For those who are not professional designers or artists, choosing the right colors can be somewhat scary. Many people will stick with white walls or neutral colors. That's too bad because color is so much a part of our everyday life.

I'm sure that you have on various occasions walked into a room andinstantly felt comfortable. Color (as well as design) has everything to do with that.

The color Wheel originally came about in 1666 when Sir Issac Newton shone pure white light through a prism and was astonished at the range of color. His discovery of white light containing all the spectrums of color, has been used by artist around the globe ever since.

It is very simple using the chart if you understand the some of the basics.

There are primary colors in the spectrum which are red, yellow and blue. Theses are the colors from which all other colors are made. Next there are secondary colors, green, orange and purple. These colors are made by mixing 2 primary colors together. The intermediate colors are made by mixing primary and secondary colors together.

To see what colors work well together, the wheel become invaluable. If you decided to make a green room, you may not want to paint all the walls the same color. Instead you may want to entertain the idea of painting one smaller wall a darker green and the rest a lighter shade. It would define the space a bit better. When you are unable to make up your mind about what colors to use as accents, the color wheel is the logical place to look. Look at the colors you chose for the wall. Now look on the opposite side. We chose green so on the wheel the color that shows up on the opposite side is purple. If that pleases you then you have an accent color.

Getting an idea of what colors to choose can come from any number of items you may have in the home like a colorful art print. We all have our favorite colors that make us feel good so capitalize on that.

It's easy to obtain a color wheel. You can go online to get one as there are many printable versions you can use. An art or craft store should have them in stock. You can even go to a store like Home Depot! In their paint section you'll see the selection of colors they can make you. They are not set up in a wheel but they do follow the color chart rules.

One more thing about the color wheel, color can be used to reflect your personality! If you are an out going type of person then you may be very comfortable with colors like reds and oranges. If you are the calm kind, then maybe soft blues and greens may be your cup of tea. So you must account for that when you are designing.

Go for it!

Learning how to use color can make your day!

Willie is a freelance writer, researcher, and artist. In addition to researching and writing, she promotes Motivational Posters at www.artinspires.com. When art inspires, dreams become reality.