Color is a property of light. This is to say that objects have no color of their own but merely have the ability to reflect certain rays of white light, which contain all the colors. For example, green objects absorb all the rays of light except the green ones. These unabsorbed green rays of light are what are reflected in our eyes. Notice how I chose to use the example of a “green object” as opposed to selecting an object that we perceive as green, such as grass. This is because grass is not entirely green, or at least not all the time. Yes, grass is green the majority of the time, but what about in the middle of the night, in the early morning, or at dusk? Light is different at all these times of day and so is the color of grass. Considering this, grass can also be hues of blues, grays, and yellow-greens. It is clear that as light changes so does color.This is a very important concept, especially for an aspiring interior designer like myself. Selecting colors is a large part of designing an interior space, and it must be done correctly and by someone well educated in color theory. The task of choosing a paint color isn’t hard just because of the abundance of options of colors these days but also because of the many design parameters that may alter each option. Not only must one consider the hundreds of colors displayed in the paint store, but also how each option will look in the intended space.
The lighting in the store makes the colors appear one way, but the light in the intended space can make the color appear an entirely different way. One must consider the amount of daylight in the intended space, whether or not incandescent of fluorescent light will be present, and many other lighting factors. These factors may seem rather insignificant but make very significant difference. For example, in the first picture we see three different hues of white in daylight (simulated daylight). In the second picture we see the same three hues of white under fluorescent light. The colors look entirely different. If an interior designer didn’t have this knowledge of color theory, imagine how disappointed the client would be when the white hue they agreed to appears as an entirely different hue all together.
