As a home decorator or someone who simply wants to breath some fresh air into your living environment, it’s important that you get out of the habit of reaching for the white paint when it’s time to freshen up your walls. Not that there’s anything wrong with white paint – it’s just so standard that it has quite truthfully become a bit boring and sterile. To give your environment a splash of personality, why not try some real color?

We all know that color influences our moods. Unless your walls are white (or even off-white), your environment can actually dictate the kind of behavior that you want to experience. Now

we’re not suggesting that you engage in any psychological warfare or anything, but we are suggesting that you take some time in selecting the colors that you want your walls painted with because they can create a feeling – whether you want them to or not!

Generally, deep blues, greens and browns reinforce the feelings that we experience when we’re outdoors. These are the colors of nature, however black, white, gold, purples and/or rich reds give us a feeling of elegance or even royalty. Yellow, red, and orange colors can visually warm a room, while blue and dark purple can cool it down. Calming colors are green and blue while colors that excite us are red, orange, and yellow.

Decorative painting makes use of these feelings and combines them in such a way that they may even create multiple moods in one setting. Generally, decorative painting attempts to set an overall mood while the objects and/or appliances in a room complete the mood. For example, a room that’s painted blue may include light purple carpeting and dark green blinds. The blue walls tie the purple and green together because both purple and green contain a little blue inside of them: red + blue = purple; yellow + blue = green.

Complimentary colors are hues that blend in well with a main color because they contain a little of the main color. And our carpet and blinds example demonstrates the use of complimentary colors. Accent colors on the other hand are small bits of color that make a main color stand out. Back in our example room, a collection of small red pottery or a yellow lamp might appropriate serve as accent colors.

Decorative painting – whether it’s applied to half a wall, one wall, two walls, or all the walls of a room can certainly exploit this science of color theory and help to make a statement. The statement needn’t be bold – your environment can certainly quietly speak through muted colors and subtle variations. The important thing is that you’re aware of its power and use its power to your advantage.

“Washing” is a technique commonly used with watercolors. You start by wetting the area of the paper that will be covered with the wash. Then mix up enough pigment to fill the area and apply the pigment starting at the top and overlapping on any horizontal bands. The wash is then left to dry. Don’t work it as it will even itself out as it dries. The technique called “dropping in color” is a process where an additional color is added to a wet area of the painting which is then allowed to naturally bleed without any interference by the artist. The results are unpredictable with interesting color gradations.

“Glazing” is a technique similar to a wash, but instead of application to a wet surface a thin layer of pigment is applied to a dry surface over washes that already exist. It is used to adjust tone and color on a wash, and it is applied in layers until the desired affect is reached. Just be sure that each layer is dry before applying the next layer. Auroline, cobalt blue and permanent rose are good transparent pigments to glaze with. The “wet in wet” is a technique where you fill your brush with a very wet pigment that is then applied to a wet paper. It can be applied on top of existing washes that have dried. Just dampen these areas with a large brush. This technique provides soft subtle marks that are great for background areas. The “dry brush” is opposite to the “wet in wet” technique. The brush is filled with pigment with the use of minimal water and then it is dragged across the dry paper, producing a very crisp mark with a hard edge. It is an excellent technique for front work and points of interest. “Lifting off” is an interesting technique where the pigment is dissolved and lifted off after it has dried. Just wet the area you want to lift and then use a tissue to blot the pigment off. Reds, yellows, and blues can be more difficult to lift.