How Interior Decorators Create Color Schemes

Interior decorators and designers are paid to make your immediate environment aesthetically pleasing and functional. Color is perhaps the most evident of elements in a design scheme, and decorators use several methods and tools to create just the right color palette for a design project.

Inspiration
Decorators often use one item as the inspiration for the colors used in a project. This item may be a piece of fabric, a painting or print, or an accessory such as a woven rug or basket. They pick out two or three colors from that item and those colors make up the color palette.

Color Trends
All colors spring from the primary colors of red, blue and yellow, but the variations on these are infinite. Decorators look to trend predictors such as the Color Association of the United States and Pantone Inc. to create up-to-date and fresh new color palettes for their clients.

Color Wheel
Decorators depend on a traditional system of matching colors using a color wheel. The three most common matches are complementary, analogous, and triad. A complementary scheme uses two color opposite one another on the color wheel, such as red and green. An analogous scheme uses colors that are next to each other on the wheel, such as blue-green, green, and yellow-green. A triad scheme uses three colors that are at opposing points on the wheel, such as purple, orange and green.

Color Deck
Perhaps the most well-known, or most easily recognized tool decorators use in their work is the color deck. A color deck is a collection of paint cards or paint chips such as those seen in paint stores. The cards are held together on a ring and may be fanned out. Each card has three or four colors on them and the cards are grouped by color family. Decorators are then able to select colors easily from a particular paint manufacturer. Similar cards are available to the public at home improvement stores and paint outlets, but decks must be purchased, usually directly from specific paint manufacturers.

Munsell Color System
The Munsell color system is rarely used for small projects, as the system is complicated and the tool itself quite expensive. The Munsell color system tool is a three dimensional model of mathematically configured color shades, hues and values. The system ensures that in large projects, colors remain consistent throughout the project. Decorators and designers use this system to create a finely-tuned and precise color palette on a large scale, such as for hospitals or corporate buildings.