Reader Karen L. from New Jersey wrote with a question about color temperature. When she was looking at paint swatches for her dining room the person described one of the two reds she was looking at as being cooler. She said she found this confusing because she thought all red hues were considered warm and asked me to explain.
All color families–-the reds, the blues, the greens,etc.– can be described as either warm or cool. When shown on the color wheel warm colors are the ones from yellow all the way around to red-violet and the colors that fall on the other side of the wheel from yellow-green around to violet are the cool colors. Red falls among colors classified as warm.
A color can also be referred to as warmer or cooler when compared to another color. This is what is know as relative color temperature.
In this case when comparing two hues of red one might be described as cooler if it is a red with more violet or blue in it than the red you are comparing it to. In general terms both would still be considered warm however relative to one another one could be described as cooler.
