Source library
Every external page the course relied on, what it provides, and when it was checked. Re-checked yearly; next review October 2027.
Public course outlines (subject coverage only; no lesson content used)
The four entries below are public web pages and catalog listings: outlines, learning-outcome lists and one magazine article. They are not syllabi, lesson materials, workbooks or paid course content, and none of that was seen or used. They were read to decide what subject matter a homeowner-level color course should cover and in what order, as the terms page also states. Nothing proprietary was used or reproduced, and no affiliation with, endorsement by, accreditation from, or equivalence to any of these schools is claimed or implied. They are not cited inside the modules.
QC Design School: Color Consultant course page
Convention
Provides a public outline of a professional color-consultant program as three named units with topic lists: color wheel and terminology; design principles applied to color; perception factors such as lighting, undertones and texture; building palettes; focal points; cohesion in challenging spaces; bringing a palette to life with furniture, flooring and paint; finishes; ceiling, trim and wallpaper colors; textiles, accessories and art; exterior schemes. The course used this as a coverage checklist, and it confirmed that undertones, lighting and texture belong together and that trim, ceiling and finish decisions are a topic of their own. The career unit (clients, pricing, software, certification) was left out as irrelevant to a homeowner.
Interior Design Online / Sydney Design School: Colour for Interiors course page
Convention
Provides learning outcomes only: colour theory and tools; schemes for different needs; applying colour proportionally and creating unity through an interior; mood; visually manipulating space; an exterior scheme; specifying palettes; a printed colour workbook with step-by-step activities; and a list of required physical materials (paint chips, a fan deck, gouache, card). The course took from it the proportion-and-unity thread of Modules 6 and 7, the idea of a workbook the learner keeps, and the insistence on physical materials over screens. Accreditation, assessment and career outcomes were left out.
New York School of Interior Design: Certificate in Applied Color for Design (Spring 2026 listing)
Convention
Provides a catalog listing for a certificate that combines three workshops: CE804 (The Art of Choosing Paint Color), CE805 (Creating a Successful Color Scheme) and CE806 (Transform an Existing Space with Color). The listing reads "Ended Apr 28, 2026. Enrollment is closed."; it is cited as curriculum context, not as an enrollment recommendation. The course took from it the arc of choose paint, build a scheme, transform an existing space, which maps onto Modules 8, 6 and 10, and the stance that the existing room, not a blank slate, is the default case.
NYSID Atelier magazine: "A Color Story"
Convention
Provides a magazine article describing how color is taught at the school: through Munsell's hue, value and chroma; by hand-mixing paint to learn how colors neutralize; by studying adjacency effects; and by checking physical samples before presenting a scheme. The course used it as support for teaching Munsell's three attributes as the vocabulary of Module 2, for the surround exercises of Module 3, and for treating physical sampling as a discipline rather than a tip.
Interior Designers Institute: catalog addendum 2026/2027 (PDF)
Convention
Provides the school's catalog, including a one-line description of course 210 Color as an in-depth study of color systems and their effect on the environment. The separate Color 210 syllabus PDF at idi.edu (210_Color-Syllabus_W24.pdf) refused automated access when checked, so its contents are described here from the course brief only: objectives and named assignments, including a color notebook and palette research. The course turned the color notebook into the learner's observation and decision logs, and palette research into the "dissect three palettes" exercise in Module 6. Grading, weekly schedule and textbook list were not seen.
Color science and perception
Munsell Color: "How color notation works"
Physical principle
Provides a plain explanation of the Munsell system's three attributes, hue, value and chroma, and of the notation that writes a color as hue, then value over chroma (H V/C). The course used it as the basis of Module 2's vocabulary and of the glossary entries for hue, value, chroma and Munsell.
Munsell Color: diagram of the hue, value and chroma relationship
Physical principle
Provides a diagram and commentary showing how the three attributes relate in the Munsell color solid, including the point that the maximum chroma a color can reach varies with its hue and its value. The course used it for the explanation in Module 2 that some families have no vivid light version and others no vivid dark one, and for the chroma strips in the demonstrations.
Josef & Anni Albers Foundation: announcement of "Interacting with Color"
Physical principle
Provides the foundation's announcement of "Interacting with Color: A Practical Guide to Josef Albers's Color Experiments," a 2024 Yale University Press guide to eight cut-paper exercises drawn from Albers's "Interaction of Color," the classic demonstration of simultaneous contrast. The course used it as the reference for simultaneous contrast in Modules 3 and 9 and for the one-chip, four-surrounds experiment, which is a homeowner's version of the same kind of exercise. No text from either book is reproduced.
CIE 208:2014: Effect of Stimulus Size on Colour Appearance
Physical principle
Provides the International Commission on Illumination's publication page for its technical report on the area (size) effect. The report describes laboratory studies in which a large stimulus tends to look lighter and higher in chroma than a small one, with some hue shifts, and notes that studies in real settings do not always agree. The course used it for the glossary's area-effect entry and for explaining why a wall can look different from its chip: often lighter and more colorful, not darker, by an amount that varies and has to be looked at.
Konica Minolta Sensing: "Elements that Affect the Appearance of Color"
Physical principle
Provides Konica Minolta Sensing's blog explainer of what changes how a color looks, including the point that a color covering a large area such as a painted wall tends to look brighter and more vivid than a small swatch. The course used it as the everyday companion to CIE 208:2014 in the glossary's area-effect entry.
Yu, Eisemann and Pont (2019): "Colour Variations Within Light Fields: Interreflections and Colour Effects"
Physical principle
Provides the TU Delft research-portal record of a conference abstract published in Perception 48 (ECVP). It describes how light bouncing between colored surfaces takes on their color, so that the color of light varies through a room depending on the colors of the furnishings, the lighting and the room's geometry. The course used it for the glossary's interreflection entry and for saying that reflected light can tint nearby surfaces, without claiming a particular effect in any particular corner.
National Eye Institute: "Types of Color Vision Deficiency"
Physical principle
Provides a consumer-level description of the types of color vision deficiency: red-green types, which are the most common, blue-yellow types, and complete color vision deficiency, which is rare. It also notes that some types change brightness as well as hue: protanomaly "makes certain shades of red look more green and less bright," and tritanopia also makes colors look less bright. The course used it for the accessibility notes in Modules 2 and 6, for the household advice to record both people's judgments, for the caution that light-dark contrast often helps but does not work the same for everyone, and for the design of the site itself, which never conveys information by color alone and pairs value contrast with text labels.
Walker, Francis and Walker (2010): "The brightness-weight illusion"
Physical principle
Provides the Lancaster University repository record of a study published in Experimental Psychology 57(6), 462-469. When people judged objects by sight alone, darker objects were judged heavier than lighter ones. The course used it in Module 6 as support for the idea of visual weight, that darker colors tend to look heavier, which in a room is a likely direction to check by looking rather than a rule.
Color wheel conventions
Adobe: "The color wheel"
Convention
Provides Adobe's guide to the color wheel and its relationships, including that complementary colors sit directly opposite each other, with the pairs blue and orange, red and green, and yellow and violet. The course used it for the complementary, split-complementary, triadic and color-wheel entries in the glossary and for Module 6, on the traditional painter's (RYB) wheel the course uses; screen (RGB) wheels place complements differently, so the course names the wheel when it describes a pair.
Light
U.S. Department of Energy: "Purchasing Energy-Efficient Light Bulbs"
Physical principle
Provides federal buying guidance for bulbs: four correlated color temperature bands (about 2700 K warm, 3000 K soft, 3500 K neutral, 4100 K cool); the color rendering index as a 0 to 100 scale; the advice to buy by lumens rather than watts; dimmer compatibility; and the advice to match the existing color temperature when replacing one bulb among several. The page also still says that ENERGY STAR certified bulbs must reach a CRI of at least 80; that line is out of date, because ENERGY STAR's bulb specification, which did require CRI 80, ended at the end of 2024 (see the EPA memo below). The course used the page, with the LED color fact sheet below, for Module 4's bulb teaching, for the color-temperature bands in Module 10, and for the glossary entries on CCT, CRI and lumens.
U.S. Department of Energy: "Understanding LED Color-Tunable Products"
Physical principle
Provides descriptions of the kinds of color-tunable LED products: warm-dim (dim-to-warm) products that shift warmer as they dim, tunable-white products whose color temperature can be adjusted, and full-color-tunable products; it also suggests at least 80 CRI as a rule of thumb for warm-dim products and advises testing in person. The course used it for the warm-dim and tunable-white entries in the glossary and for the evening-room guidance built around Wren Lane in Modules 4 and 10.
U.S. Department of Energy / PNNL: "LED Color Characteristics" fact sheet (PDF, 2012)
Physical principle
Provides the Solid-State Lighting program's fact sheet (PNNL-SA-84900, January 2012) on describing the color of LED light. It explains that two sources with the same correlated color temperature can look different, one greenish and one pinkish (described by Duv); that two light sources with the same CCT and CRI may not render colors the same way; that CRI scores should only serve as a rough guideline; that a source with a low CRI may sometimes render objects more pleasingly than one with a higher CRI; and that R9 is the score for a strong red sample. The course used it for the limits of CCT and CRI in Module 4 and in the glossary: the numbers make an outcome more or less likely, and looking is the test.
ENERGY STAR: "Learn About LED Lighting"
Physical principle
Provides the basics of LED bulbs and fixtures: how they produce light, why their "lifetime" is defined by gradual dimming rather than burning out, where LED bulbs are and are not suited, and how they handle heat. ENERGY STAR's bulb program has ended: its lamp and luminaire specifications were retired on December 31, 2024 (EPA memo below), so the course does not describe any bulb as ENERGY STAR certified. The course used this page only as the consumer-level companion to the Department of Energy pages in Module 4; the kelvin bands come from the DOE pages, not from this one. An earlier ENERGY STAR page on bulb color and mood refused access when checked and is not cited.
U.S. EPA: ENERGY STAR Lighting Sunset Memo (PDF)
Product-specific
Provides the Environmental Protection Agency's notice that the ENERGY STAR specifications for lamps (bulbs) and luminaires were retired on December 31, 2024. The course used it to date the ENERGY STAR bulb requirement correctly: the former specification required a CRI of at least 80 until it ended, and the DOE purchasing page above still cites it. No bulb is described in the course as ENERGY STAR certified.
Paint manufacturers (product facts, reported as the maker's statements)
Each page below is a manufacturer describing its own products and giving its own advice. The course reports the product facts as that maker's statements, with "according to" where they appear, and treats the advice as one maker's guidance. Named products, suggested colors for particular rooms and claims such as a specific LRV being "the brightest" are marketing and are not used as rules. The site receives nothing from any manufacturer.
Golden Artist Colors: Color Mixing Guide
Term
Provides an artist-paint maker's guide to mixing color, including the paint-making meanings of two terms: masstone, paint applied so that "underlying colors cannot show through," and undertone, the color seen when the paint is spread very thinly over white. The course used it for the glossary's masstone and undertone entries, and to correct an earlier misuse of "mass tone" as a name for how a color looks over a whole wall.
Benjamin Moore: FAQ
Product-specific
Provides the maker's answers on sampling and buying: that its color sample is an 8 oz jar in eggshell, enough for about a 2 ft square; that its peel-and-stick sheets are reusable and movable; that on-screen and printed color may vary from actual paint; cautions about matching colors across brands; and guidance on when primer is needed. The course used it for the sample-pot, peel-and-stick, primer and metamerism entries in the glossary and for the sampling facts in Modules 8 and 9.
Benjamin Moore: "Warm and cool colors"
Product-specific
Provides the maker's explanation of warm and cool colors and undertones: that undertones are easiest to judge by comparing colors side by side; that bulbs above about 3500 K tend to make colors read cooler; and that the way to test is to brush a sample on the wall and view it under every lighting condition. The course used the side-by-side point in Module 3 and the lighting and testing points in Modules 4 and 9. The page's named products and room suggestions are the maker's suggestions and were not used as rules.
Benjamin Moore: "How to use paint color samples"
Product-specific
Provides the maker's how-to for its sampling products. It suggests brushing a sample directly on the wall, especially on a white or light neutral wall so that the new color does not compete with the existing one, or using a white foam core board so the color can be moved around; brushing out at least two coats for the most accurate color; placing a small display chip against white paper so the existing wall color does not affect it, and holding chips up against the wall rather than looking down on them; that a larger swath is important; moving samples around the room; and testing from morning to evening under natural and artificial light. It describes peel-and-stick sheets as reusable and movable, and says they can be wrapped around edges to see light and dark corners. The course used it, with the pages from Sherwin-Williams and Behr, for Module 9's sampling methods, taught by what each is useful for (a chip on white paper, a patch on the wall, a moveable board, a peel-and-stick sheet) rather than as one correct setup.
Benjamin Moore: "How to choose a paint finish"
Product-specific
Provides the maker's ladder of sheens from flat through high gloss, with where it suggests each one. On durability it says that flat "is more forgiving of flaws" but calls for caution in high-traffic areas, since stains are harder to remove from low-sheen paint; that matte has "slightly more durability" than flat and "withstands frequent washing"; that eggshell is easy to clean; that satin offers "better stain resistance and durability than lower sheens"; and that high gloss is "extremely durable," easy to clean and stain-resistant but "can accentuate blemishes." The course reports these as this maker's descriptions and adds that washability varies by product line, so the specific product is the thing to ask about. The course used it for the sheen entries in the glossary and for Module 8's separation of the color decision from the sheen decision; the sheen names are reported as this maker's own.
Benjamin Moore: white and off-white paint colors
Product-specific
Provides a maker's tour of its own whites, grouped by warmth. The course read it for how a manufacturer groups whites, which informed Module 8's discussion of why similar whites differ, and not for any recommendation; no white is named as best anywhere in the course.
Sherwin-Williams: "How to choose a paint finish"
Product-specific
Provides this maker's sheen ladder and its suggestions for which sheen suits which room and surface. Read beside the Benjamin Moore finish page, it shows that sheen names and steps do not line up exactly between brands, which is the point the glossary and Module 8 make: sample in the sheen you will buy, from the brand you will buy.
Sherwin-Williams STIR: "New trends in white paint"
Product-specific
Provides a trade-magazine article on whites, grouping them as warm, cool and "pure," and using LRV as an aid to comparing them. The course used the grouping and the idea of LRV as a comparison aid in Module 8. The article's claim about a particular LRV of 90 and its named products are marketing and were not used.
Sherwin-Williams: "How to choose paint colors based on room direction"
Product-specific
Provides the compass-direction convention: what light a north-, south-, east- or west-facing room is expected to receive and which colors the maker suggests for each. The course reports this as a convention and treats it as a hypothesis for the learner to test with the light log in Module 4, since trees, neighbors, overhangs and weather override it, and since the convention reverses in the southern hemisphere.
Sherwin-Williams: paint color samples
Product-specific
Provides the maker's page on the sample formats it sells (peel-and-stick and liquid samples) and how to use them. The course used it alongside the Benjamin Moore and Behr pages for the sampling methods in Module 9; sizes and sheens are reported as this maker's own and may change.
Behr: "Utilizing paint samples"
Product-specific
Provides the maker's sampling advice: live with samples for several days before deciding, and note that its peel-and-stick samples come in one sheen (eggshell), so a color to be bought in another sheen should also be sampled from a pot in that sheen. The course used the several-days point for the optional, longer observation in Module 9 (for hard or expensive choices) and the sheen point for the peel-and-stick entries in the glossary and Module 8. This page blocked automated checking; it was verified in a browser on the date below.
Practitioner guidance (one consultant's conventions)
Kylie M Interiors: "Paint colors and LRV"
Practitioner
Provides one color consultant's guide to light reflectance value: where the major brands publish their LRVs (Sherwin-Williams on the back of chips and online, Benjamin Moore on each color's web page and in the fan deck index, Valspar and Behr in the fan deck index, Farrow & Ball not readily published) and the sentence "No paint color will save you if you don't have enough natural or artificial light." The course used the "not enough light" point in Module 4 and in the glossary's LRV entry, and the where-to-find list as a practitioner's report rather than a standard.
Safety, for older homes
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency: "Renovation, Repair and Painting Program: Do-It-Yourselfers"
Physical principle
Provides lead-safe practices for people doing their own work in housing built before 1978, and says when certified firms are required. The course is not a painting manual; it points here from the terms page and this library so that anyone sanding or scraping old paint knows where the rules are.
How to use this library
- When a module says "according to Benjamin Moore's page" or "the DOE bands," the entry above is the page it means. Open it to see the maker's or agency's current wording; the course's summary is dated.
- The pill on each entry says what kind of statement the page mostly makes: a physical principle, a design convention, a maker's product facts, a definition of a term, or one practitioner's habits. The same labels appear throughout the modules.
- If a link is dead or a page has changed when you visit it, the course's date tells you how old its summary is. The library is re-checked each October.
- Only pages listed here are linked from the course. Nothing is linked from inside a module to a design school.
This library records what each page provided on the day it was read. It does not endorse any school, manufacturer, retailer or consultant, and none of them endorses this course. Product facts belong to the maker and change without notice; the can and the technical data sheet govern. Two pages (ENERGY STAR and Behr) refused automated checking and were verified by eye in a browser, and one PDF (the IDI Color 210 syllabus) could not be retrieved and is described from the course brief alone.