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[H1090]How To Find Your Color

by Dhorj S. Escusa, Dho

Though the process involved with interior house painting or exterior house painting is simple — if you plan to paint it plain — but if you want to try being decorative by faux finish painting it could be complicated if you're not aware of the techniques. Going back, selecting the paint colors is tricky and extremely difficult that is why some homeowners rely on trusted house painters.

The Basics

Hue, Value, Intensity, Temperature — these are some of the terms you will encounter in choosing the right color -- either paint or something else.

Hue is another word for color that is coined by professional exterior or interior designers.

Value refers to the lightness and darkness of a color. It is determined by the amount of white or black added to a solid color. Intensity is the measurement of brightness or darkness of a color. As a tip: low intensity hues are greatly used as main colors while higher intensity hues are best used as accents.

Temperature is referred as warm or cool. Color families of red, orange and yellow are warm, while blue and green are cool colors. Neutral refers to a combination of warm and cool like the colors beige. The temperature helps set the mood and it can affect perceptions of the room.

A hue can be combined with another in an infinite number of ways. The goal is finding the balance between these four terms. Determining which paint colors you like or should avoid is your biggest challenge. An understanding of color and its effect on your mood will help you make choices. Developing your own color scheme and sense of style is a large part of finding inspiration and ideas in painting.

Inspiration and Ideas

A great way to start in selecting colors is to see different combinations used by others. Inspiration and ideas can come everywhere around you.

• Magazines

Magazines are one of the best resources you can scout for inspiration or ideas. In fact, magazines like Better Homes and Gardens are born with this need to inspire and give ideas to readers. The thing is, due to limitations of the printing process, the colors in magazines or any other printed materials may not be an exact representation of any paint color.

• Manufacturer's color fan deck

Another resource you can use is a manufacturer's paint color fan deck. These can help you choose the best combination of house painting colors for your house. The fan deck is set accordingly by color families so you can have variable choices for the picking. You don't need to understand color theory or years of professional experience in choosing the best colors for your house, but rather the choice is entirely dependent on your mood and lifestyle.

• Television and Movies

Television shows and movies are very powerful influencers. Home magazine shows like HGTV or your favorite movies can inspire you in finding ideas for your home project. For example, you like the segment on HGTV where they featured a house decoration, you can wait at the end of the show where they acknowledge it so you can search more about it — same goes with the movies.

• Portfolio

Professional designers and decorators keep a portfolio of the previous projects they've done for clients. If you are intending on hiring a creative, professional service, you can ask their portfolio for inspiration.

• Internet

It's a big, big world out there. The Internet is the ultimate resource when finding inspiration and ideas for your home. If you feel like emulating a Caribbean color palette to your house, all you have to do is just click and you can browse website pages to your fancy.

• House Painters

House Painters or painting companies also offer creative services to homeowners wanting a unified look for their homes. House painters are professionals with many years of expertise not just in painting house interiors or exteriors but can also offer exterior wood staining, drywall installation or lead paint removal.

Like designers or decorators, they also keep a portfolio of the projects they have done for homes or office buildings. You can ask them about it and they can walk you through the whole process.

Do you think you need to know color theory to make a beautiful scrapbooking page? You don't even need to know the difference between primary and secondary colors to create a page that complements your photographs. All you need to find color inspiration for your layouts is a watchful eye during your everyday life. Color palettes are all around us. Consider these easy-to-find resources for color choices on your next scrapbooking pages.

Your Favorite Clothing Store

Clothing manufacturers design their seasonal lines according to a predetermined color scheme. Ever wonder why all the stores seem to carry similar colors each season? Many designers use the color direction provided by the Color Marketing Group. The Color Marketing Group forecasts color trends for manufactured products. Walking around your favorite clothing boutique quickly shows you the color trends for the current season. Are pastels in this season? Try a page with pastels even if it's not spring.

Your Closets

Along the same lines as using a clothing store for inspiration, your own closets hold the color palettes for past seasons. Don't limit yourself to just your clothes closet. Your linen closet will also have coordinated color palettes to inspire you. Love that quilt that you have tucked away for the guest room? Look carefully at the colors and see if you can create a scrapbooking page with the same color qualities.

Paint Chips

Would you believe that you can find professional color schemes at your local home improvement store? Paint manufacturers coordinate colors in sample decorating palettes. These chips are often designed by professionals like Martha Stewart and Ralph Lauren. Browse through the paint chip display and use one of the palettes for a scrapbooking page or even an entire album.

Museums

Take an afternoon to walk through an art museum, and you will see how the Masters use color. Make some notes on what paintings inspire you the most and what colors are used to set the mood of the painting. Artists know color theory, and reflecting on their masterpieces is an education in color theory without the textbooks.

Mother Nature

The earth provides its own color palette. Not only can you gain inspiration from the colors of winter, summer, spring and fall, you can study landscapes. These are earth's paintings. Look at the colors of the desert and mountains, as well as, the sunsets and sunrises. Peek out your window at your flower garden for even more of nature's inspiration.

Your Makeup Drawer

Makeup manufacturers also use color theory to develop their seasonal palettes. Take a look at your eye shadows and blushes for ready-made color selections for your scrapbooking pages.

Home Decorating Magazines

Color inspiration doesn't just come from scrapbooking magazines. Interior designers use coordinating colors to make it easier for customers to create a perfect decor for their homes. The photographs in home decorating magazines are sure to inspire a creative scrapbooking page.

Advertisements

Before you put those magazines away, take a closer look at the advertisements. Companies pay millions of dollars to ad agencies to design advertisements that will capture the eye of its customers before they flip the page. Ads can provide no-fail color schemes for your scrapbooking. An added bonus of advertisements is that they not only provide great inspiration for colors, but their layouts are an education in design theory, as well.

Color palettes are everywhere. Next time you need some color inspiration, take a creative look around you. Keep an idea journal with notes, clips from magazines and paint chips. Tired of the same old red and green on your Christmas pictures? Use your holiday sweaters to inspire you. There is no end to the number of color palettes you can find for your scrapbooking pages.

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About Author

Both Dhorj S. Escusa & Christine Perry are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.

Dhorj S. Escusa has sinced written about articles on various topics from Painting, Home Management and Celebrities. . Dhorj S. Escusa's top article generates over 1300 views. to your Favourites.

Christine Perry has sinced written about articles on various topics from Ideas for Scrapbooking, Ideas for Scrapbooking and Keyboard Synthesizer. Christine Perry invites you to her website, for more. Christine Perry's top article generates over 8100 views. to your Favourites.