Color Transformation: Designing with Different Colors

Most rooms begin with off-white walls and a bare floor, waiting for someone to move in and make the room a part of a home.

Credit to Google Images
Many people who move into their property end up deciding to paint the walls to give the room more personality.  But the main question is this: what color should you paint the walls?
Choosing a color for a room dictates the feeling of the room.  However, the right color choice is more important than some people think.  According to Albers in Interaction of Color, "optical illusions... lead us to see and to read other colors than those with which we are confronted physically... the first exercise is to make one and the same color look different." (p.8)

Credit to Google Images


The picture above shows the optical illusion that square A is actually the same color as square B.  Humans don't see that because those squares are surrounded by squares of either lighter or darker color, therefore we view them as different colors.
This also relates to the different shades and tints of certain colors.  When someone asks you to think of Target red, everyone would come up with a different red because of how they view red.


Credit to Google Images


Which one is your Target red?

How does all this color theory relate to choosing the appropriate color for your room?  The slightest color difference might not make as much of a difference to someone who doesn't have a really specific need, but certain colors will look different in certain rooms because of many reasons.  What you thought was a lilac at Home Depot just might end up being lighter or darker in your room than you initially anticipated because of the lighting in your room as well as the flooring.  So when you choose a color for your room, you should definitely choose carefully.