You don’t need to study interior design to have a beautiful home. However, a little passion and some creative flare does help!
Let's start with the basic colour types. Firstly, there are Primary Colours: red, blue and yellow. Then we have secondary colours, which are made by mixing the Primary Colours together. They are Orange, Purple and Green. Lastly, we have Tertiary colours. They consist of six shades that can be created as a result of mixing Primary and Secondary colours.
It is easiest to begin by choosing a base colour and create various versions of this base colour to complement your interior. You merely combine your base colour with a neutral colour to either darken or lighten it. In the interior design work, these are called tint, tone and shade.

Tint: Lighting a colour by adding white
Shade: Darkening a colour by adding black
Tone: Slightly darkening a colour by adding grey

You can either try this at home if you have a few supplies or visit your local home improvements store to ask for a colour palette.
Now let’s talk about colour temperature. You probably have heard of warm and cold tones before. Reds, Oranges and Yellows are typical warm tones, while Blue, Purple and Green are common cool tones. It is essential to consider room size when choosing the colour temperature. If a room is small, warm tones can make it look even smaller; therefore a more cooling colour scheme would be the better option. Now that we have gone over the basics let us take a look at some common colour themes.
1.    Complementary
This is probably the simplest of the colour themes. This theme uses two colours that sit opposite each other on the colour wheel. One of the colours should be the dominant colour, while the other colour becomes an accent. This is a great theme when you want to introduce a pop of colour to a room.
2.    Analogous
This theme is the opposite of the complementary theme. The analogous theme uses a combination of three colours that sit right next to each other on the colour wheel. When using this scheme, it is essential that the proportions are correct. The 60, 30, 10 rule is a good one to use to ensure that your colour proportions remain correct. 60 will represent the dominant colour, 30 will represent the supporting colour, while the last 10 will be the most vibrant colour. This is another safe choice.
3.    Tetradic
If you aren’t afraid to experiment with colour, then this might work for you! Triadic colour themes include the colours that have equal space between them on the colour wheel. A great example is the primary colours on the colour wheel or secondary colours. This type of colour combination is excellent for the kids' room or the game room.

Once you decide on which colour scheme you are going to go with, you can start planning on the style of furniture that you would like to have. Stay tuned for part two of our interior design basics.
Happy Decorating!