45,000 color combinations for your home in four sections: the living room, bedroom bathroom and kitchen.
Each page is divided into three sections – floors, walls and ceilings – so you can endlessly mix and match colors without having a nervous breakdown. Each shade used comes with a color key telling you the name, code and brand of the paint! Wahoo!
This is only one of many books available to you that will not only help you, but be enjoyable as well. Happy painting!
