A 'color wheel' is a very good way of understanding color. It's often used to explain how colors are related. A color wheel can seem quite complex, but here we're only interested in color used in home decorating. So we'll be using a very simple version which has enough information for our purposes.
Primary Colors
All colors are made up from three Primary Colors - Red, Blue and Yellow. All colors are derived from these. You can see them labeled on the diagram.
Secondary Colors
Secondary colors are made by mixing two Primary colors. Orange is from Red and Yellow, Green is from Yellow and Blue, and Violet is from Blue and Red.
Tertiary Colors
These are made by mixing a Primary color with an adjacent Secondary color. Turquoise is a mixture of blue and green, lime-green a mixture of green and yellow, and crimson is a mixture of violet and red. The other three tertiary colors (red-orange, yellow-orange and blue-violet) don't have any recognized names.
How colors relate to one another
Complimentary Colors
These are the colors which are opposite each other on the wheel - Red and Green, Blue and Orange, etc. They are least like one another. They contrast with each other, and when paired together produce visually stimulating effects. They give a sense of activity and movement to a room.
Harmonizing Colors
On the color wheel you can see colors which lie between two primary colors. For example, crimson, violet, and violet/blue. Colors like this seem to belong together, to be part of a harmonious family.
When a group of colors spans a Primary color, they still have a degree of harmony, but there is also a slight discord. You can still use such colors, but you need to handle them with extra care.
So far, so good. But where, you ask, are all the blacks, whites, browns and neutrals? These don't figure in the diagram. We'll come to them in the next section.
Do remember that color is also dependent on things like surface texture, reflection, a flat finish as opposed to gloss - all these can affect how you see color.
Summary
- Primary colors, Red, Blue, Yellow.
- Secondary colors, made by mixing Primary colors.
- Tertiary colors, made by mixing a Primary and a Secondary color.
- Complimentary colors, opposite each other which create a vibrant effect when used together.
- Harmonizing colors, lie between Primary color, and seem to belong together.
