Color Picking 101: It's easier than you think

This instructable is the first in a series designed to help you confidently choose colors for your projects. Whether you're looking to match fabrics for a quilt, design accessories, work in tile, or any other craft that requires you to pick your own colors.

Working in a fabric store and helping people choose fabric on a regular basis I'm always surprised how often I hear that people think that the fabrics they pick out won't look as good as a pre-chosen kit, or that they're scared to do it themselves. This id designed to make you more confident, so you can make beautiful things!

You can find links to other tutorials I've written on my blog at http://antelucandaisy.blogspot.com

Step 1 Inspiration is closer than you might think!

As the title says, inspiration for color choices is closer than you might think. In this first section of Colo Picking 101, we're going to head to the local do it yourself store for colors.

You're probably going to want to look for a larger chain type store for a few reasons (I like to hit up Walmart, Home Depot, and Lowes). The first main reason is you're not actually going to buy paint. The second reason is not only are you not going to buy paint, but you're going to take color cards and you want a wide selection.

The first photo attached is probably what you're NOT looking for which is a pure color gradient. Unfortunately, there's not much difference in trying to choose from this selection than there is in walking into your local fabric store and choosing blindly from a color wall.

The second photo is the type of paint display you're looking for (this one is from my local WaltMart). Notice that there are lots of pre-coordinated room painting suggestions!

Comments

[sibuadvancetech]

what a great site!!! thanks a lot!!

[jameyc]

Linux users might wanna try Agave, a program which can generate a variety of color palates depending on criteria, and also acts as a general color sampler.

[zachninme]

Although this seems to be picking colors for your house, it has inspired me to use a paint color-wheel for my web-design color picking. I came here because I hoped it was for that, and everyone out there who's seen my stuff knows I really really suck at that.

[Trelligan]

If you don't mind spending a bit of money, check out VisiBone color charts. I really like the hexagonal layout, it just makes more sense than most.

http://www.visibone.com/color/

[Myself]

Picking colors for the text and background on your website is tricky, because if you're not careful, you can exclude colorblind people. Play with the wellstyled color scheme generator for a little while. It's a full-featured color wheel with the usual toys plus a hex RGB readout, just like all the other web color scheme tools. But it also allows you to simulate the view through various types of color-blindness, so you can see if the contrast falls flat for a certain segment of the population.

Play with it for a while, it'll open your eyes. (ha!)

[zachninme]

Yes, yes I know. That's not the hard part for me though :P I just can't pick colors period :P

[antelucandaisy]

It's not at all picking colors for your house, but using the prechosen colors from the home improvement places to make your color choices easier on your craft of choice (I did fabric as an example)

[magnoliasouth]

I think zachninme meant for the home as in crafts and stuff and not paint for the house. Web colors and real colors (as in your colors) are often described similarly and I think zachninme just misunderstood before clicking, that this was for the real stuff. In any case, you've done a fine tutorial and is incredibly helpful for those of us who get quickly overwhelmed when selecting real colors. Thank you so much for it!

[zachninme]

Yes :P By "for your house", I sort of meant picking colors for anything that is in your house, but its fine, great instructable ;-)

[Drew-Oz]

here is a great online colour resource too:
http://kuler.adobe.com/
it's a web-based colour community!
there are a load of pre-set colour schemes you can choose from. these are created and shared online by people around the world but if you want to make your own combination, hit the "Create" link and you're away! V cool.

[spook]

another site for colour combinations genopal

[rockyt]

here is a great site for those of use that don't do so well at selecting correct color schemes.

http://www.colorschemer.com/online.html

[Coffeebot]

http://www.easyrgb.com is a great resource, too. It has a lot of popular paint brands available for matching.

[jesirose]

This is a clever idea, I never thought to use interior design color schemes for quilting! Great!