Nowadays, color is often taken for granted. It is compulsory to understand how color is perceived by the human eye. The following scientific principles could be very interesting. They could help you to take decisions about decorating which will give a final perfect scheme to your habitat.

Isaac Newton explained that color originated from light. After multiple experiments, he discovered that light is made up of different colors, and when light was refracted via a prism, he observed the apparition of the seven colors of the rainbow, namely red, orange, yellow, green, cyan, indigo and violet.

Thomas Young pushed Newton’s teachings further when he realized that only three of the rainbow colors produce a white light: red, green and blue. These three colors are the original primary colors. In 1859, Herman Von Helmholtz built and developed another theory on Young’s theory saying that our eyes read color in terms of light in red, green and blue. This theory has been widely accepted.

Hering's Color Wheel

On this wheel, yellow is the fourth primary color. Ewald Hering opposed Helmholtz’s teachings thinking that his chart gave a more genuine indication of the human experience of color. He discussed the fact that yellow becomes a primary color as it is perceived as an independent color by the eye, just like red, blue and green. He has also included black and white as basic primary colors. Hering described his color system as the "natural system of color sensations". Today his system is the base of NCS, the Natural color System, which is used worldwide as the most recognized system of color-matching.

Harmonious Color

The four primary colors are red, bleu, green and yellow. When those colors are melt together, they produce the secondary colors: purple, turquoise, orange and lime. When one moves on the Wheel one can see the harmony between the colors that are adjacent to each other.

Complementary Colors

Colors that are placed at the opposite of one another on the Wheel are called "complementary". These colors vibrate against each other. They generally do not match up. Still, sometimes the use of these colors in a room can have a positive effect.