How to Choose Complementary Paint Colors

Finding colors that go together is not as hard as you might think.

Some people never repaint their walls or always paint them Navajo white out of the fear of making a mistake in choosing the right color. Selecting colors is both a science and an art, so there are some principles that you can call on when making color choices. For one, complementary colors are always complementary. You can very easily select not only two but three colors that will create a pleasing harmony just by knowing how to use a color wheel.

Things You'll Need

• Color wheel with at least 24 colors

Instructions

1. Choose any color on the color wheel and find the color directly opposite it. These two colors are complementary. Every color has a complement. Using any two complementary colors to decorate a room, create a painting or put together an outfit will always result in a pleasing combination.

2. Locate the colors red, blue and yellow on the color wheel. These are the primary colors and are equidistant from each other on the wheel.

3. Select one primary color and then imagine mixing it with any one other primary color. Combining any two primary colors creates a secondary color. Blue and red create purple; red and yellow create orange; yellow and blue create green. The complementary color for each primary color is the secondary color creating by mixing the two other primary colors. The complement of blue is orange; the complement of red is green; and the complement of yellow is purple. This principle turns up in holiday decorating and in the selection of school colors.

4. Combine any secondary color with one of the primary colors next to it on the color wheel to create a tertiary color. Examples are yellow-orange (the primary color yellow combined with the secondary color orange), red-orange (the primary color red combined with the secondary color orange), red-purple, blue-violet, and so on. Tertiary colors will usually go well together. The key is to pick a red-orange, say, in which the orange is created by using the same red that you are going to put with it.

5. Find any three colors equidistant from each other on the color wheel. These are a triad. The three primary colors are one example of a triad. Triads of colors are not complements, but they do create a complementary combination of colors.

Tips & Warnings

• The human eye can see millions of colors, so when you look at paint chips you are unlikely to see the same green or red displayed on the color wheel. In fact, if you buy two color wheels from two different manufacturers, the colors will not be exactly the same. Develop your eye using the color wheel (and lots of paint chips) to find complementary colors on your own. You can get a sense of what you are looking for using the principles described here. If you have a reddish-purple, for example, its complement is going to be somewhere in the bluish-green family.

References

• This Old House: Choosing Interior Colors
• SouthernAccents: Color 101: Picking Your Palette
• Color Matters: Color Theory