colour-contrast

Colour & Contrast

Lifestyle
8 years ago
3 minutes

Create a big impact this season with your home display by using contrasting colours. 

Skilful colour contrasting has enlivened interior designs today, as it can be as simple as using a coloured vase that complements the colour of leaves or flowers you use.

Colour contrast is the juxtaposition of dissimilar elements e.g. colour, tone, emotion, degree of difference between the lightest and darkest parts of a painting or photograph

Adding a pop of colour will perk up your home and give it a new dimension.  Here are some ways to understand how colour contrast can change and impact on the look and feel of a room. 

Start with the outside of the house, a beautiful and polished off shiny red door against a white wooden house is the perfect way for your home to stand out in the street. 

Warm colours such as orange, red and yellow or the combination of these three are used to make large rooms cosier and more intimate. This is because they reflect the sun and heat. 

Cool colours such as blue green and purple have the ability to calm and soothe, reminding us of water and sky, used to make a small room seem larger. 

Warm colours advance. Cool colours recede. 

Combining warm colours and cool tones in a space will create balance, lending a room a cosy feel and a calming sensation.  

The more dramatic the contrast, the better! With a beautiful wooden dining table, place this with some yellow dining chairs to liven up the space and give it a point of interest. 

If you like to keep it simple, you can add a touch of contrast easily, which will still alter the way you look at a room. In a room with white walls and a white sofa, give it texture and depth by placing a hide brown rug in the centre with a light wooden coffee table and a purple chair. Colourful cushions can also be added to the white couch for that extra splash of colour contrast. 

Another simple way is to group colours of books together in your book shelf, having a shelf for red covered books, one for blue covered books, one for green, and one for yellow. These will mutually intensify their luminosity. 

The kitchen is a perfect place to show off your colour contrasting skills. Choose a dark charcoal colour for the walls and the floors to contrast with red or cream cabinets, making them a dominant feature in the kitchen, while maintaing that sleek and contemporary look. 

Inject splashes of colour into every room by having a different colour cupboard or drawer in each room. 

Successful mixes of colours go perfectly with any neutral shade. In a grey painted room, this neutral colour with emphasise the visually striking look of the smaller items you experiment with, whether it be cushions, side tables, lamps, accessories or furniture. 

Try to get out of that boring black and white bubble and add a touch of colour to the room, a pink chair, a green pedestal table, a rustic timber table with a floral upholstery or a colourful ceiling wall are just a few small examples of how to make a room shine. 

If you have any exposed pipes in the bathroom or heaters around the house, these are a great little item in the house to paint red or yellow to add that shot of colour. 

Infuse your rooms with a new look by choosing hues that contrast with one another to create an intriguing and a vibrant colour design to change the mood of any room in your house!