What is a cool or warm colour??
This is something that is important to know if you are embarking on any colour type projects, but what makes a colour cool or warm? Does it depend on winter or summer?? How can you tell???

Warm and Cool colours are easy to understand on a whole, but the further and further You look at colours, the harder it can be to understand whether they are cool or warm.

The Obvious:

Let’s look at colours in a general sense, the colours categorised into blue, green and purple are cool colours, and red, orange and yellow are warm colours.

Warm colours are generally lighter and seem to advance towards you, they make you feel warm, as they mostly remind you of the sun! If you want a cosier feel in a room, use warm colours on the walls.

Cool colours are generally darker and seem to recede from you; they remind us of blue and green coloured things, such as the sky and the ocean, which are generally cold! If you have a small space and wish to make it look large, use cool colours on the walls.

Make sure to use both warm and cool colours in each room you wish to paint, it is always important to have a balance. For example you may use a cool grey, which has tones of blue to make it so, but you could use pink/orange cushions on the lounge or as a bed spread. Think about the sort of environment you want and how large the space is, as well as the amount of light that will be in the room, before you decide if you want cool or warm colours to be more prominent in your space.

The Not So Obvious:

This is where it can get a little tricky; believe it or not you can have warm greens! Even though green in itself is a cool colour it can be warm when its warm counterpart – yellow influences it. Take a look at the wheel colour below, provided by dream home decorating, to get a better understanding.

In the case of green and yellow – cool yellow has a bit of green, which is its cool counterpart in it, and warm greens have a bit of yellow, its warm counterpart in it. This photo is a great one to save and keep with you as reference, you can simply look at the colour blues and understand which other primary colours need to be in it to make it warm. Just remember that a colours original category will always be strong, so a cool blue is always going to be cooler than a cool yellow. All colours stick to their roots!
If you would like to learn more, a good way to get used to seeing colours is to pick up some free colour swatch samples from your local hardware or paint store, and arrange them in coolest to warmest or pick out the bluest colours. Another simple idea that really gets the mind working, is purchasing a small sample pot of paint and brushing it out on some white cardboard, then look closely at the paint and try and work out what tints are in it – or how did they make this colour? Once you think you know, go back to the store and ask them to tell you which tints are in the colour!

I hope this helps anyone looking to understand warm and cool colours, as well as colours in general. If you have any questions, or would like me to post more blogs like this, comment below!

Love Marleen xoxo