How to Design Harmonious Color Schemes
You can design a harmonious color scheme by understanding the color wheel and the emotional effects of colors. You can apply this understanding to a color scheme for use in the home, garden or business or for a ceremony when eliciting harmony is more appropriate than eliciting stimulation. You'll learn which hues are the most harmonious and how to use these hues in monochromatic or analogous color schemes for optimum harmonious effect. Does this Spark an idea?
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Instructions
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Understand how colors work together by using a basic color wheel representation, which can be found on the Color Matters website or in most library books on color theory. You'll see colors arranged by hue on the color wheel--primary colors (red, blue, yellow) in a triangular formation and secondary colors (orange, green, purple) in an interlocking triangular formation with tertiary colors (such as blue-green, or yellow-orange) between them.
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Study the effects of colors on the emotions. See that the warmer colors of the color wheel (red and orange) tend to stimulate while the cooler colors (blue and green) tend to calm. Red is the most aggressive of all colors, green the most calming and lavender the most spiritual for most people. You'll also find that monochromatic (variations on one hue) and analogous (neighboring colors) schemes are usually the best for harmonious color design.
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Choose the desired uses for a harmonious color scheme or schemes. Decide if you wish to use harmonious colors in a living space or garden, on interior walls or exterior walls, in clothing or artistic pursuits such as painting, as well as in business spaces, websites, church spaces or wedding color schemes.
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Observe what colors and combinations of colors seem harmonious to you personally. Your own feelings about harmony in color may be different from those of the majority. Notice what colors in nature, clothing, paintings or home calm you, elicit spiritual feelings, allow you a sense of well-being or tranquility, or enable you to relax.
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Use paint or colored pencils on paper to experiment with a monochromatic color scheme for harmonious color. You can create a monochromatic color scheme by using combinations of one hue of color, for example blue, and varying it by lightening and darkening the blue from the softest pastel to sky blue and everything in between. Note that very dark colors can defeat harmony except when used sparingly for accent. Keep drawing or painting in different hues and combinations until you like the result.
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Try an analogous color scheme by combining colors near to each other on the color wheel, remembering to avoid dark colors, except for accent. Draw or paint a design using green, blue-green, and blue or blue, lavender-blue and lavender. Try other neighboring colors.
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Decide which colors and color schemes you want to use for the harmonious color design you are considering.
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Tips & Warnings
Keep in mind that complementary color schemes (using contrasting colors), although attractive, are intrinsically less harmonious due to the contrast.
Know that there are many variations on the basic color wheel, all of which will work if internally consistent.
Use yellow sparingly, if at all, in your color scheme since yellow has been found to elicit upset in emotionally troubled individuals.
Avoid bright, hot colors such as red or orange that may enliven or even inflame, but don't enhance a harmonious color scheme.
