Know what pros know about color temperature

Many people think that 'color temperature' means red hues add warmth to a room, blue hues add calm or cool to a room. What Craine Painting and paint makers study laboriously is the real meaning of color temperature: How different types of lighting affect the color of the finished paint job. Most white light is not pure white, it’s usually got a bit of a tint.

Remember your mom's pictures of your fifth-grade basketball team? You all looked green! That – in a pistachio nut shell – is the affect of a light's color temperature. Over the years, smart phones and smarter cameras have taken gigantic leaps in providing printed photos that actually look like what the eye saw in that moment. The eye's link to the brain automatically compensates for changing color temperatures because the brain knows those basketball players weren't little Martians. Color temp is also why some streetlamps look gold and some a harsh blue/green.

Where this comes into play in your home is because it has several different color temperatures during the day depending upon the lighting. Compact fluorescents (CFLs), Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs), halogens, plain old incandescent lamps, and the sun, each will play different color 'tricks' with a painted surface.

Natural light will absolutely affect colors on your walls in a room with windows. The color will even appear to change hues depending on the amount of sun and time of day. Incandescent and halogen lighting is more golden. So, if you have incandescent light and you want blue walls, you might have to make adjustments, such as selecting a blue paint tinted with a little red. CFLs emit a bluer light, enhancing blues and greens. Painting the bathroom green might not be the wisest – most bathrooms are lit with CFLs. You'll get a double dose of a green cast when putting on makeup that's going to look waaaay different outdoors or at the office.

Big Box stores' paint departments' slick displays will show you how a swatch of paint changes hue under small amounts of different types of lighting. However, your eye is already compensating for the bluish tint from the giant metal halide lamps used to light the store. No wonder it looks different in your dining room.

The color temperature of lights is one of the most important factors in how interior paint colors are perceived. Shadows, surface texture, and even reflections from other surfaces all affect colors on interior painted walls, too. That's why a paint pro like Craine Painting is going to take the time to educate you and help you 'see your paint in a whole new light' rather than just a paint chip.

 

Image by Larry Malvin, used with permission.