Use Color to Change Space

Do you have to be a magician to use color to change space? No, just use a few good tricks to deceive the eye.

We all know the rules like we know our own names: warm colors close in and cool colors open a room. On the heels of this statement is the sage advice to paint a room with cool colors to make it feel larger and warm colors if you would like it smaller. That is good in theory but not quite fact in reality.

Deep blues and greens can close the wall in just as easily as the warmest red while a soft yellow can make the walls disappear giving the illusion of space. The trick is in the values how light or dark and how intense the color is. Saturation and pureness dictate the effect as much as temperature.

Your Mood and Color: The rule of thumb is the lighter the room is the larger it feels, on the other hand the darker and more intense the color of the walls the smaller the area feels. How space is affected is also dependent on your mood, color affects mood and therefore how you perceive the room you are in and how you feel in it.

Colors beside each other on the color wheel will also affect each other. If you decide to contrast two colors the eye will see them as different as possible.

Complimentary- When you use two colors that are opposite on the wheel they intensify each other. For instance if you use red and green in the same close space the red will seem more intense and so will the green.

Each color scheme will need a small amount of contrast to keep the area interesting and balanced. When you use colors that compliment each other you have instant contrast. A low key scheme of warm or cool colors will benefit from the addition of a hue of the opposite temperature to make the color scheme pop.

What we call value relates to how light or dark a hue is, when considering all colors yellow is equal to the lightest color and purple is the darkest hue.

Should you want to change the sense of a room entirely use low value colors to close the walls in. Or use high value colors to open the walls up and give the appearance of more footage.

Each color on the spectrum has varying ranges from light to dark. The nice thing about that is you can use your favorite color no matter which you would like to do. Just choose the right value of your favorite color.

Using heavy contrast between the color of the room and the color of its architectural features will outline the room. This calls immediate attention to the room's dimensions. If the room is large or small you will be keenly aware of it.

Having contrasting furniture also helps define the look of a room. Ocean blue on the walls will contrast nicely with white trim and furnishings. Underlining awareness of the size and limits of the space. Using bright bold yellow however will blend in with gold painted accessories, furniture and white trim and furnishings. It will give the space a more open feel even though the color palette was warm.

Have a boring room that feels all closed in? Use a multicolor palette to alter the proportions. How do you decide on the color palette to create these kinds of illusion? Simply follow the earlier advice, choose a warm or intense color to bring a wall forward and cooler or subdued colors to push it out and apart.

When dealing with hallways you can make them longer or shorter by the manner in which you paint them. If you want to extend the hall paint your end wall a light color then paint the corridor itself with a dark or intense color.

To find a beginning point when choosing colors consider the furniture pieces you already have. If your main piece of furniture is red then consider using green for the wall nearest to it. This will make the colors of both more intense and draw people to that area.

On the remaining walls choose a light value of color that are in other pieces or in the trim of the room. Make the same choices when choosing what color is best for the ceiling, if you want it lower go warm, want to raise it go cooler.

Being careful when choosing your colors to change the appearance of a room can easily result in chaos when using different hues on all the walls and the ceiling. Using this technique of changing hues when one plane meets another is probably only a good idea if you enjoy lots of color in your life.

New homes constructed with wide open floor plans can create their own decorating challenges. The propensity for having many rooms share one undivided space can make it hard to know where to separate the colors you would like to use to designate alternating spaces.

With older more traditional architecture columns and cased doorways create natural breaks for starting and stopping colors. To design your palette use colors already present in your furniture and accessories that blend instead of trying to match them precisely. Begin with a rug or couch that has three or more compatible colors, now using both warm and cool colors tie it together with the same tonal range.

To create your plan on where you will use each color choice try to create a flow through your home that starts warm then proceeds to cold or the other way around.

Keep in mind the amount of light that each room or space receives. Natural light greatly alters the appearance of all colors. To get an idea of how the light will impact your colors, purchase a quart of each and paint swatches on a large piece of poster board. Affix the board to the walls in each room and see how the colors will change during different times of day as well as by lamplight.

Leon Tuberman has almost 40 years of experience in furniture and interior decorating. He owns a furniture store that specializes in handmade Amish furniture for your home. They carry a large selection of oak, maple, cherry, mahogany and hickory bedroom, living room, home office and dining furniture that's crafted in the Heartland of America.