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Color Hints

Color

The predominate color of your walls, carpet, furniture, the artwork and the mats can affect how the artwork will look when hung. You will want to try to coordinate these colors or create a theme to follow. 

We have created some suggested mat themes that you can see when you take a picture to our virtual framing workshop. You can also choose your own mat colors to better coordinate with your room. But how do you know what colors look best together? 
 
Artists and designers use a color wheel to help them visualize colors that look best together. The wheel is arraigned in thirds using the three primary colors, red, blue and yellow. The other colors fit in between the primary colors.  The wheels shown are shaded or tinted from lighter on the outside to darker on the inside.

Color combinations that look good together fall into one of the following categories.

Monochromatic combinations are when you use lighter and darker shades of the same color. The example is in blue, but it could be any color including black, grays and white.

Complementary combinations are colors from opposite sides of the color wheel. The example shows red and green, but the rule applies to any opposite colors.

Analogous or Related combinations are side by side on the wheel. The example shows the range from yellow to orange, however they could be any adjacent colors.

Warm and Cool are broader categories including colors that can be used in the same space, room or grouping. Warm is the range from pink to yellow and cool is from purple to green.

When selecting artwork for a room or grouping, try to select pieces where the predominate color theme of the art itself coordinates with its surroundings. If you have a predominate color in your room, try to choose artwork and mat combinations that pick up those colors 

When selecting mats, it is best to pick colors that coordinate with a color in the artwork. Then give consideration to whether the matted artwork will look good in the space or grouping where you intend to hang it.

Black & White artwork can be given color with mats & frames. All mat colors look good with black and white so coordinate with colors in the room where you will hang the art. 

Color Wheel  

  

Monochromatic

  

Complementary

  

Analogous

  

Warm

  

Cool
  
Neutral Colored rooms, (white grays and tans) and can support almost any color.  If you room is a light tint of a color, use the color wheel to discover the best combinations. 

If hanging a grouping you may want to have all the artwork matted the same way or you can mix and match. Using the color wheel should help you figure out what looks best!