Home Design Sense – Creating An Environment With Color

The colors we use in our home reflect our individual personalities. Colors affect our everyday lives, and even if you’re color blind, the ambiance created by the colors around you can influence mood, productivity, health, and happiness. Many researchers have even assigned personality traits to each color, or to the people who chose them as favorites or who revile them as the least interesting colors of the spectrum.

At home, you want to be comfortable with your color choices and you want the home colors to reflect your personality. Are you a red or a peach person? Do you prefer violet or green? Check out the clothes in your closet, the posters on your wall, the pillows on the sofa, and the large pieces of furniture, as well as the walls, cupboards, and carpets that surround you.

Look around your home. Do you find the same color used repeatedly throughout? Does white or beige dominate with a few accent colors? What you do and think and feel about color also influences how comfortably and happily you’ll be at home and whether you’ll feel like relaxing and reading, sleeping, eating, talking, or working out on the exercise bike.

Choosing interior colors is not easy in today’s market. There are many paint manufacturers and thousands of colors. So, how do you start? Look at the room you want to paint. Is there a predominate fabric on the furniture? Or maybe a favorite piece of artwork. If so, go with shades of the predominate color.

If not, look around the room. Is it facing East? Rooms that face east should have a neutral color since the sunlight will make the room brighter than the color you intended.

Is the room small? To make the room appear larger, use one light color. Is the room too large? Use deeper, darker and bolder colors. A low ceiling? To raise the ceiling use white or light pastel colors. A high ceiling? Warm and dark colors will bring the ceiling down to the proper level.

All of these options will help in the color decision, but the use of the room is equally important. Is it the Dining Room? Bedroom? Kitchen? Do you do a lot of entertaining? Parties? Family gatherings? Some colors work best in certain rooms while others should be avoided.

Green is a relaxing color and can be used in most room except for the dining room since green with food indicates spoilage. An orange hallway is warm and welcoming to guests. Pink bathroom? You might think it’s for little girls, but pink has been known to be a relaxing color. As a matter of fact some jail cells are painted pink to help prisoners relax. And that relaxation will last for about ½ hour after leaving the cell! A brown dining room gives the feeling of warmth and comfort and has a strong association with food…brown eggs, cereal, brown bread, etc. A red dining room will stimulate the appetite and is why red is used in many restaurants.

Choose colors wisely. This story about color should help. A friend asked me to speak with their friend about a problem with choosing colors. As we talked I learned that her son would come into the house calmly; but become very agitated after being inside. I asked her the color of the hallway. She said it was red. Reds look great but can have a negative effect on hyper active children. The hallway was re-painted and the agitation changed.

An environment can make your home a very comfortable place for you, your family and guests. This is where people feel very relaxed and at ease. It is a place to escape the turmoil of life and kick back and enjoy the fruits of your labor.

Consider the people living in the house and any issues or problems. And; let everyone choose the colors they like to make it a family event.