Design a Space You Love With Shea McGee Sessions by MasterClass
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of Colors G re e n
S E C O N DA R Y
Color is consequential. Pigment HERE’S WHAT ELSE TO KNOW
can dramatically alter the atmo- ABOUT PLAYING WITH COLORS
sphere of a room, adding vibrancy
and immersing you in a specific
mood; it can also blend into the First, Create Your Palette light through a glass prism. His so-
background, allowing other accents Shea recommends building your called color wheel visualized prima-
to take center stage. color palette from your mood ry colors (like red, yellow, and blue),
Shea notes that even colors that board. Maybe you’ve found a tex- the secondary colors created when
seem fairly straightforward—like tile, object, or picture that speaks primary colors are mixed (green,
white—have nuance. And the way to the mood you’re trying to evoke. orange, and purple), as well as six
you perceive a color can change Use it! Just be sure to take into tertiary colors made from primary
throughout the day, as your paint consideration any permanent room and secondary colors (like blue
interacts with the natural light out- fixtures you’ll be incorporating into green or red violet).
side and the lights in your home. your design.
“It might look great in the Why So Serious?
morning, but then by evening it Know Your Theory Paint isn’t permanent, so why
changes its hue,” she says. Because Color theory may have originated treat it that way? If you want to
of this, Shea recommends paint- with famed Greek philosopher paint a wall a specific color because
ing a swatch of color on a wall or a Aristotle, but English mathemati- it reminds you of your favorite
square patch of flooring and giving cian Sir Isaac Newton was the first painting, go for it. You can always
yourself a few days to test it out. to design a circular map of all the paint over it later. Experiment and
colors he perceived after shining have fun!
T H E W O N D E R F U L W O R L D O F C O L O R S PA G E 1 2
Design a Space You Love With Shea McGee Sessions by MasterClass
It’s Getting Hot in Here Not to Be Shady…
Warm colors consist of orang- Hue (color), shade, tint, and tone
es, reds, and yellows, as well as are different ways of describing
combinations of these and other, color variations. Tints are hues that
similar hues. These stimulating have been augmented with white; a
colors create the sense that they’re shade is a hue to which black has
advancing from the walls, making
rooms feel cozier. Warm tones
been added (maroon is a shade
of red, for example); and tone is a “I have seen
are ideal if you’re drowning in real
estate and want your space to feel
more intimate.
color to which gray has been added,
making it appear more subtle. firsthand
how design
can change
Keep Your Cools
Cool colors—including blue, green,
More Than Meets the Eye
White paint may seem straight-
forward, but it comes in a dizzying
people’s lives.”
and light purple—provide calm and number of shades—150,000 by –Shea
soothing relief. These tones appear one estimate. Creams, ivories, and
as if they’re receding from view, off-whites all have different proper-
making a space feel larger than ties that can create peaceful, crisp,
it is. Experts recommend using creamy, or even golden tones.
cool tones in private rooms, where
they’re able to calm our emotions
and focus our thoughts.
COLOR AS COPING MECHANISM
Chromotherapy—or color therapy—has been promoted as a
treatment for illness since ancient Egypt, though it’s also been
criticized as a pseudoscience. Recently, researchers at the Aalborg
University of Copenhagen found that subjects’ brains were more
active when exposed to red and blue lights, while green light
promoted calm and relaxation.
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