We all know that it’s important to choose colours wisely when painting rooms in your home. Light colours can make a space bigger, while darker shades can be used to great effect in large rooms to create a cosy feel. However, not everyone knows that the colours you choose to decorate can impact the way you think and feel in different rooms of your home.
Colours can greatly influence human emotion and behaviour, some shades make us feel threatened, others soothed or excited or secure. The influence of colour is obvious in our language, we get the blues, we see red, we turn green.
Smart interior design can turn the language of colour into powerful emotional cues that create feelings of trust or spark creativity.
Calming Colours
Some rooms in the house are made for chilling out in – for bedrooms, lounges or playrooms that create a relaxed feel – turn to peaceful colours with blue-tone.
The colour blue is associated with clear thoughts, focus and relaxation. Blue touches in a room will make you feel calmer and are proven to lower the heart rate and blood pressure. Blue is ideal for bedrooms, as it can help calm busy minds at the end of a stressful day – just make sure you pick a soft shade – as bright blues can stimulate focus – the opposite of what’s needed for a peaceful nights rest.
For communal chill-out spaces like the living room or den, opt for blue-based tones of lilac and pink to create a sense of balance and peace. Again, choose soft tones – avoid bright pinks or lilacs with black tones – as this can create a more stimulating than relaxing effect.
Cheerful Colours
Give any room an instant pick-me-up with some cheerful shades in the yellow palette. Yellows have long been associated with cheerfulness – just look at Mr Happy. The reason is that yellow tones remind us of the suns rays, giving us a little bit of sunshine whatever the weather.
Using yellow in your decorating can boost cheerfulness when in that room, so using it in rooms you use first thing – like kitchens – can see you start the day on the right footing. Over-exposure to intense yellows can promote restlessness however, so stick to pale shades for large areas, or small touches of bright yellow.
Orange is a colour associated with joy and warmth – perfect for living rooms or dining rooms where social events get held. This colour promotes feelings of sociability and connection so some burnt orange touches in gathering spaces can help encourage relationship building.
Creative Colours
For home offices or playrooms, greens are great for creating a harmonious, freeing environment that encourages free-thought and innovation.
As the colour of nature, green creates the freeing feeling of bringing the outside in, creating a more productive space for creative thought. Green is also a low-wavelength colour, meaning it’s easiest on the eyes for long days of work or play.
Blues shades are great for creativity too. Soft blues created a balanced, trusting feel to encourage outside-the-box thinking, while brighter shades lend themselves to focus and efficiency. Decorating your home-office or workspace with these varying shades is great for creating a positive work environment.
The colours you choose for your surroundings make an impression -so make sure you’re thinking about the meaning of the colours you choose when next decorating your home – as it could make a bigger difference than you think.