Design 101: Basic Colour Schemes

So I thought it would be fun to include some design tips and tricks in this blog. You know, some rules of thumb that can help a design scheme further along the path to awesomeness. This will be a reoccurring column in which I will share some trade secrets and some need-to-knows.

An important part of design is colour. It sets the mood for a space and we all have a strong emotional connection with colour for better or worse. A good rule of thumb is to think about how you will utilize the space and how you want to feel in it before picking a colour. If you want a certain room to be a space for relaxing, don't pick a colour that you might find jarring or over stimulating (at least not as your main colour). This may seem like stating the obvious, but you'd be surprised how often this step is forgotten. 

My Colour Wheel: a reference guide for colour mixing and matching

If your not sure what colours will work together and which ones just don't look quite right a good place to start is the colour wheel. I won't go through all the uses of the colour wheel in this post - that would take way too long. I will however discuss two of my favorite colour schemes which are also two of the simplest schemes (I'm a bit of a minimalist) called monochromatic and analogous.

A monochromatic scheme is, of course, a scheme based on one colour, or one piece of the colour wheel pie. Black and white can be added to the colour giving a range of tints and shades thereby making the monochromatic scheme more interesting.

An analogous scheme is similar to a monochromatic scheme but instead of using shades of one colour you use two or three colours that are adjacent to one another on the colour wheel and all their tints and shades. Simple and beautiful.

Analogous Colour Scheme

This video by OK Go is a perfect example of both monochromatic and analogous colour schemes (it also makes me want to slow dance with my hubby in matching monochromatic outfits):