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victoriajane_gw

warm and cool colors - in need of a tutorial

victoriajane
14 years ago

A while back when we were first thinking about paint colors, I posted my house pix on the old house forum. All I really knew was that the colors I have now were not working, and I was pretty sure it was because I had painted the rooms piecemeal, with no thought of how the color in one room related to the color in the other. Someone suggested I start by selecting a "warm" or "cool" palette to help harmonize the rooms. That made a lot of sense. As I love grayed-out blues and greens , and am definitely not a red person, I went with cool . My question is, in order for colors to be compatible, do they all have to be warm or all cool? Or can a warm color harmonize with a cool? (Of course I realize there is no "right" answer and in the end it is a question of personal taste, but still, having had no experience in design work , I am really interested in learning the objective facts about color theory.) I understand about choosing colors from across the wheel (or adjacent colors) for accents, but what about for walls of rooms that are next to each other? (but not really "open" to each other - we have lots of doors.) And finally, how does dark, old woodwork factor into the warm/cool thing? The reason I ask is because I am striving for a calm, serene feeling in the house (the garish colors of the past 12 years - not to mention the 4 kids and countless menagerie - have created a chaotic feeling which I would like to mitigate.) But the blue-greens, which I thought would give the rooms a sense of peacefulness, actually seem to do the opposite when placed up against the dark reddish wood. I'm guessing it's because of the high contrast? Anyway, I would appreciate any and all input on this. FTR, I would never consider painting over the woodwork; I am committed to working with it. But I don't feel that I necessarily need to do strictly "victorian" colors (whatever they are.) While I believe it is important to maintain the structural integrity of a historic home, I think when it comes to paint color and accessories, anything goes. Anyway, I'm sorry to ramble...I'd really appreciate any and all thoughts on this!

Comments (10)

  • ttodd
    14 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Poor blue and green! They get such a bad rap that they are always cool cold colors. There are warm blues and greens and there are also cool reds. I do not like cool colors and yet my home is decorated almost entirely in green and blue. For 10yrs I bucked what I was drawn too (green and blue) and had disappointing results every single time. You see I always wanted a warm feeling but I kept picking the cool greens and blues (did I mention that I don't even like blue but gosh darn if it doesn't crop up in everything I do!). Or I kept picking red and gold. I hate red and gold for me. Love it for others but not in this camp.

    I was tired of my house looking like an Crayola Box Explosion. How could I always pick out the perfect palette for everyone else and have people comment on my use of color in my art and then fail so miserably on my walls?

    Then I really, really started looking at F&B colors. I like the fact that they noted in the color description if a color was warm or cool. That helped educate me in picking more appropriate colors. All of our wood is quarter sawn oak and is rather warm in tone. I tried RH Silver Sage soooooo many times and it was always just okay. Didn't do much w/ our wood. I'm not saying run out and buy F&B but their brochure (which is free) was quite educational for me and I didn't look at interior paint color the same again.

    Now your home and my home are not the typical home w/ all of the stained glass and quite frankly if I never live in another house w/ stained glass that will be okay w/ me! Unless of course I design it. Stained glass is hard to work w/ when you want a cohesive flowing interior and while you may find your window breathtaking (and it is!) it doesn't mean that those are the colors one may want to decorate w/.

    I do believe that warm and cool colors can co-habitate very well together. My MBR is cream and soft gold w/ RH SS thrown in as an accent. DH just brought the gold comforter home from the cleaners and I can't wait to get it on the bed. I can already tell that it is going to be perfect w/ the SS and white bedding.

    The tones in my downstairs are very similar - a bit bolder then downstairs and upstairs it is a more delicate version of the colors downstairs as the trim is painted cream. Only the doors are the original dark wood (done by PO).

    You truly have to look at the whole picture or risk a cut up jarring interior.

    Let me ask - have you ever taken the time to get to really know what you are after? I mean like sitting down and just ripping stuff out of magazines and seeing what you are attracted to most? What keeps cropping up over and over again?

  • artlover13060
    14 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Victoria Jane, color is a very complicated subject. The reason warms and cools go with each other is that they are close to each other on the color wheel. They also need to have similar intensity to blend harmoniously.

    You are right about the stained woodwork giving a restful appearance when placed next to warm paint colors.

    Basic Color Theory: Please forgive me if this is too simplistic. ;) I'm a middle school art teacher and am used to teaching this to young teens.

    There are 12 basic colors on the color wheel. These are all pure hue colors. All the thousands of colors we work with in the real world are derivatives of one of these 12 colors.

    There are 3 properties o color: hue (color), intensity (brightness/dullness), and value (lightness/darkness).

    Artists and decorators use certain accepted, prescribed color combinations or color schemes. Color decisions may be innate or academic.

    Here are some common color schemes. This is not carved in stone and many other things come into play, especially when choosing colors for interiors.

    Monochromatic Color Scheme: light to dark values of one color. Soothing and harmonious but can be uninteresting.

    Complimentary Color Scheme: colors that are directly opposite each other on the color wheel. Red and Green; Blue and Orange; Violet and Yellow; etc. Since these colors don't share any common hue the result may be jarring.

    Triadic Color Scheme: 3 colors that are equally spaced on the color wheel, eg, Red, Yellow and Blue.

    Analogous Color Scheme: Here are the restful color combinations that you may be looking for. These are colors that are next to each other on the color wheel and are all close kin and so will usually work well together. For example: blue, blue green, and green; or yellow, yellow orange, and orange.

    Warm colors: yellows and reds.
    Cool colors: greens and blues.
    Neutrals: black, white, gray. Neutrals go with everything.

    I'm sure you are asleep by now. LOL There are other common color combinations and then intensity and value also play an important part.

    Here is a link that might be useful: Color Wheel

  • victoriajane
    Original Author
    14 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    artlover - no, no! I am not asleep! I found that immensely helpful . It was exactly what I was looking for: an "academic" answer to the cool/warm issue. I had to chuckle, though, because when you said "middle school teacher", all I could imagine was my 12 year old sixth grader sitting in the back of the art class, chin in hand (because the effort of actually holding his head upright unassisted is an insurmountable task), watching the clock while his teacher goes on about color theory. In my vision the teacher's voice is that "wawa-wa-wawa" from the old Charlie Brown cartoons. (I was a high school English teacher, so I can relate. We are casting our pearls before swine.) Anyway, my tastes have changed dramatically over the years, from vivid, jewel tones, to neutrals, or tone-on-tones. I love black, white and gray - in fact, this is exactly the palette for our new kitchen. I also love the cool greens and blues (although I always like them grayed up.) I agree that I am probably looking for an analogous color scheme. However, it seems that the dark reddish-browns of our woodwork is acting as a warm color in our rooms (as opposed to just being neutral), and therefore if I go with the blues and greens I am ending up with a complimentary scheme. Is that right?

    btw, ttodd, I noticed your warm quartersawn oak right off the bat - it is gorgeous. From what I can see of our floors under 100 years of gunk, they are also entirely quartersawn oak, and I cannot wait to get them refinished.

  • lindac
    14 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    The "ta dah" moment for me was when my friend, also a middle school art teacher by the way, said..."look at the formula of the paint you are thinking about...look at the pigments that go into it....if it contains green, you will see it when you get it on the wall....even if the 2 by 2 chip looks creamy..."
    That advice has stood me in great stead over the years...in clothes, in make up, paint on the walls and fabrics.
    Linda C

  • PRO
    Lori A. Sawaya
    14 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Color temperature is tougher in decorating because you're working with color in a three-dimensional realm. 99.9% of color information available does not addresses color from a three-dimensional scope. That presents many opportunities to deconstruct color and think about it more truthfully and accurately.

    Someone suggested I start by selecting a "warm" or "cool" palette to help harmonize the rooms.

    That's one way to look at. Another is to use that level of contrast. Color is about relationships and to make believe that only the cool colors can play well with other cool colors and warm with warm is not the truth of how color works. It's an easier approach, for sure, but it is by no means the only approach. It could be argued that the rule of thumb of cool with cool and warm with warm really isn't a level of color "harmony" at all -- it just matches.

    It's the very same with intensity. Keeping to all one intensity or chromatic value room to room isn't THE way to do it. It's just one way to color a house. Juxtaposing a clearer color next to a more muted color can indeed make site lines that are interesting and help define architecture -- it's a way to meet certain expectations.

    how does dark, old woodwork factor into the warm/cool thing?

    It's a huge factor. Ya know, I'm always saying that paint does not have to be last, you don't have to have an inspiration piece and *pulling a color* is just one way to look at a color challenge.

    To say that paint color should always be last is implying that it could be first. Paint color can never be first. Not possible.

    This is where your woodwork comes into play. Like I said before, color is about relationships and you can start building color relationships once you have the non-transient elements established in the room. The woodwork, the flooring, cabinetry, bookshelves, etc. From those non-transient factors, you can build a shell that will gracefully house whatever contents you want to throw in there.

    Whatever transient elements you choose are going to "go with" the non transient elements of the room -- the shell. You're not going to choose a sofa that pales off once it's set on your hardwoods. So logically, if you craft the wall color to *harmonize* with the known non-transient elements, you're gonna be fine.

    It's not necessary to have everything in place to paint a room. Can if ya want, but far too many people put off coloring their environment waiting for that last piece of fluff to be installed. It might be right around the corner -- or it might be years off in the future. Waiting on a *thing* that may or may not ever materialize before you bring color into your experience is a waste of architecture, and time, IMHO. You can color for your now.

    When it comes to paint color per se, you have to be aware of what "warm" and "cool" really means. In situ undertone and color temperature is revealed when the wall color is juxtaposed to the other colors and elements and exposed to the inherent light in the space. What makes a color "cool" or "warm" is determined when it's experienced in the three-dimensional space it will reside. Outside of that experience, on it's own, whether a color is labeled "warm" or "cool" by some other sets of eyeballs is irrelevant to you and your three-dimensional space.

    Labeling a paint color as warm or cool can be useful but it's not a fact. It's just a temporary way to organize and categorize paint chips for the preliminary stages of coloring.

    But the blue-greens, which I thought would give the rooms a sense of peacefulness, actually seem to do the opposite when placed up against the dark reddish wood. I'm guessing it's because of the high contrast?

    According to your tolerance, it's the opposite of peacefulness. To someone else that playing of contrasts would be a spectacular way to set off, highlight, pay homage to the fabulous woodwork. So for you, a calmer flavor of color harmony would be best. For someone else the amped up vibration of the blue-green to the reddish wood is fabulousness. So to say that keeping an even keel of any level of color contrast is the best way to go about coloring environments would be correct in some instances, but not all. What's the saying....??? even a broken clock is right twice a day.... kinda the same thing.

  • victoriajane
    Original Author
    14 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Wow. thank you so much for all the information. Now I am rethinking my whole scheme. I am sure I want to keep the Rich Cream in the parlor (with the white trim and fireplace.) I'm also sure I like the Feather Gray (a really pretty soft blue-gray - I'm sure many of you are familiar with it) in the dining room - it looks very nice against the woodwork and there is no stained glass to compete with. I'm still unsure of the entry room (with the blue stained glass) and the living room (with that mauveish stained glass.) I'd like to try neutrals in both rooms but in the tan/brown category. Something that will blend better with the woodwork - easy on the eye - and make the stained glass the focal point. Any suggestions for tan/brown neutrals? Do I need to look for reddish undertones because the woodwork is reddish? and do you think the feather gray will be okay with the warmer tones or will it be the odd man out?

  • kitchendetective
    14 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Just wanted to suggest that you consider a kumquat-ish color for the room with the mauve-ish stained glass. If you go to the Gallery, Oceanna's living room, etc., thread has a Miles Redd room at #62 and #156. Look at the wall color, imagine it with a brinjal/aubergine mohair, rolled arm English sofa, and Chinese Blue & kumquat silk throw pillows.

  • victoriajane
    Original Author
    14 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    kitchendetective - I am definitely willing to consider anything, as the color choices I had for the rooms with the prominent stained glass were not working. I thought I should switch to a basic neutral for the mauve-ish window room, but I would try a color. I don't really know what color kumquat is , though. And how do I get to oceanna's rooms in the gallery? Finally, how do you think a red would go with the feather gray dining room and rich cream parlor? Too much contrast? Should I rethink these rooms as well? I was thinking about what funcolors was saying about transient and non-transient elements in a room. Maybe we should start with selecting the colors that work best with the elements we can't change - i.e. the stained glass windows - and then find coordinating/harmonizing colors for the other rooms.

  • artlover13060
    14 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Victoria Jane, I really had to laugh when you described your imagined response by your middle schooler. I do try to make it interesting for them and there is much less academic talk and much more hands on, relate-to-your-world, with my students than I gave you. Yes, it probably is pearls before swine a lot of the time, but a least I'm trying. Maybe someday when one of these boys grows up and his wife talks to him about a color for the FR he will at least have a clue what she's talking about. LOL

  • kitchendetective
    14 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Go to the "Home Decorating" forum, click on "Gallery," go to the thread titled "Living room, family room, sitting room, sun room eye candy!," and scroll through the rooms to 62 and 156.
    {{gwi:1531146}}

    Or, click this link.

    Here is a link that might be useful: Living rooms in Gallery

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