Color Combinations for Decorating

Color Combinations for Decorating

It cannot be claimed offhand that blue is a cold color and that red is a warm color, because there are so many gradations in each color that, before we know it, we have a cold red and a warm blue. Therefore if you want a warm toned room and at the same time wish to use blue, do not cast the idea aside as impossible. Blue toned to green is a warm, rich color, particularly in fabrics that have a nap and give a depth of texture as well as flat color. Any shades of blue toward the green are warm; shades toward the violet are cool. Blue-green and red-orange, both of course neutralizedi.e., toned down from their full strengthmake a most beautiful and suitable combination for a room. They are exactly opposite colors on the spectrum and therefore balance well. Also, in bright and deep tones, they are among the loveliest colors.

In a room of such color combinations a small spot - say a pair of vases of pure brilliant red-orangemay be placed. Opposite, a bowl of pure, brilliant peacock blue-green. Using these colors as high lights, we can play up and down the shades and tints of both colors, creating a brilliant, vibrating rich interior.

Visualize a room with oak paneling (or tan paper). There we have the neutral shade of red-orange. The rug is deep blue-green with a patterned border in light tan. We must keep the color on the floor a tone heavier than the side walls. The under-hangings are of blue and green gauze (or an ecru net). The overhangings are striped damask of yellow and blue with a tiny line of vermilion (or a cotton or linen stripe in similar colors). The furniture, oak and walnut, is upholstered in vari-colored cotton or wool tapestry; on the smaller pieces is used blue and yellow narrow striped velour. The sparkle is given by the peacock and orange vases. We have created a blue room that is distinctly warm in general tone.

Again, if we want to use red but dislike the glare of red, we can use a red toward the violet. This is really a cool mulberry tone. We find that a refreshing room may be had by using in conjunction with it the opposite spectrum coloryellow-green. Both these colors should be used in clear, cool tones, for a neutralized mulberry or yellow-green is rather sickening.

A lighter combination of red is the use of rose and green and yellow. This is suitable for a bedroom. For example: white walls with a small figured pattern in ecru, and hangings of a similar background with sprays of clear rose and yellow flowers and bright green foliage. Use rugs of two-tone green and furniture painted white or green; simple lighting fixtures of ecru color striped in green and rose. For a south room this color scheme is acceptably cool. The walls and woodwork could as well be greenbut a clear light green.

While attractive in imagination and in the hand, violet rather fails to make a good interior color. It requires a great deal of lively design to set it off. A chintz paper with a predominance of lavender may be attractive and usable. In this case the somberness of color is made up by the liveliness of design. Lavender combines well with yellow and green and blue. It is a good color on which to build up a small guest room with a southern exposure. Thus, use a two-tone lavender rug; a clear-colored chintz paper, lavender predominating; a plain cotton lavender sunfast at the windows and on the few pieces of cushioned white wicker. The beds and bureau may be painted white striped in lavender. But here and there we will need a small, shiny vase of green. This is no scheme for a man's guest room, however.

Browns, reds or greensthe masculine impersonal colorsused with walnut, oak or firmly constructed mahogany furnitureare the best colors to use for his bedroom, library, den or billiard room. Never inflict upon a m,an a light blue, pink or yellow bedroom.

Let us construct a man's bedroom along these lines: Tan and black striped wall paper; walnut furniture; a linen with a small design in green, orange and black used as bedspreads as well as hangings. Upholster one piece of furniture in black pin-striped velour. We have a cheerful and practical combination.

Pure or bright colors in comparatively small quantities are usable with a mass of black, as is so well demonstrated in modern French and Viennese colorings. The colors are thus made to sparkle with brilliancy.

Before deciding on fabrics and papers for a room it is best to try them out for two or three days in all sorts of lights and in all one's moods. A bright, flashily-colored paper may look well in a shaded showroom at four o'clock in the afternoon, and be quite impossible in a sunny room at eleven the next morning. It may appeal to us in the mood of exhilaration and excitement of seeing new things, but at sober-minded dusk time, it may be thoroughly undesirable. New, startling things have their appeal, but they are apt not to wear well.

Then again, artificial light changes color, and the wall paper that is fresh and attractive in daylight has a murky look under the yellow glow of gas light.

There are always the obvious safe colors, and until we are quite sure that we can handle the unusual color combinations, it were best to adhere to the conventional combinations of custom. But if we are willing to put a little study and thought into our interior decoration, a whole field of unsuspected, delightful color schemes may be utilized.

A few general rules should be remembered: Be careful to use bright colors sparingly in small areas and in well selected spots. Avoid murky, spiritless colors. Deep colors may be dark and rich and neutralized, but need not be dirty looking.

In choosing a figured cretonne, be careful not to get one with a background too dark and dingy, as time darkens all colors and we must allow for this at the beginning.

In selecting several colors for a room, do not have them all the same tone value. Have some light, some dark and some medium. Try to create by this combination of values a vibrating rhythm of color. Do not select a medium tone blue, medium tone green and a medium tone brown, but use a deep blue, a medium brown and a light green. Therefore you not only have different colors, but a different value in each color, which is the light and shade of each color.

Next Page: Decorative Room Color Schemes.