The Colour Wheel 101
We talk a lot about creating exciting and polished designs for your home.
Colour is an important component of interior design. It impacts the mood and atmosphere of any room, from helping to create a serene, relaxing oasis retreat or a vibrant, energetic space to have fun and entertain in.
In order to talk about colour we need to go back to the basics - The Colour Wheel.
Remember art class? The colour wheel was a great teaching tool. We learned that:
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Primary colours are red, blue, and yellow.
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Secondary colours are purple, green, and orange. These are created when we combine pairs of primary colours, for example, red + blue = purple.
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Tertiary colours are colours created by combining a primary and secondary colour.
The colour wheel is still very useful, especially when it comes to decorating your home. You can use it to see what colours compliment one another and which are frightful together. This means you can figure out early on when designing your room, what will make for an attractive colour pallet and and what combinations deliver an eyesore.
Take a look at these tried and tested colour combinations!
Analogous Colours
These are a grouping of three or four colours on the colour wheel that are side-by-side. Using any or or all of these colours together will be cohesive since they are similar and will come from the same colour family.
Monochromatic Colours
Similar to analogous colour schemes, monochromatic schemes use variations of colours that are all in the same family. The difference is that monochromatic schemes all use the same colour, but use a variety of shades and hues, which are achieved by adding white or black to the colour of choice. Innately polished, monochromatic schemes, dependent on your base colour can be either muted or bold and either warm or cool.
Complementary Colours
Complementary colours are a pair of colours that are on the opposite side of the colour wheel from each other. These colour schemes are bold and vibrant, particularly when paired with white. They have high visual interest and make a strong statement. Combinations include:
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Blue and Orange
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Green and Red
Split Complementary Colours
If complementary colours seem too bold for you, you may want to try using a split complementary colour scheme. Instead of picking colours that are directly opposite the colour wheel, you pick your base colour and then choose 2 colours directly beside the complementary colour. For example, if you use blue-green as your first colour, the split compliments will be the two colours opposite of red-orange, red and orange.
By using colours that are slightly less far away from each other on the colour wheel, you can create a less jarring contrast, but still make statement.
Triads
Triads of colour are created by using three colours that are equally distant from each other on the colour wheel. These combinations include the three primary colours, secondary colours, or tertiary colours.
Like with using complementary colours, these combinations can be very bold, and because they are so distant from each other on the colour wheel they immediately evoke energy.
It’s really important to make sure you balance these colours in your design: use one as the main colour and use the others as accents.
Don’t forget about neutrals!
Adding neutral colours (white, black, grey, and brown) will help break up your colour scheme. If you’re a little intimidated with using colours, start with neutrals and add colourful accents!
If you're designing your dream home, renovating or simply updating rooms in your home, we encourage you to embrace the Colour Wheel and have fun!
