As a homeowner, it can really be hard to visualize what a room is going to look at when it’s finally done. The veritable sea of paint colors, wallpapers, tiles, wall treatments and fabrics can be overwhelming, particularly if you haven’t really worked with color much before.

1. Creating Color Schemes
As a homeowner, it can really be hard to visualize what a room is going to look at
when it’s finally done. The veritable sea of paint colors, wallpapers, tiles, wall
treatments and fabrics can be overwhelming, particularly if you haven’t really
worked with color much before.
Thankfully, there are ways to solve this problem.
The first is to use a simple color wheel, which is available in most home
improvement stores. Colors that are the opposite of each other are known as
complementary – they make the other appear more vivid. Those that lie beside
each other will look good together because they share a common hue. Those that
are equally spaced on the wheel are known as triads. They will create a lively
combination, but you need to let one color dominate and let the other two serve
as accents.

2. Color can be warm or cool, and these descriptions can help you stir emotions.
Half of the color wheel, from red to yellow green, is the warm side. The colors are
stimulating. The other side is cool and includes blues, greens and purple.
A couple basics where warm and cool colors are concerned. If you want to have a
warm color to look livelier, use a cool color to accomplish that. For example,
green may liven up a yellow room. The same is true for a room that is painted in
cooler colors. If you’ve ever seen how a slash of red makes a blue and white room
come alive then you know how warm and cool colors can work hand in hand.
Of course, you’re probably not going to be using the full value of these colors.
Instead, you’ll be using hues of the colors, a minty green shade or a forest green.
But with a little practice you’ll start to see how the colors of the wheel can work
together or compete with one another.
Another good way to visualize a room is by creating a board with all the color
swatches, fabric samples, tile choices and window treatments in one place.
Simply laying these together on a black piece of poster board or foam core can
make all the difference in the world.
Eventually, you’ll want to glue them all down so they create a working plan for
the room. But initially, you want to simply change out the samples you have that
have been short-listed. Almost immediately, you’ll start to see trends of what
works well together vs. those that don’t seem to fit.

3. Selecting colors and working with a sample board isn’t something you want to
tackle lightly or finish in a day or even a week. You can to take your time mixing
and matching, then considering your choices. Live with them for a while on the
board before you have to live with them in the room you’re redoing. You’ll be
grateful for the time and money saved.
This is the same thing a lot of interior designers do when they present ideas to
clients. They bring all the samples they’ve selected, along with perhaps some
photos of furniture that would work well too in the room, if you’re also thinking
of buying new furniture. With the Internet, it’s easier than ever to snag photos of
furnishings you like from online furniture stores and furniture store websites. It’s
far cheaper than buying a lot of designer catalogs and more efficient, since you
can search by concept to find just what you’re looking for. For instance, “white
leather modern sofa” will return hundreds of designs on google.com that you can
then narrow by further search queries.
Learning to work with a color wheel and a sample board can save you literally
thousands of dollars in mistakes as you realize that the choices you had in your

4. head weren’t workable in the real world. More important, it can also save you
time and give you valuable experience in how to thoughtfully and effectively
design the rooms in your home.
Best of all, it can be a lot of fun to play with concepts, knowing that they are a lot
easier to change on paper than they are in your home.