Cool Colors

When you imagine a cool setting… or cold things… what do you see? Icy blue icicles? The green of the cool ocean? Your lips turning blue or purple from a cold day? Well, we just named the cool colors of the color wheel.

Blue, green and purple and all colors in between are cool colors. When you use these in a color scheme you are creating a cool color scheme. A room of greens and blues will promote a calming atmosphere… a cooling of the senses.

Think of the cool caribbean waters of tourquoise, greens and blues.

But what about purple or violet? This isn’t always thought of as a cool color. And rightly so. Violet is made up of both a cool color and a warm color… red and blue. Because of the red in violet, this color can be considered a warm color. The line where violet becomes warm vs. cool is tough to discern.

When you look at the upper left of the color spectrum to your left you see a very red violet. This isn’t a cool color at all. It has way too much red in it to be considered cool.

This color set is a more accurate view of the cool colors on the color wheel.

So, keep this in mind when creating a cool color scheme. The more blue a violet has in it… the cooler it is. The more red is in a violet… a red-violet… the warmer the color is.

The same goes for green. Green by default is considered a cool color… but it is also made up of a warm color and cool color… yellow and blue. It is because of the yellow, that the color green could be considered a warm color. If there is too much yellow in the green… creating a lime green… the color becomes warm. The upper green of the color spectrum above really isn’t cool anymore. It has a lot of yellow in it… and is on its way to becoming a warm color.