Room Baby Dazzle: Designing Kids Rooms Using the Color Wheel: Complimentary Scheme

Decorating a child's room is a creative and often challenging task, and using the color wheel as inspiration is a great place to start. Color is such an integral part of interior design, and

using color in kids rooms, especially complimentary colors will give you maximum contrast,

which can result in some very fun, eye-catching combinations.

Complementary colors are any two colors which are directly opposite each other, such as

red + green,

red + purple,

yellow + green.

The high contrast between the colors creates a vibrant look,

especially when used at full saturation.

I know, I know, when you first think of red and green, you immediatly think

of Christmas colors, but trust me, as you shift the base color (hue) to make

it either darker (called a shade or tone) or lighter (called a tint), you get some

beautiful and interesting color combinations.

Take a look:

In this nursery, designer Jennifer Bertrand used red and green in a very clever way.

By making the red darker, and the green a little lighter,

the overall effect is sophisticated and whimsical.

A very popular color choice for girls rooms is pink and light green,

a color scheme that results when white is added to both red and green.

(Design by Robyn Karp)

I am seeing a lot of this color combination recently, and for good reason.

These two colors are so fun paired together and look great in all different intensities.

In this picture, Michelle used a navy blue and white stripe fabric with orange piping

on a headboard in her sons rooms. The result is mascualine, preppy and totally kid-friendly!

Gather and Nest used a deep orange with softer blues to make

this nursery a sophisticated and colorful sanctuary.

At full saturation, you can see what a vibrant contrast is achieved by using

violet and yellow together! With a little orange thrown in, this color

scheme is bold and fun.

By adding white to both yellow and violet, the resulting color scheme

in this girls room is soft, soothing and feminine.

(Image found at BHG)

So don't be afraid to play with complimentary colors in your child's room! The result can be a colorful, vibrant and unique place for your child to call their own.