Colors that Go Well Together

Whether we are choosing dresses or painting our house or planning a wedding, we are always looking for the right color schemes i.e. colors that go well together and also, colors that will suit our temperament. Color combinations should be selected in such a way that when two colors come together, they should appear very pleasing to the eye. There should be some kind of a balance or harmony in a color combination. Here are some ideas on how to come up with colors that go well together.

Tips on Colors that Go Well Together

In order to come up with amazing looking color combinations, it is essential that you know the different groups of colors. Basically colors are divided into four groups, namely, warm colors, cool colors, mixed colors (Cool/Warm) and neutral colors. Now, let us see which colors fall in each of these categories.

Warm Colors
Warm colors represent excitement, energy, optimism, anger and violence. Red, yellow, orange, pink and golden are all warm colors.

Cool Colors
Cool colors are calming, nurturing and comforting to the mind. On the flip side, they can appear to be cold and impersonal. Silver, blue, turquoise and green are cool colors.

Mixed Colors
Mixed colors can be both calming as well as exciting. Purple and lavender fall in the category of mixed colors.

Neutral Colors
Neutral colors are usually used to either highlight other colors or to tone down the effect of darker, more overpowering colors. Black, gray, white, brown and beige are neutral colors.

To determine clothing or wedding or matching paint colors, all these four categories have to be creatively brought together. Below are some interesting ways to do this.

Monochromatic Color Combinations
If you are somebody who prefers a clean-cut, comforting and classy look, then monochromatic color combinations are made for you. These color combinations are primarily made of different shades of the same color such as a color combination of blue and light blue, or they are made of colors which are very similar to each other visually, such as yellow and orange or pink and purple. Such monochromatic color schemes, although very elegant and soothing to look at, can appear washed out or too boring, if the color contrast is not enough.

Triadic Color Combinations
Color combinations such as those with three primary colors red, yellow and blue, can look very interesting, provided the right shades of all these colors are used. If you prefer lighter color combinations then instead of these three, go in for pink, light blue and pale yellow color combinations.

Contrasting Color Combinations
By bringing together colors in different color categories, many interesting color combinations can be made. If one color is on the lighter side and the other one darker, it would look even better. Contrasting colors provide the right contrast and hence look very appealing visually. A perfect contrast combination would be red, a warm color and blue, a cool color or purple with green. Such clashing colors will be ideal for you, if you prefer to be slightly experimental with your choices.

I hope the tips given above will help you to come up with your choice of colors that go well together. Although there is no hard and fast rule on which colors to be combined together. For example, a person who loves being surrounded by nature, can go in for a green (representing plants) and blue (representing water) combination. For someone who likes a bit of drama in life can combine red with black. So, besides the visual appeal, consider the meanings and what the colors stand for too, when ascertaining the colors that go well together.