Revolutionary Gardens

  • About our team
    • Press
  • Portfolio
    • Featured Projects
      • Fredericksburg Landscape Design and Pool
      • Pond install in Prince William County
      • Culpeper Landscape Design
      • Culpeper Modern Backyard Landscape Design
      • Sperryville landscape design with ponds and waterfalls
      • Fredericksburg landscaping at Chancellorsville
      • Lake Anna landscaping & planting
      • Culpeper Winery Landscape Design
      • Oakton Modern Landscape Design
    • Plantings
    • Patios & walks
    • Pools & Ponds
    • Pavilions & Porches
    • Pergolas & Decks
    • Outdoor kitchens
    • Fireplaces & Firepits
    • Retaining walls
  • Services
    • Landscape Design
    • Landscape Installation
    • Landscape Maintenance
    • Water Features
    • Outdoor Lighting
    • Outdoor Kitchens
    • Estate Gardening
  • Blog
  • Contact
  • SHOP

Elements of Design: Color

March 9, 2011 by Dave Marciniak Leave a Comment

Color theory talks about three main topics: hue, value, and intensity. Hue and color are sometimes used interchangeably, and they refer to the named colors. Warm colors, like red, orange, and yellow, are considered stimulating; cool colors like blue, green, and purple are seen as calming.

Value is how light or dark a hue is seen as being. As an example, a rich navy blue is a low value blue; a pale, powderpuff blue (think of a ’70s tuxedo) is a high value color.

credit: perfectweddingguide.com

Intensity is the brightness of a hue. Pure colors are the most intense, but they can be dialed back by adding a neighboring color, a contrasting color, white, black, gray, or any combination of all of these. In interior design color theory classes, you spend entire classes mixing pigments to understand how colors affect one another. Cool stuff.

“That’s great, Dave,” you say, “but how does this help me in the garden?” Color can be used as a way to give a built element a lot of visual impact. I love love love vividly painted stucco and concrete walls:

credit: hotgardens.net

Understanding color can also help in selecting foliage and bloom colors. Now, I hold the belief that Mother Nature is awesome and none of her flower colors ever clash. Color-themed gardens can be a lot of fun, though, and it helps to have an understanding of color when deciding what’s a cool color, what’s a warm color, how everything plays together, etc. A color wheel is a fantastic investment of less than ten bucks (3451 9-1/4IN. COLOR WHEEL DIAMETER:9-1/4″, Amazon affiliate link) that will let you get a better sense of what are contrasts, what are complementary, all that jazz.

That’s the final element of design. I hope you found this series useful! Any recommendations for future topics?

Filed Under: DC Landscape Design, Elements of Design, Landscape Design, Maryland Landscape Design, Northern Virginia Landscape Design, Virginia Landscape Design Tagged With: color in landscape design, elements of design

About Dave Marciniak

Dave Marciniak is a landscape designer and speaker. He lives in Culpeper, Virginia and can be found via his website and on Twitter.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • YouTube

Archives

814 S. Blue Ridge Ave
Culpeper VA
22701
540-827-4299

Start planning your dream backyard today

Join our weekly email to get loads of ideas, inspiration, and tips for creating your ultimate staycation

  • About our team
    • Press
  • Portfolio
    • Featured Projects
      • Fredericksburg Landscape Design and Pool
      • Pond install in Prince William County
      • Culpeper Landscape Design
      • Culpeper Modern Backyard Landscape Design
      • Sperryville landscape design with ponds and waterfalls
      • Fredericksburg landscaping at Chancellorsville
      • Lake Anna landscaping & planting
      • Culpeper Winery Landscape Design
      • Oakton Modern Landscape Design
    • Plantings
    • Patios & walks
    • Pools & Ponds
    • Pavilions & Porches
    • Pergolas & Decks
    • Outdoor kitchens
    • Fireplaces & Firepits
    • Retaining walls
  • Services
    • Landscape Design
    • Landscape Installation
    • Landscape Maintenance
    • Water Features
    • Outdoor Lighting
    • Outdoor Kitchens
    • Estate Gardening
  • Blog
  • Contact
  • SHOP

Design Inspiration

Get the latest on minimalism and white space. Simple as that.

Our mailing address

814 S. Blue Ridge Avenue
Culpeper VA 22701

(540) 401-5885

Connect with us

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Phone
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • About our team
  • Portfolio
  • Services
  • Blog
  • Contact
  • SHOP

Copyright © 2022 · Agency Pro on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in