Have you ever wondered how creative people can put colors, shapes, and designs together so well? Me too! While I don’t consider myself a design expert, and I don’t have a degree in design, I am a creative brain. I love art! I had someone inquire about my creative process. They asked, “How do you do that?” So instead of saying I don’t know, I paused for a while and replied, “ I look at the world, and I strip down objects to their most basic shapes and colors.” Kind of like a kid’s drawing. Most people see a house; I see a square with a rectangle on top. Everything can be broken down to its basic shape, color, and process. With just two steps, I am going to show you how to mix and match colors in your home decorating!
Step One: Understanding The Basic Color Wheel
My favorite part of the creative process is the color wheel. It’s my guide in everything I do. I even use a color wheel when I put on makeup. More particularly, eyeshadow. “Oh, so now you are a makeup professional too, Nikki?” While I can beat a mean face and bake with the best of them (makeup slang), I’m not a makeup pro. It all goes back to being creative. I enjoy the artistic value in applying eyeshadow. I mean, have you seen those tutorials where people draw on their eyelids like it’s a canvas? Amazing! So, when I want to start a design, plan a party, or decorate a room, I start with the color wheel. It is the basis for how to mix and match colors in your home.
First, I am going to take you back to a simpler time… elementary school. You thought you were mixing crayons, but you were learning the basics of color theory! And I’m going to assume that you passed with flying colors (no pun intended).
Primary Colors
These are “mother” of all colors—the basis for all other colors on the color wheel. These three colors shape how to mix and match colors in your home. Side note: always have these three colors on hand as paint, and you can never go wrong in life!
Secondary Colors
If you combine two primary colors, you get these secondary colors. Yellow and blue make green, red and yellow make orange, blue and red make purple. “Yes, Nikki, I know this. We just talked about how I mastered kindergarten color theory.” Sorry. While this might be a refresher, I want you to focus not on the color mixing but the relationship of these colors on the wheel. It will all make sense in a moment.
Tertiary Colors
Tertiary colors are a combination of a secondary and a primary color. I like to call these the hyphenate colors. On the wheel you have blue-purple, orange-red, yellow-orange, blue-green….you get the gist. You could probably do another level of color blends in-between these colors on the wheel. I am going to stop right here, though, because I’m not a design professional, and this isn’t meant to overwhelm you. Honestly, this lesson isn’t for the design master. This lesson is intended to help build a foundation by learning how to mix and match colors in your home.
Step Two: Learn the Types of Color Schemes
So you have learned an easy form of the color wheel. Keep it. You can find a copy in my freebie library. Use it as a guide for almost anything when you need color…such as putting outfits together or eyeshadow lol! You will no longer have to ask your husband, “Does this Match?” Ask the color wheel; it never lies.
Next, I’m going to show you how to create color schemes using your wheel.
Complementary Color
Complementary colors are on the opposite end of each other. Blue and orange are my fave complimentary colors. I like to wear a navy outfit and pair it with an orange shade of lipstick. It was the first color combination that I discovered using the color wheel. That’s why it is so special to me. Learn all the complementary colors, and you might find one that you have never tried or considered before. Do you notice that red and green are complementary colors? Merry Christmas!
Analogous Color
Analogous Colors are the colors to the right or to the left of a primary color. They make a nice color harmony.
Split Complementary
This combination makes a y shape on the color wheel. There are lots of split complementary color combos you can create, and sometimes they look crazy, but they all work….trust me.
Shade and Tint
You may be asking where black and white go on the color wheel. That’s an excellent question. So black and white create variations of the colors on the wheel in the form of tint and shade.
Adding different amounts of white to a color creates “tint” while adding black creates shade. These two colors are where you get all your different variations of red, for example. Different variations of a color contribute to a monochromatic look.
All those cute colors in the paint section with adorable names like “yellow sunshine” or “berry exciting” are based on a shade or tint. You might be asking about grey as well. That changes the tone. It’s kind of like softening the color, making it less vibrant. There is also hue variations of the color wheel. Imagine looking at this wheel through pink sunglasses. That’s hue. And if you can’t picture this wheel through pink sunglasses, I’m saying imagine if the color wheel was shades of pink….yellow-pink, green-pink (eww), orange-pink, etc. Let’s keep things simple for now. All you need to know at the end of the day is that black, white and grey go with all the colors. Use them how you see fit along with your color combinations.
Metals
And whilAnd while we are on colors that aren’t necessarily in the color wheel, what about metallics? Well they are there you have to use your imagination! Gold is a shade of yellow; bronze is a shade of orange, and silver is a tint, making it very easy to combine with all other colors. Keep this in mind as you think about adding metals in your decorating. Silver, black, white, and grey are friends to everyone!
Triadic and Tetradic
You can also create color combinations based on three evenly spaced or four evenly spaced colors on the wheel. I once had a dining room set that was a triadic of primary colors, and my kitchen was yellow (dominant color). I loved that look. It was fun and cheery.
A Deeper Dive
If you want to play around with color more in depth I suggest using the color wheel on Canva.
You can select a color, and it will show you the color combinations. My tutorial is meant to introduce you to the color wheel and how to mix and match colors in your home. Canva will show you combinations of all possible colors. Just keep it as a favorite on your phone. You may not need it right now because we want to keep things simple, but one day you may need it because you fell in love with a weird shade of green, and you have to find some colors to match! Happy creating!
