Using the Colour Wheel in Interior Design

A harmonious colour scheme should strike a balance between monotony and over-stimulation resulting in a room that is visually appealing. Since the Renaissance theories on what creates harmony have included the common themes of: changes in chroma and value within the same hue, the use of adjacent analagous colours or contrasting complementary colours.

Colour wheels are useful to show such relationships and allows the designer to explore variations of engaging colour schemes. The wheels include a number of saturated hues as well as a variety of tints, tones and shades, which are less saturated versions of the hue that include more white, grey or black, respectively. While combinations of pure hues create vivid, dynamic colour harmonies, more subtle and subdued harmonies can be created by using less saturated colours.