Articles provided by RE-Sterling.com

For anyone who has taken art classes or interior design, landscaping etc., the color wheel is a basic element to be mastered. But for the majority of us, neutral colors are the safe way to go. That's too bad because color is so much a part of our everyday life.

I'm sure that you have on various occasions walked into a room andinstantly felt comfortable. Color (as well as design) has everything to do with that.

The color Wheel originally came about in 1666 when Sir Issac Newton shone pure white light through a prism and was astonished at the range of color. His discovery of white light containing all the spectrums of color, has been used by artist around the globe ever since.

It is very simple using the chart if you understand the some of the basics.

There are primary colors in the spectrum which are red, yellow and blue. Theses are the colors from which all other colors are made. Next there are secondary colors, green, orange and purple. These colors are produced by mixing 2 primary colors together. The intermediate colors are made by mixing primary and secondary colors together.

To see what colors work well together, the wheel become invaluable. If you decided to make a green room, you may not want to paint all the walls the same color. Instead you may want to entertain the idea of painting one smaller wall a darker green and the rest a lighter shade. It would define the space a bit better. When you are unable to make up your mind about what colors to use as accents, the color wheel is the logical place to look. Look at the colors you chose for the wall. Now look on the opposite side. We chose green so on the wheel the color that shows up on the opposite side is purple. If that pleases you then you have an accent color.

Inspiration for your color scheme can come from many different sources. We usually know from a very young age what colors attract us so capitalize on that.

It's easy to obtain a color wheel. You can go online to get one as there are many printable versions you can use. An art or craft store should have them in stock. You can even go to a store like Home Depot! In their paint section you'll see the selection of colors they can make you. They are not set up in a wheel but they do follow the color chart rules.

One more thing about the color wheel, color can be used to reflect your personality! If you are an out going type of person then you may be very comfortable with primary or strong secondary colors like shades of red and orange. If you are the calm type then maybe soft blues and greens may be your cup of tea. So you must account for that when you are designing.

Enjoy!

Using color correctly can make your day!