Understand the Interior Design Color Wheel

The color wheel is a very important tool that designers use to make their decorating color schemes work...

Luckily, it's not that difficult to use - and it's very cheap to buy one...

Find out how to use it, here, in my easy-to-understand information pages...

We're going through all the steps professional interior designers use - and making them accessible to you and me...

Here we're looking at color - something which has a really big impact on your whole room, and on how you feel when you are in it...

On this page:

• Understanding the Color Wheel
• Understanding 'warm' and 'cool' colors - and why they are important for interior design
• Tints, shades and tones
• Where to go next

Why bother with the Color Wheel?

...and your interior design color schemes will always work better if you add a bit of interest with different colors and tones.

It takes the hard work out of choosing colors which will go well together - you don't need to leave it all to chance...

...use this scientific method and be sure you've got it right!

We will move onto creating your own imaginative color schemes with the color wheel in a minute...

But if you are going to understand how to do that, you need to understand how the color wheel itself works, first...

I'll take you through it, step-by-step, below...

You can read about it first - to read about it just keep going...

Or first watch the simple video that explains how the color wheel is made up...

(I recommend using both to increase your understanding)

Understanding the
Interior Design Color Wheel

• All color is made up from 3 colors - the primary colors - red, yellow and blue.
  
  Any color you see will be made up of different combinations of red, yellow and blue.




• Equal amounts of any 2 of the primary colors creates the secondary colors - so...

  Blue and yellow create green

  Blue and red create violet (purple)

  Yellow and red create orange.





• Then, if equal amounts of a primary color and an adjoining secondary color are mixed, they will create a tertiary color.
  
  So, if red is added to orange - 'red-orange' is produced (positioned between red and orange on the color wheel).

  And, if yellow is added to orange - 'yellow-orange' is produced (positioned between yellow and orange on the color wheel).

  And so on...

  We can see how, in this way, the whole basic interior design color wheel builds up.
  
  

I actually really love this little video - and find it very relaxing...

I hope you enjoy it...

Click below to start...

Go back and read about how the color wheel works, here...

Or continue and learn more about warm and cool colors, tints, shades and tones and how we will use the color wheel to create color schemes that work...

Warm and Cool Colors

And you will hear me use the terms a lot on this website...

The terms are important as they let you know how the room will 'feel' when you use these colors...

Warm Colors

• Warm colors are on the red/orange side of the color wheel - from red-violet (a little to the purple side of primary red) right the way through to yellow-green (a little to the green side of primary yellow).
  
  Warm colors tend to be used in large spaces, and make a room feel smaller, but warmer and more cozy.

Cool Colors

• Cool colors are on the blue side of the color wheel - from pure violet, through to pure green.
  
  Cool colors tend to be used more when decorating in small spaces. They make a room feel larger, more spacious, relaxing, but 'cooler' or even 'cold' (stark).

Tones, Shades and Tints

• A full color wheel contains many different color combinations. It also includes all the different tones of each color (how light or dark a color is).

  A color with white added is called a tint.

  A color with black added is called a shade.










• Putting all the colors, together with the tints and shades, together in this way - makes it much easier for interior designers to choose a color scheme they know will work.

  I will show you how to do this in the next section on decorating color schemes.

• You can buy color wheels made of card, with another circular card attached.

  This turns, and has holes cut into it, so that you are easily shown which colors will best match the main color you have chosen.

  Once you have got the hang of this, it is quite easy to create a really effective color scheme.

  I will show you how on the next page...

An RGB color wheel is used for computer design - it is based on the light spectrum (rather than paint colors)...

It is used for creating colors on VDUs, TVs and computer monitors.

The light spectrum has red, green and blue as the primary colors (not red, yellow and blue - like we are interested in) - so avoid this, unless you want some very weird results.

Buy your color wheel from Amazon ...

This is just like the one I use...

(Just click on the image to find out more info, or buy)

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Thanks for your continued support :)

Next:

Next, I would like to show you exactly how to work out which colors go together - and how to create perfect interior design color schemes, with the help of your wheel...

How to use the interior design color wheel

Later, we'll look at more advanced paint color wheel techniques if you'd like something a bit more unusual...

You can use this page with your free downloadable Color Checklist to help you keep track of your interior designing...

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