Selecting the color is the enjoyable part of painting, even if it seems somewhat confusing at first.

White or off-white may be a safe choice, but it’s not the only option. Even a casual look at the color wheel can be intimidating, but it’s a useful tool if you want to explore other colors for your walls and woodwork. Designing a color scheme is a straightforward process: choose one color and then select other colors that complement it based on their positions on the color wheel.

The primary colors-red, blue, and yellow-combine to form all other colors. Combine any two primary colors, and you’ll get two primary colors on the wheel. Tertiary colors are the a secondary color-secondary colors always fall midway between combination of a secondary color and a primary color. You’ll find them between the secondary and primary on the wheel.

Complementary colors are found directly opposite each other on the color wheel.

Keep a few guidelines in mind, and you’ll be making wise choices in no time:

• Color principles apply to pure colors and also to all of their darker shades or lighter tints.
• All colors look most vibrant when paired with their complementary color.
• In a room, it’s generally advisable to select one primary color and utilize accent colors in smaller proportions.
• A proven and effective combination is to use one color, or even two colors, plus white.

🔻The color wheel illustrates the relationship between primary, secondary, and tertiary colors.

The colors in the band between the white rings are pure colors. Colors closer to the center of the wheel are tints. Those closer to the edge are shades.

🔺SHADES are mixtures of pure color with black. They are darker than the pure color.

TINTS are mixtures of pure color with white. They are lighter than the pure color.

Colorful language

Color value: The lightness or darkness of a color.

Saturation: The purity of a color. Red is more saturated than pink.

Hue: Synonymous with color. Red, purple, blue, green, and yellow are all hues.

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WHITE is equal parts of all colors.

BLACK is the absence of color or light.