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Decorating with Same-Shade
Analogous Colors
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How to decorate your home with
gradient colors in the same color group--known as analogous
colors.
Analogous colors belong to a single parent hue, with each
variation borrowing a little from the two colors adjacent to
it on the decorating color wheel. Aqua blue, navy blue,
periwinkle blue, sapphire blue and azure blue all share the
parent color, blue, and together they form a family of
analogous colors.
Home decorating with these sets of analogous colors has
unique properties well-worth exploring. There is harmony
established when a single color tone reigns over an entire
room. Analogous colors also speak more clearly than a mixed
palette, allowing the dominant hue to set the mood of your
home decorating.
Even more importantly, home decorating with analogous colors
is the easiest to master of all color decorating. Though you
may find it hard to determine the best relationship of green
to orange and purple, analogous colors of blue will seem to
you naturally connected, as will any other family of
analogous colors, be it reds, purples, greens or oranges.
Choosing Your Favorite Family of Analogous Colors
The decorating color wheel includes 6 colors: green, blue,
purple, red, orange and yellow. Each of these colors may be
mixed a little with the color to its right or left (with
yellow and green meeting where the decorating wheel closes).
Thus green may be mixed a little with yellow to create lime
green, or mixed with blue to created cyan.
You don’t have to be an expert color decorator or even to
know all the names of the gradients of every analogous color
group. You just need to know how each parent color makes you
feel, and how different analogous colors affect your
perception of space.
Greens and Blues
Analogous colors that float between greens and blues will
create cool, soothing home decorating, reminiscent of a
lagoon or shady pond. Use them for home decorating in
smaller spaces, as this will create the impression of
greater size.
Purples and Reds
Analogous colors that range between purples and reds will
create dramatic home decorating when taken in their darkest
shades. By contrast, their lightest expressions of violet
and pinks will create the loveliest, soothing rooms. As a
rule, the larger the space, the darker your analogous colors
should be.
Orange and Yellow
Analogous colors of the orange and yellow families are
reminiscent of light and sunshine and will grant your home
decorating the atmosphere of spring. But since the darker
versions are over-powering, analogous colors in yellows and
oranges are recommended for well-lit, airy rooms of moderate
to small size.
Black and White
Though black and white are not represented on the decorating
color wheel, black being the absence of all color, and white
being all colors combined, the two are part of light and
shade and are integral to the way we perceive analogous
colors. And yet, if you want to truly adhere to home
decorating with analogous colors only, black and white must
not take part in your decorating.
Home Decorating with Analogous Colors
Depending on the color mood you wish to instill with your
home decorating choose the color group you prefer. You don’t
have to worry about whether the analogous colors should tilt
to the right or left. Instead focus on the following
guidelines.
Paint the walls of the room in pale analogous colors, then
coat the furnishings or bed with dark versions of the same
analogous colors. In between come your decorating items such
as pillows, fabrics, accessories and lighting, all of which
should still adhere to the same analogous color palette but
each with a slightly different shade that ranges somewhere
in between the two extremes of the walls and the
furnishings.
For your floor, choose light analogous colors for smaller or
darker rooms, but darker versions for large or well-lit
rooms. You may also choose to paint your ceiling a darker
analogous color than the walls if the room is large or the
ceiling is too high. Choose the reverse, a lighter ceiling
than the walls if the ceiling is too low or the room is too
small.
Feel Free
At the end of the day, home decorating with analogous colors
is exactly about not taking anyone’s advice. It’s really up
to you to pick and choose the decorating items you wish to
include based on their color. Since you’ll only have one
analogous color palette to worry about, you’ll naturally
levitate to all blues, or all pinks, when you enter a store
or search the internet.
To see some beautiful examples of home decorating with
analogous colors, I recommend visiting
Martha Stewart’s Shades of Nature. View
all 12 pictures, each with a different analogous color
palette. You’ll notice that some of the rooms have gone a
step beyond analogous color decorating by adding a splash of
a what’s known as a complimentary color (a color from the
opposite side of the decorating color wheel.)
Questions? Comments?
Drop me a line.
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