funcolors thanks for the link above, it explains the undertones brilliantly. I have one question though not about paint but still color. There are a lot of reds that seem to go well with olive green but which undertone should the red have so it doesnt read Christmas?

I'm not funcolors, but roseabbey if you have an olive green and the red you are wanting to use, depends on the paint manufacturer's pigments. Pigment quality is based on a number of things . The reds that would read Christmas would be your clear transparent reds with higher chroma levels. Reds that uses organic pigments . Your magenta/blue based reds and your inorganic pigments made up of oxides (low chroma) would not read Christmas. It is the shots of clear reds.

we artist use the drawdown paint test all the time for undertones. Oh and if one is adding glaze to the paint or acrylics (what ever you use) this will also alternate and effect the undertones and change the appearance. Another way you can figure out what undertones a color will have is just simply ask the chemical make up of the hue you want to use. This will give you a better understanding.

Enjoyed reading your article. Those raspberries were mouth watering. Wish I had some right now.

Thanks decorativewalls, it is actually fabrics that I am trying to put together, bedspread, chairs and accessories in our guest bedbroom. I already had the area rug with golds and a bit of red, the olive chairs so I am wanting to do red/burgandy bedspread, so far every red bedspread I had brought home wasnt quite doing it for me. Looks like I have to go to the red blues so it will look right. I am still confused though because olive green has yellow undertones, I thought the red should also but not in this case.

funcolors, thanks for posting this. The tip of dragging a dollop of paint along a posterboard is excellent.

Thanks! what a simple but brilliant trick!

Thanks for the link. It's very informative & features beautiful pics of great (fun) colors!

Thanks Funcolors - that was a great article and super helpful!

There are a lot of reds that seem to go well with olive green but which undertone should the red have so it doesnt read Christmas?

That's a great question -- it's a two-parter. :)

There are a lot of reds! In your situation with the rug and chairs in place, I would use the red in the rug as your guide.

Ya know, I'm not all crazy into "pulling" colors from an inspiration piece but in your specific case, it's not really "pulling" the red from the rug as much as it is creating harmony and balance and well-crafted distribtion of color (in this case red) by repeating the red from the rug around the room. The olive chairs would be the secondary focus in choosing a red for the bedding and the rug would be the primary guide.

So, use the bit of red from the rug as a guide and look for a bedspread that is in that same family of red -- whether it's warm with yellow undertones or cooler with blue undertones. Either kind of red can *go* with olive green as long as it makes sense in the overall composition of your design.

As far as what makes for a Christmas colors reference, that depends entirely on two things: context and color psychology, specifically individual color associations.

Here's a room that almost made it into the blog post. Jane F. at AtticMag (the most amazing editor ever) thought it was busy and found too much focus on the aggressive color relationship of the greens and reds. I saw it as a good example of warm, yellow undertones used as the backbone for the color scheme. She found it confusing so we didn't use it. But I think it's perfect for your question! :)

Aside from the amaryllis in there, I don't feel that the colors used in the context of this family room look Christmas-y at all. It's a very cozy, casual, year 'round color scheme, IMO.

But at the same time, I know that this exact color scheme was hot this year for Christmas decorations -- I saw a lot of that fresh, spunky green used with red everywhere.

So, it doesn't have so much to do with the actual colors of green and red as it does with how they are put together in context and individual color associations. Any combination of red and green could be perceived as Christmas -- or not.

It was fun being a guest blogger! I am guessing it's kind of like being a grandma. I stopped by and played and had fun then I went home and left all the work and worry of taking care of the blog and nurtuting it on to success with someone else. lol!

Jane F. invited me back for another visit. Thinkin' about talking about painting woodwork different colors 'cuz there are A LOT of exciting options for trim besides white, stain, or matching the wall color. Finding pix for that post should be interesting. :)

Thank you funcolors, that was a very informative lesson. I was actually putting away the Christmas tree skirt this morning, which is a deep taupey gold and burgandy and I put it on the bed, it looked awesome in the room confirming that burgandy or blue red is the way to go.

Great article. Appreciate you bringing it to our attention. Now I understand more about why my rooms work - or not! :)

i thought the article was excellent, and i always appreciate articles that give me a "insiders trick" like looking at a thin smear of paint.

I have some questions about undertones (especially in grey paint), if this is an appropriate place for it?
I read that grey can have green or blue or purple undertones, and then there is always greige, not sure how that fits in, but anyway - if a grey has greenish-blue undertones or has bluish-purple undertones, then how does that affect the complementary colors you would use?
is a greenish blue grey made happy only by reddish-orange, or are reds and oranges okay too?
and if you use a blue accent with a greenish blue grey, does it make it look more blue or more green or more grey?

And do you know of any sites where you can practice figuring out undertones? Is it easier to figure out what th undertone is by looking at the paint formula or something?

Glad you found something useful to take away from the article, kiki. This is the perfect place to ask questions. That's what the forum is all about. :D

Is it easier to figure out what th undertone is by looking at the paint formula or something?

No. Parts is parts. The individual colorants combined to make a paint color mean nothing individually. You have to mix two colors together to see what you get.

It's a like a new recipe. Experienced cooks can make a dish that is new to them and have darn good idea what it's going to taste like. Their experience has built a knowledge base that allows them to predict what will happen when they combine ingredients. But, can they truly know what it tastes like until the dish is completed and they can actually take a bite? No. They can only make their best guess about how it's going to come out.

Repetitively working with the same ingredients -- or in this case colorants or paints -- builds experience. It's experience mixing colors using familiar components that accounts for a limited ability to predict what will happen when you mix two or more paints/colorants. Even with a solid grasp of basic color theory and experience mixing colors, you don't know for sure what you're gonna get till you mix the color, let it dry, and look at it.

If there was some magic to be found in studying paint color formulas, then all the paint mixing people would never make a mistake. Every can would come out exactly as they predicted based on what they know about their colorants. The reality is even though they mix paint colors using the same colorants day in and day "ooops" paint still happens.

The average person who buys paint does not have the experience of working with the individual colorants or the advantage of knowing intimately the complex details of the colorants in order to make a decent prediction about what the result of combining colorants will look like. They are better off not cluttering up an already confusing process (choosing paint colors) with pedantic information that they can't effectively apply. Anyone can learn how to mix colors if they want to put the time into learning and experimenting. But like I said, the average person buying paint isn't looking for a new hobby and just wants to get their painting project done.

And do you know of any sites where you can practice figuring out undertones?

I don't know of any online resources where you can experiment with undertones. If they do exist, I'm not confident they would work very well. I can explain.

Color on a monitor is additive color. Mixing paints is subtractive. An immense amount of incorrect information is out there on the web about color mixing. The most common error I see is authors/experts confusing additive and subtractive color.

Online exercises specifically for undertone would be pointless because your monitor (which is additive color) is limited by how it can simulate paint colors (which are subtractive). The fine details and nuances of a paint color's undertone, that dimension of color, is lost in the translation from subtractive paint color to additive color on your monitor.

I have to run but will get back to you re: gray.

I am making popcorn. Great thread! :-)