How to Choose a Soothing Color Scheme
Learn the moods associated with colors., Prioritize cool colors., Avoid over saturating bright colors., Create an airy feel with pastel colors., Combine different colors to create your color scheme.
Step-by-Step Guide
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Step 1: Learn the moods associated with colors.
Colors have an influence on your mood.
Generally, these are divided into warm, cool, and neutral colors.
Warm colors generally convey a stimulating and communal sense.
Cool colors are generally soothing and calming.
Neutral colors blend in with most environments.
Warm colors include red, orange, and yellow.
These strong colors are frequently unsuitable for creating a soothing effect.
Cool colors include green, blue, and violet.
These colors, and combinations of these colors, soothe and promote trust.
Neutral colors include white, gray, black, beige, and similar colors.
These colors tend to fit well with most color schemes. -
Step 2: Prioritize cool colors.
You can mix various shades of green, blue, and violet to create your own soothing color scheme.
So long as one of these cool colors is the base, your color scheme will likely have a soothing effect.Green is an excellent base color if you want to create an atmosphere of rejuvenation and growth.
Light blue as the base color will give a light, refreshing sense.
Dark blue communicates a sense of dignity.
Violet mixes the calmness of blue and the vitality of red.
It gives the impression of serenity.
Although a cool color, it is considered to be the warmest of the three.
For this reason, you may want to avoid overusing violet., Even cool colors can become agitating when they are too bright.
Use bright colors in small amounts as an accent to prevent them from overpowering the main colors in your scheme.Accent colors generally highlight features like knobs, buttons, edges, and so on, to create contrast and gradient in your color scheme. , Pastel colors tone down hues with the addition of large amounts of white.
This washes out the sharpness of the pigment, giving the color a comfortable, wide-open feeling.
Pastel colors might be perfect for your soothing color scheme. , Now that you know how colors effect people, you can choose your color scheme.
You never know what might suit your tastes, so experiment liberally with various combinations.You can tone down the energetic feel of warm colors by using darker shades of these.
In some cases, a single warm tone as an accent or supplemental color paired with two cool ones can be uplifting while retaining a dominantly soothing tone.
Feel free to integrate neutral tones with cool colors in your color scheme.
Most neutral tones will work well as supplements to cool tone color schemes.
However, keep at least one cool tone dominant to maintain the soothing effect.
If you are painting a room, it can be difficult to imagine the color on the wall.
If this is your situation, you may find it helpful to request color swatches from a paint store so you have a point of reference. -
Step 3: Avoid over saturating bright colors.
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Step 4: Create an airy feel with pastel colors.
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Step 5: Combine different colors to create your color scheme.
Detailed Guide
Colors have an influence on your mood.
Generally, these are divided into warm, cool, and neutral colors.
Warm colors generally convey a stimulating and communal sense.
Cool colors are generally soothing and calming.
Neutral colors blend in with most environments.
Warm colors include red, orange, and yellow.
These strong colors are frequently unsuitable for creating a soothing effect.
Cool colors include green, blue, and violet.
These colors, and combinations of these colors, soothe and promote trust.
Neutral colors include white, gray, black, beige, and similar colors.
These colors tend to fit well with most color schemes.
You can mix various shades of green, blue, and violet to create your own soothing color scheme.
So long as one of these cool colors is the base, your color scheme will likely have a soothing effect.Green is an excellent base color if you want to create an atmosphere of rejuvenation and growth.
Light blue as the base color will give a light, refreshing sense.
Dark blue communicates a sense of dignity.
Violet mixes the calmness of blue and the vitality of red.
It gives the impression of serenity.
Although a cool color, it is considered to be the warmest of the three.
For this reason, you may want to avoid overusing violet., Even cool colors can become agitating when they are too bright.
Use bright colors in small amounts as an accent to prevent them from overpowering the main colors in your scheme.Accent colors generally highlight features like knobs, buttons, edges, and so on, to create contrast and gradient in your color scheme. , Pastel colors tone down hues with the addition of large amounts of white.
This washes out the sharpness of the pigment, giving the color a comfortable, wide-open feeling.
Pastel colors might be perfect for your soothing color scheme. , Now that you know how colors effect people, you can choose your color scheme.
You never know what might suit your tastes, so experiment liberally with various combinations.You can tone down the energetic feel of warm colors by using darker shades of these.
In some cases, a single warm tone as an accent or supplemental color paired with two cool ones can be uplifting while retaining a dominantly soothing tone.
Feel free to integrate neutral tones with cool colors in your color scheme.
Most neutral tones will work well as supplements to cool tone color schemes.
However, keep at least one cool tone dominant to maintain the soothing effect.
If you are painting a room, it can be difficult to imagine the color on the wall.
If this is your situation, you may find it helpful to request color swatches from a paint store so you have a point of reference.
About the Author
Scott Wilson
Enthusiastic about teaching cooking techniques through clear, step-by-step guides.
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