USING A FANDECK requires some color theory.

Very simply... here you are:

But are you sure you shouldn't be doing something else?
As in... painting the kitchen with the colour your wife has already picked out and bought?

A professional fan-deck kit is a thing of real beauty, ain't it? This one has a nylon carrying-pack with velcro-fastened cover that protects its two fly-out decks. It even has a convenient shoulder-strap to free up the hands of those of us that talk with them.

The circled one is the deck of interest.
Let's puff a fatty and peek at that puppy.

Opened up and splayed out... you can see that this deck has three distinct sections, namely:

* grey scale
* hues (colours)
* shades

Here, the colour leaves (hues) are shown only partially revealed. When carefully spread out and arranged in a full circle as below, they display more of the full rainbow of colour such as the particular manufacturer intends.
* Not all fan-decks have such a convenient spectral arrangement as this one. Your mileage may vary*.

Here's a better representation of what I mean by the rainbow effect.

Off-whites are popular because they make spaces appear large and open. In a fan-deck, they are always the weakest of colours, and are (usually) found at the tips of individual leaves.

Search throughout all of the hues to find a match to your dominant feature (fabric, furniture, whatever).

The colour you are seeking will be amongst the hues that are here partially represented.

Let's assume that the colour you want to match to the deck is a dark one. When you find it... follow that tab out to the end to discover the room colour that says you.

This simple one-colour scheme is monochromatic harmony.

What could be easier?




Now... if that off-white has still too much colour for you (many off-whites do) - if that colour is still slightly deep - if you are like many others who want an off-white with just a hint of colour, then order that colour in a half-tint. And in doing so, a close look on your part will reveal your paint dealer to be sporting a half-grin. Not to worry. He'll be much better after a session with his spleef-counsellor.

Of course, you aren't limited to that particular colour. Try analogous harmony. If your borrowed fandeck is similar to this one, the half-dozen leaves on each side of your initial selection will be representative of analogous colours, and as such, will also harmonize with your initial colour. These should be available in half-tints as well.


Monochromatic and analogous harmony -
easy as cake  3.1416  borscht.

Colour harmony comes in lots of other flavours beside monochromatic and analogous.
Find a colour wheel on the web and learn more about:

• Monochromatic: basic and safe - uninteresting - same colour but differing in value (tone).
• Analogous (related): basic - safe - barely more interesting - colours adjacent to each other.
• Complementary: used historically - sophisticated - can be somewhat formal - interesting - colours opposite each other - eg: green + red
• Split-complementary: having fun now! - playful - inquisitive - a light elegance - key colour combined with 1 (or more) of the 2 colours adjacent to the complementary. eg: green + orange
• Triadic: three colours forming a triangle on the colour wheel - a more difficult scheme to get right when using secondary and tertiary colours. This scheme and the following are best left to professionals.
• Tetradic: four colours forming a square or rectangle on the wheel. Your home will sing out with this one, but this is not a colour scheme to fool with. Keep the singing on-key by hiring a professional decorator in order that you get it right.
  It will be several hundred dollars well-saved in paint and well-spent in advice. Double your savings.

Some other colour harmony...