Decorating - Getting Started With Color

When planning a room's color scheme where do you begin?

Do you first paint the walls, pick the floor covering, or buy a furniture piece to establish a place to start? Yes, any of those options will begin the color selection process.

Another approach is to start where you may have ended before, by selecting the art for the walls. Instead of searching for decorative art to wrap up your project and fill an empty wall space, indulge your often ignored artistic sensibilities and find a piece of artwork that you love.

Art through the ages has been a means of communication. It may have been an expression of beauty or the documentation of a moment in time. Portraits were at one time the only means to capture the likeness of a person before the advent of photography.

Art can express the obvious, such as a realistic landscape or vase of flowers, or it can also leave the interpretation up to the eye of the beholder, as in abstract images.

The artist in his chosen medium is communicating a message. It is up to you to receive and appreciate the significance of the message. It comes down to- do you like it or not?

Art and the colors used to create it also communicate with us in a subconscious way.

You may be attracted to a certain color or repelled by another because the color reminds you something you enjoy or something you detest.

As you shop for art, notice what images and colors improve your mood. For your home environment, you are looking for an art piece that makes you feel good each time you view it. If it's a scene, pick one that represents where you would love to spend time, a seascape, or landscape, or city scene. You will be visually transported there whenever you see it.

If you prefer a more random visual display, find an abstract design piece of art with the colors you enjoy and that works to create the mood you want to feel in the room. Cool colors or dark colors for a serene feeling, or warm and bright colors for a more lively feeling.

To create a focal point with your art, consider the size of the wall area where it will hang. Above a sofa or other long piece of furniture you will want to choose a size that is in proportion to the furniture below. A two foot wide picture above a six foot long sofa would appear lost, yet a picture the same length as the sofa would be overpowering.

The most attractive proportion creates an indentation of twelve inches on each side of the furniture piece. In this example, a picture four feet wide, centered above the six foot sofa is perfect. Don't despair if the artist painted his canvas a mere forty inches wide. If you love the artwork, those inches won't matter.

Artwork need not be large to make a huge impact. To create a larger footprint with an image, ask a professional framer for suggestions of framing profiles to increase the size and visual importance of your artistic treasure.

Once you have found the art piece that pleases your senses and sets the mood for your room, your color pallet for the other components is easy to follow. You need not use every color in the artist's pallet. Gaze at your art work and select the colors that appeal to you for the walls, the area rug, furniture pieces and accessories. As with the artist's touch, you will blend your colors perfectly.