Create colour harmony with a colour wheel

The best way to create colour harmony is with a colour wheel. The wheel was developed from the colour spectrum and helps decorators and designers co-ordinate colour and develop different types of schemes. The 12 hue wheel is divided into the three colour areas below.

Primary colours

Secondary colours

Tertiary colours

		Achromatic These are colours in the white through to black range. Achromatic schemes are restrained and sophisticated.
		Complementary These schemes use colours that are opposite each other on the wheel eg. blue green and red orange. The result is usually vibrant and lively. It works best if one colour dominates and the other serves as contrast.
		Monochromatic A one-colour scheme can incorporate several values of that colour to keep it from looking monotonous. Various textures can help enhance the single colour scheme.
		Related/analogous This scheme uses three to five colours and includes one of the three primary colours (red, yellow and blue). The related/analogous colours are the colour segments showing on either side of the primary colour. Varying the value and intensity of the cololurs is beneficial.
		Split complementary This scheme is one that uses any colour from the colour wheel in combination with the two colours that are directly on either side of the colour opposite the one chosen eg. blue and violet with yellow orange.
		Triadic This scheme uses three colours that are equidistant on the colour wheel eg. red orange, yellow green and blue violet. One colour can be used as the dominant colour and the other two as accents.