Have you ever wanted to spice up some of the plainclothes in your wardrobe but didn’t have any idea what to do? Dyeing clothes can be an artsy and exciting way to transform any white and black t-shirt into an amazing outfit, guaranteed to turn a few heads and earn you some compliments.
As with any DIY or artistic venture, you must have some rudimentary knowledge of the best color combinations. While you could decide to wing it and let your creativity guide you, following these five tips and tricks will give you a head start in defining the best color combinations for dyeing your clothes.
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The Color Wheel
Art is fluid and freestyle, for the most part. However, even with the freedom to explore different colors that strike their fancy when developing color combinations for dyeing, one must stick to certain conventions that will help them along the way.
A color wheel is an excellent tool for determining good color combinations. A typical color wheel is divided into primary, secondary, and tertiary colors. A good swatch store near me, like Sophicolor, can provide you with a color wheel with all the combinations you need.
Using a color wheel is straightforward. All you need to look at is the complementary and conflicting color arrangement and choose ones that complement each other. Colors placed opposite each other on the color wheel are normally complimentary. However, if you are feeling adventurous, you can choose ones that contrast each other and see what you come up with.
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Experiment With Color Temperature
Have you ever noticed some colors appear hot while others appear cool? Generally, all colors create a unique kind of temperature. For instance, some colors such as blue, green, purple, and their derivatives create a cool atmosphere. This is probably because these colors appear in cool natural areas, like the sea, water, or a grassy field. However, colors such as brown, red, yellow, and orange and their mixtures or derivatives appear warm or hot. These colors appear in the sun, a hot desert, or a flame in nature. As such, your brain is likely to associate these colors with warmth.
Mixing warm and cool colors creates a flashy and dynamic look. You would want to use these color combinations to dye clothes you wear to parties, events, and fun gatherings. However, if you want a purely cohesive look, use colors of the same category. Colors such as blue, purple, and green work well together, while yellow, orange, and red work together since they are in the same temperature range.
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Experiment With Different Shades Of The Same Color
Monochromatic looks are quickly becoming trendy. Many people wear a single color in different shades instead of mixing and matching colors. You can also use this trick in your color combinations for dyeing. When creating color combinations using different shades of the same color, there are various options you can try out.
For example, with a color like brown, you can try different intensities like dark brown, light brown, chocolate, and nude. Alternatively, using tints and textures, you can experiment with a gradient feel, using the same color but with different hues. Doing so creates the illusion of differentiated colors in cohesion, even though the dyed clothes only have one color on them.
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Ask the Experts: Color Palettes
Designers worldwide have been gracious enough to share their ideas on what colors they have experimented with and which color palettes they have noticed to work well together. You can borrow their ideas to see whether they will have a similar effect on you as they did on them. Using the color palettes designers usually share, you can get good combinations that will certainly blow your mind away. A good place for finding these color palettes is social media. Pinterest and Instagram often have color palette combinations shared by experts in various fields. The beauty of it is the moment you begin searching for such color palettes online; the recommendation algorithm will start recommending palettes to you when you are casually scrolling through the platform.
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Nature: The Perfect Teacher
Everything perfect comes from nature. Nature has always had its way with color, with many color combinations around us. You can get ideas on what color combinations to try out, from flowers, trees, animal print patterns, and even the evening sky, for those warm color combinations. Once you are in line with nature as you constantly observe colors around you, you will find a good color combination that will help you as you dye your clothes.
Parting Shot
The tips and tricks above provide a brilliant guideline on how to get good color combinations for your next DIY dyeing job. As with many artistic ventures, getting color combinations is often an exercise of trial and error. Thus, try a color combination you think might work on a small piece of fabric before using it in your main project. This will help you avoid regrets and mistakes in the future. Have fun experimenting with different color combinations when dyeing your clothes!
