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Color Combination Tips by Lester FongThis article was written in response to requests for successful color combination tips. Let’s start with the color wheel which consists of primary colors (red, blue, yellow), secondary color (green, orange, violet), and tertiary colors (red-blue, blue-red, and so on). In essence, we’ve taken the full color spectrum and form them into a circle, showing the relationship of each color with one another.Before we look at the various color combination tips, let’s also learn some commonly seen terms. We recognize colors, or hues, may vary in their intensity. The primaries, secondaries, and tertiaries represent colors at their full intensity. Adding white will form a tint, black will create a shade, while gray will give you a tone. Thus, tinting will give color a lighter color while shading makes it darker. Let’s put the color wheel to work. The first type of color combination uses complementary colors. That is, colors that lie opposite each other on the color wheel. For example, red and green. But wait, isn’t that a little color combination a little too intense for a room? Yes, but consider a rosy pink room with sage green accents. This is when a tint and a shade comes into play. The same complements in varying intensities can make attractive, soothing combinations. Alternatively, consider the monochromatic color combination, a favorite amongst contemporary interior designers. This involves using one color in a variety of intensities. That way, your room’s color scheme is sure to be harmonious. When developing a monochromatic scheme, lean toward several tints or several shades, but avoid too many contrasting values that is, combinations of tints and shades. This will make the scheme appear uneven. A more complex palette would involve three or more colors, formed by three equidistant colors such as red/yellow/blue or green/purple/orange. A split complement is composed of three colors, one primary or intermediate and two colors on either side of its opposite. To illustrate, instead of teaming purple with yellow, shift the mix to purple with orange-yellow and yellow-green. Lastly, consider also the tetrad, which is four color spread equally around the wheel, such as yellow/green/purple/red. If you think this color combination seem too much, remember that colors for interiors are rarely undiluted. Thus yellow might be cream, blue-purple, a dark eggplant; and orange-red, a muted terracotta or whisperpale peach. With less jargon, the color combinations fall into these two basic camps: - Harmonious, or analogous, schemes, derived from nearby colors or the wheel less than halfway around; and - Contrasting, or complementary schemes involving direct opposite slices of the color pie About the Author Lester is a regular contributor of home interior decoration tips at GoArticles.com. He loves all things beautiful; be it people, fashion, art, literature and of course home decoration! He hopes to share his experience and passion for home decor via his website: http://www.unique-home-decor-ideas.com 
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