So you dreamt of having a beautiful decked patio to watch the sunset on, or maybe a swimming pool surrounded by gorgeous wooden decking. You did all the research you needed to, got plans drawn up, selected the type of decking you wanted and then watched your dream come to life. You might now be thinking of putting planters on your deck to cheer the space up with flowers, but after spending all that time choosing the perfect material color for your decking you will want to ensure that the flowers you put in those planters go beautifully with the existing space. Here are some tips on how to do that.
- Use a Color Wheel
A great way to figure out a color scheme is to use the color wheel.A favorite tool for designers of all kinds, the color wheel is simply a tool for representing colors. It starts with the three primary colors—red, yellow and blue—and inserts their variations and combinations in-between them.
Gardener and nature journalist Suzanne DeJohnexplains how to use the color wheel to figure out a color scheme for your garden—or, in this case, your deck. Firstly, she explains that colors can be divided, on a very basic level, into ‘warm’ and ‘cool’ colors. Warm colors include red, yellow and the colors in-between these two on the color wheel; flowers in these colors, according to DeJohn, bring energy and excitement to a setting. By contrast, cool colors—such as purple and blue—have a more calming effect. It would pay, therefore, for you to have a think about what youwant your flowers to do on your deck, besides obviously looking pretty—do you want them to provide a soothing effect, or energize you?
- Choose the Right Decking Color
As you will know from going through the designing process for your deck, decking comes in a huge variety of colors. The Executive Home Building Centre, for instance, sells composite decking from two different companies in a total of over twenty colors, some cooler and some warmer! Therefore, a good way to build your color scheme would be to use the free color wheel tool provided by Adobe and identify the color of your decking on it (ask your provider for the HEX code if you’re not sure). Then you can choose the type of color scheme you want and use the tool to help you figure out what color flowers you should buy for your deck.
- Think About Complementary Color Schemes
Another way you can use the color wheel to figure out a color scheme for your deck is to decide whether you want an analogous or complementary color scheme. An analogous scheme uses colors which are adjacent to each other on the color wheel, whereas a complementary one uses colors which are very different from each other but go well together. A monochromatic color scheme is a type of analogous scheme, whereas there are many sub-types of complementary scheme such as split complementary, triad and square (this article by Graf1x goes into some detail to help you understand the difference).
Sound complicated? Don’t forget that you can always just go with your instincts and choose the colors you like best!
