Decorating with Color: Color Theory and the Color Wheel
Definition of Color
To understand color one has to understand how color comes into existence. If you remember your physical science class discussion on light and those fun experiments with prisms you will recall that an object reflects back the color in the light wave that corresponds to itself while absorbing all other colors in the light wave. For example, a red rose absorbs all color waves in the light except for the color red. The color red is BOUNCED back thereby giving the red rose it’s color.
In scientific terms you could say: Light consists of color waves, when we SEE a color we are actually being exposed to the COLOR WAVES not absorbed by the object. Light bounces the color back through reflection.
Color Terminology
DO YOU REMEMBER WHEN YOU WEREN’T AFRAID OF COLOR?
Do you remember the excitement of opening a box of 64 crayons? The heady smell of those wax wonders! You could doodle and color the afternoon away. Color was something to be discovered not feared! So, what if little Suzy thought chartreuse was icky? You didn’t care. Unfortunately, as we grow into adulthood we begin to care about what others think and that’s the beginning of both our fear and inhibition of color. Therefore, it should be no big surprise that there are so many white walls in people’s homes and office’s. Well today, I am giving you permission to embrace color again!
You have probably heard color referred to as hue and vice versa. They are one in the same. You can use the terms interchangeably.
