by Robert O'Brien

Created on: November 17, 2008   Last Updated: January 04, 2009

Before you pore over the paint chip display at your local home improvement store in an effort to find the perfect color for your living room, let's take a big step back and ponder the true nature of color for a moment. What is color without light? We need light in order to perceive color, and light itself is actually comprised of many colors. Pure white light is a combination of all the colors of the rainbow , i.e. the visible spectrum, fused together. Remember Roy G. Biv from science class? When light hi's a colored surface, we perceive it as colored because it is reflecting one color and absorbing all of the others.

That said, the color chip you bring home may look completely different taped up on your wall than it did at the store. The reason is that light can be deceptive. Although you may think the light source you are viewing your paint chip under is white, it is very likely skewed towards another hue. There is a big difference between natural and artificial light. You have to be especially careful when choosing colors under artificial light. A fluorescent light source will "cool" the colors, that is, skew them towards blue and green and an incandescent source will "warm" them, shifting them towards yellow and red. Some paint displays have multiple light sources under which to view your sample. This helps while you are at the store, but before you commit to a certain color, it is wise to view it on the actual surface you plan to paint.

Goethe once said that color is the pain of light. No designer in modern times has taken that more to heart perhaps than architect Richard Meier, whose buildings are famous for their stark white interiors and exteriors. He intuitively understands that even sunlight has a wide range of hues, and light streaming through a window will have a dramatic impact on the surface it illuminates. Think of that golden light just at daybreak, the subdued filtered-gray of a winter's day, or the flame-orange of a July evening, all of these hues, whether subtle or dramatic will alter the characteristics of your wall color.

While he has taken the less-is-more concept to its extreme and let light be his principal decorator, you may be of a more traditional bent and yearn for a splash of color to liven up your living space. The key to remember is that the color or colors you select can dramatically alter how you perceive the space and they can have a psychological effect as well. Cool colors can invoke a sense of calm, while warm colors can stir

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