A Professional Color Guide Washington DC

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We spend most of our life inside some kind of enclosure: be it home, be it our company, theater, shopping malls, etc. Here we nestle, work, play, succeed and cherish our life.

When it plays such a big role in our life, why not paint it with love. Place where we live reflects our mood, persona and character. Whether it’s ravishing passionate red, or lime fresh green, mesmerizing mystic maroon or burst of classy blue – it can simply add oomph to your wall.

Let the paint do wonder, and adorn your walls with myriad hues of your life. We might not notice always, but each color says something. It might whisper, but it does.

Choice of color is the most crucial thing for an interior painting exercise. It is not as simple as it seems. Why always go for the conventional and safe colors? Come join, on this colorful journey with me and we’ll together find the secrets of the colors. Let your walls speak volume.

THINGS TO REMEMBER BEFORE SELECTING THE SUITABLE COLOR

The character and use of the room to be painted and its relation with the rest of the house

Existing color of the building

Size of the room

Natural lighting in the room

Type of artificial lighting in the room

Existing and future furniture in the room

Fabric used in the room

Color and texture of the floor

A COLOR PRIMER COLORS AND THEIR RELATIONS
An ideal and most helpful tool while deciding on the color combination and color contrast for interiors is ‘color wheel’. Understanding of the color wheel will give you a professional outlook towards colors and help you in dealing with color companies, when you are out in the market to buy colors for your home.

The color wheel displays a palette of 12 shades, evenly placed in divided sectors of a circle. Colors placed adjacent to each other are ‘analogous’ and opposite to each other are ‘complementary’ colors. Analogous colors go hand in hand, while the complimentary colors are considered as the contrast colors.

WARM AND COOL COLOR
Warm colors ignite wildness, vivaciousness, passion and energy.
If you are planning to fill your rooms with energy, boldness, and bright-impact, warm colors are what you want to adorn your brush with. Reds, browns, oranges, pinks, yellows are the warm colors, which make your room inviting and gorgeous.

On the other hand, cool colors soothe our hearts with a peaceful tranquility and sophistication. If you want to make your room look bigger and feel cooler, cool colors will be the right choice.

Cool colors include various shades of white, blues, greens, beige etc. Light cool colors are undoubtedly safer than the dark colors, especially on walls and ceilings of bedrooms, study rooms, meeting rooms.

If in doubt, go for the cool & lighter shades. A color scheme with emphasis on cool lighter shades, and using warm bright shades in small doses, to highlight and accentuate certain corners can be considered.

USE PAINT FAN OR FAN DECK
This is a useful color selection tool. You must have noticed a interior painting contractor using this to show his client colors.
It comes with thick stack of cardboard strips, displaying thousands of shades, grouped according to color family. The color strips fan out and display three to seven hundred magnificent and truly incredible shades of a color, from dark to lighter tone. Every color compnay do have this to help their contractors and dealeres show the colors to customers.

COLOR SELECTION TIPS COORDINATE WITH DÉCOR ELEMENTS
Before buying paint one should keep in mind the décor elements of the room, like – fabric, carpet, tiles, wallpaper, furniture etc.

TRIM OUT
Often shades of whites are used for doors, molding, and windows, but if you want to go experimental with colors, you can reverse the process and adorn the trims with dark bright tones, in contrast with pale lighter tones of the walls.

TRY PAINT FINISH
Paint finish might be the best option for your room. Matte or flat finishes act as a healer of imperfections, whereas glossy shine adds more light reflections to the walls. Gloss is durable and requires no maintenance. Satin is known for the smooth finish and is very easy to clean. While gloss is mostly used in kitchen and washroom, semi-gloss is used on doors, windows and trims.

CEILING IS IMPORTANT
Dark ceiling color is always a put off. Light colored, pleasing ceiling adds beauty to the room, as ceiling rest in shadow. If you plan to match the ceiling color with the color of the walls, try applying one or two shades lighter to the ceiling and a darker shade of the same color to the wall, or dilute the wall color for application on the ceiling. This dilution should measure of 25% color and 75% white, to get the lighter shade for the ceiling.

EXPLORE YOUR NEEDS AND SHAPE IT WITH COLORS
Don’t get tempted with the beauty of color; you might repent in the future. First, know your priority and then pick up the color tone. Whether you are thinking of making your room look more spacious, or you want to make your room feel cooler and sophisticated or are you bothered about the length of the walls, blindly go for lighter shades of paint. It could be marvelous pastel shade.

SIZE OF THE ROOM
The ultimate impact of the color depends on the size of the room. A color might look very pleasing in a big spacious room, but it might look simply poor in a smaller room. So keeping a check on size is very important.

TRIAL PATCH IS ALWAYS A SMART MOVE
Despite being quite confident with the color selection, doing a trial patch test is never a bad idea. It will save money, energy and time. Paint either a small board or a small section of the wall with the chosen paint. This will give you an idea about how your selection will come about.

THROW SOME LIGHT ON IT
The best possible way to judge a particular color is to observe it under different lighting conditions. Take a close view of the color in both artificial and natural lights. And the amount and the nature of light in the room to be painted is undoubtedly the most important issue.

MEASUREMENT ALWAYS ENSURES PERFECT FIT
Take your measurement of your room and carry it with you when going for shopping for paints. Based on the measurement, the paint professionals will tell you how much you’ll need. This will minimize the wastage.

WAIT TILL IT DRIES UP
Colors normally look different when they are wet. To match the color with the sample color you aspired for, wait till the color dried out. To understand the color more exactly, bring the furniture in the room and do the contextual sample of the color.

KEEP WHITE HANDY ALWAYS
It’s highly recommended to keep white handy, you never know, when you will need it. It can also be used to lighten the shade and dilute color while applying on the ceiling.

SOME POPULAR COLOR SCHEMES

MONOCHROMATIC COLOR SCHEME
In this, a single (mono) color is used, while bringing in variations with its tints and shades.

ANALOGOUS COLOR SCHEME
This color scheme consists of colors, which are positioned adjacent to each other in the color wheel.

COMPLEMENTARY COLOR SCHEME
This color scheme consists of colors lying in opposite to each other on the color wheel. These are generally the contrast colors.

One should always break the conventional monotony and strive for something new and innovative. You need not to be a celebrated artist to beautify your home. A simple consultation of few references and a little research can help you come up with exceptional interior paints for your home, which even professional contractors might find tough to match.
For inspiration it is said, it can be taken from anywhere, like our filmmakers. So, look wherever you can and come up with a professional quality interior paint scheme for your home. Your touch will make your home feel yours.

For more information, visit Welovepainting.com

BAYSHORE PAINTING

410-320-0180
909 FIORENZA DR.
LOTHIAN, MD