Color Schemes
To make any room appear to have more space or to alter the dimensions of a room without remodeling can be achieved by picking a new room colour scheme. Adding a fresh coat of paint allows you to express yourself simply with a new color technique. What you will need is a color wheel to help you pick the shades of paint. You can pick one up at most paint stores for free.
Color has three qualities - hue, value, and intensity or brightness. Hue is the name of the colour, such as yellow or red. The lightness or darkness of a hue is the value. To tint the color slightly you add a white base. For a different shade you add black. To change the basic tone of the paint you would add gray. Intensity is the brightness or dullness of the main paint color.
Basic color schemes from the paint palette that you can work with
Complimentary color schemes are always directly across from each other on a color wheel, in this their are many shades. They are always very different and one is always the dominant or darker. For example burgundy and green.
Neutral colors use grays, beiges or white as the main color and then add a dark accent to add a visual effects. You see this mostly when color blocking, light colored walls with very dark moldings or doorways.
Analogue schemes use two or more on the wheel which are adjacent to each other. This creates a flow that blends together to create a subtle effect.
For a triadic scheme you choose three selections that are equal in distance from each other. Just for an example these would be red, yellow and blue. Painting with this type of style is very striking and takes a lot of care in choosing you main paint color. I have seen blue walls with red and yellow accents that really looked sharp.
To use the same shade or tint in different levels is called monochromatic scheme. This style can make a room look much larger. What you want to do is pick different light and dark shades with different intensities.
This is normally the samples you see at a paint and wallpaper stores, they are sections of the color wheel.
