Nature provides home decorators with insightful lesson in color

Leonardo da Vinci taught us much of what we know today about color.

He enlightened us, for example, to the fact that if you take a body of white (a sheet, paint, fabric) and divide it into two equal halves, and place one on a medium colored background and the other on a dark background the one on the dark background will appear whiter.

The darker background also will appear darker behind the white than it will on its own.

Thus, the concept of color contrast was born.

And it follows that the degree of brightness is commensurate with the degree of darkness backing it. Yellow against red will be brighter than yellow against orange.

Complementary colors are called such because they bring out the best in each other. Says da Vinci, "Of different colors equally perfect, that will appear most excellent which is seen near its direct contrary: a pale color against red; a black upon white ... blue near yellow; green near red: because each color is more distinctly seen, when opposed to its contrary, than to any other similar to it."

That mouthful simply says that opposites attract or, in the case of interior design, opposites are attractive.

If we follow the above concept of contrast, the next theory becomes obvious. We know that to represent great darkness, contrast it with great light. Again, pale yellow will cause red to appear brighter than if you place that same red near purple.

To create harmony, arrange three color values such as yellow, white and blue. There's a crispness established where the one color leaves off and the other begins, yet the intermingling is harmonious and stimulating. Try deep violet, red-orange and bright green. Invigorating. We've taken two contrasting hues and added an intermediary one.

Da Vinci believed that nature was the truest consultant for color. He was one of the first to use color combinations and mixtures to produce his art. In ancient civilization, though, only a few colors were used over and over again for centuries: red, gold, yellow, green, purple, blue, black and white. These base colors depicted gods, devils, immortality and other varied spiritual mysteries. Red represented fire and mankind; blue represented air and God.

Ancient man drew pictures pleading the gods for rain, good harvests, relief from disease and life after death. Absolute basic needs required basic colors. Red, not pink, would get the attention of the gods.

The use of color to express romance, hope and inspiration didn't arrive until civilization became more civilized. We've come a long way in our understanding of color, but the basic needs and reciprocal satisfaction received from various hues are still there.

Rosemary Sadez Friedmann, an interior designer in Naples, Fla., is author of "Mystery of Color."