Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers

Color Creates, Intensifies, Unifies, and Hides

Choose Color Wisely
Color can accomplish more for less cost than any other element of interior design. Everything in a room has color, either natural or applied. Color creates mood or atmosphere. It can make a room seem cheery or restful, warm or cool. Color can be used to unify a room, hide ugly shapes, accent points of interest, make a small room seem larger or a dark room seem lighter.

Colors may be pure ("strong") or grayed ("soft"). This characteristic is called the intensity (or chroma) of the color. Color may be light or dark. This characteristic is called the value of the color. Both intensity and value exist in all colors at the same time. For example, vermillion is a pure, medium-value red; maroon is a dark, grayed red; buff is a light, grayed yellow.

Published by the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois
Reprinted with permission, HouseNet, Inc.

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