Interior Design Course: Week 5

Here's a recap of what I learnt in Week 5 of the Interior Design Course

WEEK 5

Colour Theory

Colour and its application

Colour schemes

Paint selections and finishes

This week we looked at all things colour. We made good use of the colour wheel given to us in week 3 which we have been shown bit by bit each week how to use to match up colour combinations (although just quietly I'm still a bit confused about how to use it!)

In fact - a lot of this class went over my head! It wasn't only me which was a relief, most of the class were a bit confused about colour tones and complementary and tirades and some words I can't even pronounce! These are the colour groups that you use for different effects depending on the scheme you want to achieve.

 

Emotional Colour - colours make us feel different things, in a dining room a red wall or red place mats can increase the appetite and make food look more appealing. In a study or playroom yellow walls increase stimulation and the mind. It also depends on what effect colour has on you personally, for me I can't wear anything maroon because it reminds me of my school uniform so we put emotions to colours as well and what you may love someone else may not.

 

A Colour Value is the lightness or darkness of the color. You can find the values of a color by its tints and shades. Tints are light values that are made by mixing a color with white, so pink is a tint of red. Shades are dark values that are made by mixing a color with black so navy is a shade of blue. A new trend is painting furniture in a colours value, I really love the look of this it's like a paint swatch come to life.

Complementary colors sit opposite each other on the color wheel. Because they are opposites, they look really lively when used together and each color also looks more noticeable. Examples are purple and yellow and red and green.

 

Analogous colours sit next to each other on the color wheel usually up to 3-5 colours. They tend to look pleasant together because they are closely related, like these images with greens into yellow and yellows into pink.

We spent some time doing a colour workshop where we had to pick a colour and say what emotion it makes us feel - I picked blue because it makes me calm and relaxed.

 

 

We then had to create a casual relaxed theme and a formal dramatic theme using the emotional colour we had picked.

 

We got out our paint charts (that we had to get from Bunnings before this class) and started cutting out colours. In my formal scheme at first I had the accent cushion as orange, but when Natalie the instructor came around to see how we were going she suggested a lighter shade of the blue would be more formal as the orange was a bit too funky! So I'm glad I asked to get the colour combo right.

The trick with casual is to add white and the trick with formal is to add grey in light and dark tones - I can see in my schemes that this definitely makes them look different and gives them a different feel to one another.

 

 

To be honest I still don't complete understand how colour combinations work and the different groups of colour and shades and tones and so on, I think it will take more than a 3 hour class to figure it all out.

I have my colour wheel to practice with and I have picked up how to put a casual and formal room together. At the end of the day it's also about picking colours that you like and that make you feel good ... not just what works on a colour wheel!

Week 1 you can read about here
Week 2 you can read here
Week 3 you can read here
Week 4 you can read here
Week 6 is the final week and is all about decorating

[1st and last image my own, Colour Wheel HomeBase Expo, Colour Emotion Pinterest,  Colour Value Pinterest, Complimentary Purple Pinterest, Red Pinterest,  Analogous Green Pinterest, Orange Pinterest, Blue Pinterest]

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