The Sunday Mail
WHEN you approach home design, you likely do so in a couple of different ways – choosing objects and colours that simply look attractive or using an existing pattern or decor theme to govern your decisions.
However, colour is a powerful tool that can be used to inspire emotions, create space illusions or simply set the mood and atmosphere for any particular room.
Especially when used with interior and exterior painting, colour psychology is a great way to create a healthy and beautiful home.
Create the illusion of space
If you want your home to look larger than it really is – especially when it is about to go on the market – you can use bright and vibrant colours like yellows and eggshells to add space to your home exterior. As a warning, avoid the common colour white.
Although it can add space, it is nowhere near as effective as tinted colours. Appeal to a highly educated crowd with complex colours.
For home exteriors and interiors, using colours that consist of more than one word can often appeal to highly educated people. On the other hand, simple colours appeal to lower budgets and lower education levels.
When choosing complex colours, think of names like forest green or eggshell white. Build appetites in your kitchen with red. Red has been shown to increase appetite in most people – one of the reasons that many restaurants choose red patterns in their dining rooms. Using red in your kitchen to increase appetite is as simple as blending beige walls with red shutters or cabinet doors.
Use foyer blends to naturally combine interior and exterior paint
One of the best ways to wow your guests as they enter your home is to use a blend of your interior and exterior colors in your foyer or entryway. You can also use your exterior paint colour on parts of your interior to achieve the same general effect.
Warm up your home with deep tones during the winter. Using reds, oranges and yellows in your home paint decor can make the home seem more welcoming from the outside or warmer on the inside – especially during the winter.
If you are selling a home during the winter and are planning to paint, keep this in mind. Cool off in the summer with colder colours. Along the same lines as warm colours in the fall, cool colours, especially blue, can make your home seem fresh, cool and clean during the summer.
A white exterior with blue trim is a popular choice for summer homes and painting projects.
Use colours from your past
Many colour consultants will say that using familiar colours from your childhood that remind you of fond memories – especially in the kitchen – can bring those memories back and create a pleasant mood.
If you cannot remember any colours from your kitchen when you were growing up, just remember that reds and yellows are perfect for playful yet sophisticated kitchens.
Use relaxing colours in relaxing rooms
In your bedroom and bathroom, cool colours can form a relaxing atmosphere with paint. Consider shades of blue, green or even lavender to calm yourself in your escape rooms. When using this technique, remember that the darker the shade of colour you choose, the more apparent the effect.
Stay away from red if you have high blood pressure
While it can increase appetite in your kitchen, dark shades of red are often associated with high blood pressure and irritability in other rooms of the house. If you would like a darker colour paint for your bedroom or living room, go for a cooler colour rather than a warm one.
Flatter yourself with a familiar colour in the bathroom
Love to wear a particular colour? Consider that colour in the bathroom. Think you do not look very good in a colour? Avoid this colour for the bathroom at all costs. You want to look good when you check yourself in the bathroom mirror. Having a favourite colour in the background really does help.
Combine moods for an aggressive workout room
While it might make sense to use red paint in a workout room, this can actually overdo the sensation of feeling hot. If you want to use a warm colour in your workout room, consider a delightful blend of blue and yellow paint on the walls. You can also go for a relaxing green-blue combination for a cooling effect to extend workouts.
Concentrate in your home office with green
Green inspires concentration in a home office setting. And, after all, the faster you get your work done, the more time you will have to spend with your family.
In addition to a green plant, try painting the room with a light green. However, do not turn your home office into a jungle. Over doing it can be distracting. Any painting contractor will tell you green is one of the most popular colours being used right now in home design.
Inspire optimism with yellow
As you might expect, yellow is a perfect colour for a sunroom. However, a great way to use yellow inside your home is in an entryway or enclosed front porch. As you leave for the day to go to work or school, the yellow paint in this area will give you one last boost of optimism before the daily grind.
Don’t be fooled by purple
Although purple signifies wealth and romanticism, it is very rare in the natural world and can be very artificial within your home decor. If you really want some purple in your home, try blending it with more natural colours like subtle yellows or greens.
Blend brown for a natural look in your den
If you love the look of wood or leather or already incorporate, this earthy natural look in any room of your house, adding some brown paint can amplify the appearance.
You should be warned, though, that brown can cause depression in some people. -Freshome.com
