What do the walls in a house, patterns on clothes and your wedding have to do with one another? You can use the same thought of color inspiration for all three.
The color wheel and rules for matching color have the ability to transcend over a multitude of outlets in your life.
But, picking a color scheme, say for your impending nuptials, can be tricky if you don’t already have the arsenal of knowledge to match two hues together, other than the classic black and white.
We are all taught the basics that red, blue and yellow are primary colors and green, orange and purple are secondary colors. But once you go beyond the basics, it can get confusing and overwhelming fast.
We put together a guide of terms and a few tips to help you on your way to picking a flawless set for your Big Day.
- Hue: Simple, any pure color on the color wheel.
- Shade: Any hue mixed with black, which ends up darkening the color.
- Tint: Any hue mixed with white. Typically, these end up being put in the pastel category.
- Complementary Colors: Complementary colors are any two colors that sit opposite each other on the color wheel.
Complementary colors add that pop to any soiree. Because each of the colors is strong on its own, using them together does exactly what their name entails, they complement each other. Purple and yellow, blue and orange, and red and green are the primary and secondary complementary colors.
- Monochromatic: Think of an ombre affect. This is a variation of shades, tints and tones (any hue mixed with grey) of any one color or hue.
Because monochromatic involves the same color in different shades, tints or tones they inevitably complement each other. You can match a soft pastel with a bold shade and you can’t go wrong.
- Analogous: These colors sit next to each other on the color wheel. You could start anywhere on the color wheel and match the color with its neighbors on either side.
For analogous colors, you take your color choice and incorporate the colors on each side. Say your favorite color is green, you can match that green with the blue-green on its left and the yellow green on its right. This gives a variation of the color, but the harmony of the same base color.
- Split Complementary: The same idea as a complementary color scheme, but includes analogous (see below) colors and the color across the color wheel from the group.
Split complementary amplifies the boldness of just a typical complementary matchup, while incorporating analogous colors.
