Choosing the right color combinations for your home, clothing, or designs can be tricky. While some colors complement each other beautifully, others can clash and be unappealing to the eye. When selecting colors, it’s helpful to know what color pairings to avoid.
Understanding Color Theory
Before diving into specific color pairings to avoid, it’s useful to understand some basic principles of color theory. This gives context on why some colors work well together while others clash.
The basic principles of color theory include:
- Complementary colors are opposite one another on the color wheel. Red and green, blue and orange, and yellow and purple are examples. These can create high-contrast, vibrant combinations.
- Analogous colors sit next to each other on the color wheel, like yellow, yellow-green, and green. These create monochromatic, soothing combinations.
- Triadic colors are evenly spaced around the color wheel, like red, yellow, and blue. These are very vibrant when used together.
- Warm colors are reds, oranges, and yellows. Cool colors are blues, greens, and purples.
- Values refer to how light or dark a color is. Lighter tints and darker shades of the same hue can work well together.
With this context in mind, let’s look at 10 specific color combinations that tend to clash and therefore, should generally be avoided.
Colors That Don’t Go Together
1. Bright Red and Bright Pink
While red and pink can work well together in softer or more muted shades, bright primary red and hot pink tend to clash. They are both loud, bold colors competing for attention. If you’d like to pair red and pink, go for a deeper burgundy red and a softer blush pink instead.
2. Bright Red and Bright Orange
Again, primary red paired with primary orange is extremely bold and tends to look garish. These colors are complementaries but they’re so intense that they fight each other rather than complement. Try pairing a brick red with a burnt orange for a more sophisticated, autumnal look.
3. Bright Yellow and Bright Purple
Primary yellow and primary purple also directly oppose each other on the color wheel, but their bright hues clash when combined. Softening one or both colors greatly improves the combination. Pair a pale lemon yellow with an eggplant purple, for example.
4. Bright Green and Bright Red
While complementary colors can create nice contrast when used carefully, bright primary red and green remind most people of Christmas. Unless that’s the mood you want to evoke, avoid combining these two powerhouse colors in their purest shades.
5. Bright Blue and Bright Orange
Like red and green, pure blue and orange are complementary colors that seem better suited to children’s toys and fast food restaurants than most design applications. Instead of primary blue and orange, try pairing a navy blue with a burnt orange or ochre shade.
6. Black and Brown
Black and brown are both dark, muted, neutral colors. Combining them tends to look dull and lacks contrast. If you’d like to pair them, add in an accent color like white or red to lift the combination.
7. Bright Green and Bright Pink
Green and pink have the ability to look very striking and retro when paired correctly. But bright grass green combined with bright bubblegum pink tends to look dated and cheap. Instead, pair a sage green with a rose pink for a more sophisticated look.
8. Bright Yellow and Bright Green
Green and yellow are adjacent colors on the color wheel and can complement each other nicely when softened. However, primary green and primary yellow are both very bold and tend to compete when placed side by side. One option is to separate them with white space.
9. Bright Purple and Bright Orange
While purple and orange complement each other, primary versions of both colors are so intense that they actually vibrate against each other. It’s just too much power! Opt for a pale lilac and peach combination instead for the same color pairing but much less intensity.
10. Bright Red and Bright Lime Green
Primary red and lime green are highly saturated colors that work well in traffic signs and warnings due to their intensity. But this also makes them prone to clashing in design and decor applications. Try burgundy and forest green as an alternative.
Using Complementary Colors Successfully
As we’ve seen, many complementary color pairings like red and green or purple and yellow have the potential to clash when they’re both intensely saturated. However, this doesn’t mean complementary colors can’t be combined beautifully. Here are some tips for successfully working with complements:
- Soften one or both colors. Using a muted version of one color prevents competeing intensities.
- Separate colors with white or black space.
- Use one color as an accent rather than pairing equally.
- Layer complements rather than placing side-by-side.
- Use a gradient from one complementary hue to the other.
Careful use of complementary colors creates nice contrast and visual interest. Just take care not to use colors in their purest, brightest forms without separating them.
Tips for Combining Colors
It’s helpful to keep these additional tips in mind when combining colors:
- Consider undertones. Cool blues, greens and purples go best with other cool colors. Warm reds, oranges and yellows combine most smoothly with other warm hues.
- Pay attention to context. A color combination that works well in a child’s room may look out of place in a corporate office.
- Beware of cultural meanings. Some color combinations take on culturally-specific meanings, like red and green reading as Christmas-themed.
- Add neutrals. Black, white, gray and brown can help bridge strong colors and make them easier on the eyes.
- Use the 60-30-10 rule. One dominant color at 60%, a secondary color at 30% and an accent color at 10% is a balanced approach.
Trust your own eye and aesthetic judgment when combining colors. If a color pairing seems unappealing to you, it likely won’t work well. Go with combinations you find pleasing, interesting and appropriate for the context.
Using a Color Wheel
A color wheel is a valuable tool for understanding color relationships and finding appealing color combinations. The wheel shows hues in their spectrums around the circle. Key things to note are:
- Complementary colors lie opposite each other.
- Analogous colors sit side-by-side.
- Triadic colors form a triangle around the wheel.
- Warm and cool colors are grouped together.
When choosing a palette, look for balance around the color wheel. For example, if your dominant color is a warm hue like orange, choose some cooler accent colors like blues and greens to counterbalance it.
Choosing a Color Scheme
In addition to the basic principles of color theory, there are some preset color scheme formulas you can use as helpful starting points:
- Monochromatic – Various tints, tones and shades of one color
- Analogous – Hues adjacent on the color wheel
- Complementary – Colors opposite on the wheel
- Triadic – Three colors equally spaced around the wheel
- Split Complementary – A color plus the two on either side of its complement
- Tetradic – Two sets of complements
- Rectangular – A rectangle on the wheel rather than triangle
These schemes provide balanced starting points. You can always tweak them by lightening or darkening tones, muting with grey, or adding an extra accent color.
Tools to Visualize Palettes
In addition to a physical color wheel, there are many digital tools you can use to visualize and experiment with color combinations:
- Online color wheel with palette generators
- Adobe Color CC
- Canva
- Design Seeds
- Coolors
These tools allow you to see your palette on a wheel, create color schemes, experiment, and even generate palettes algorithmically. Take advantage of them when planning your color usage.
Example Color Combinations to Avoid
To summarize key learnings, here is a table of example color pairings to generally avoid:
| Color 1 | Color 2 |
|---|---|
| Bright red | Bright pink |
| Bright yellow | Bright purple |
| Bright green | Bright red |
| Bright blue | Bright orange |
| Black | Brown |
| Bright green | Bright pink |
These specific combinations tend to clash due to their intensity and lack of harmony. Adjusting the tones and adding neutral space makes them more workable.
Conclusion
Some color combinations naturally complement each other, while others can compete and clash. Pay attention to color theory basics like complements and triads. Be particularly wary of pairing very saturated primary shades without some separation. With a thoughtful approach, you can use complementary colors in creative ways or stick with analogous and triadic schemes for foolproof harmony. Trust your visual perception of what looks pleasant together as you develop palettes.