How To Choose The Perfect Fabric Colour

Let’s face it, choosing the right fabric is an important decision. It has to complement other colours in your room, without making the room feel dark and dingy or too cold and clinical, what looks great in a showroom may look terrible in your home. At Yorkshire Fabric Shop we understand this, which is why we offer free samples of our fabrics, so you can see how the fabric complements its surroundings, but we wanted to share some tips on how to choose the perfect colour.

The key to choosing colours is to understand how colours work together and the feel that they give to a room. The colour wheel is the basis for all this understanding. We generally learn about primary, secondary and tertiary colours at school; however we do not usually learn how they can impact a room.

Primary colours

Red, Yellow and Blue are the primary colours and form the basis for every other colour.

Curtains are a great way of introducing primary colours to your home; however you may not want to use bright colours such as red, blue and yellow and instead may opt for variations such as maroon, navy or gold.

Secondary and Tertiary colours

Secondary colours are the result of two primary colours being mixed together, and tertiary colours are the result of one primary colour and one secondary colour being mixed together.

Neutrals, such as white, black and grey are not included in the colour wheel but should not be forgotten when considering the perfect fabric.

It is how you choose to combine these colours that determine how they look in your home.

Complementary colours

To make colours more vibrant, pair a colour with its complementary colour. These are the colours that lie directly opposite each other on the colour wheel. For example, orange’s complementary colour is blue, and yellow/green is red/violet.

Analogous colours

These colours lie next to each other on the wheel and work well together without clashing as they share a common hue. This is great when choosing accessories as you can pull a room together whilst using slightly different shades.

Alternatively, you can choose one single colour and use different shades to create a monochromatic design. For example, blue can range from a deep midnight blue to a lighter aqua-marine.

Keep cool or stay warm?

Colours can be described as cool or warm, but what does this mean? Half of the colour wheel, from red to yellow/green is considered warm. These colours create a warm, cosy feeling but used too much can make a space feel small.

The other half of the colour wheel, from green to red/violet is considered to be cool. These colours create the illusion of space, giving freshness to a room. Used too much these colours can make a room feel cold or clinical.

To overcome the feelings associated with warm or cool colours, you may choose to mix them. Use hints of one to complement the other. This can be achieved so easily with furniture, or accessories such as cushions or curtains.