Choosing paint for the inside of your home is a very personal decision but the colors you choose will also affect your guests. Ever walk into a home and immediately feel a little unsettled or overwhelmed? Or how about the opposite effect–you suddenly feel calm, relaxed, and eager to sit down and visit for a while?
It’s likely that it’s more than just the homeowners who are making you feel one way or another. Color psychology is the study of the effects of color on your physical and psychological state. Sound a little new-age? It’s not.
In fact, several ancient cultures such as the Chinese and Egyptians used Chromotherapy or colorology as a method of healing through holistic or alternative treatment. For instance, the color red stimulates the mind and body and is supposed to increase circulation while yellow is supposed to stimulate the nervous system and purify the body. Blue helps soothe any illness or pain. Orange is thought to increase energy levels and heal the lungs. And shades of indigo are still used to help treat skin problems.
So,understand that as you’re going through your remodel, you might not want to turn each room of your home into a “color pharmacy”. Instead, you’re just simply wondering “does this color look right in this room?”
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Well, part of answering that question can come from looking deeper into studies on color. In today’s world many homeowners are using a portion of their homes for home offices. Certainly recognizing that specific colors have been known to influence behavior and alter moods might help you make the best paint selection for the activity that will go on in that particular room.
According to some studies with students, being exposed to the color red before an exam has created poor results on test performance but this same color helps when it comes to athletics by helping people react with greater speed and force.
If you want to get more serious about this, you can study color triangles and experiment with worksheets that help you learn about color theory. Use a starting point of working with the three primary colors: red, yellow, and blue, and then mix in secondary colors. It’s actually quite interesting and therapeutic.
But it’s unlikely you’ll be choosing a primary color alone to be on significant wall space. However, before writing this I had painted one of my smaller guest bathrooms red… Hmm, must be trying to send my guests a message!
Regardless of whether you decide to follow the color psychology, it’s a good idea to start small with paint. Don’t just pick it out in the store or at a design center. Take home a small tin of it and try it out on the walls. Go over the swatch you paint on the wall a few times and allow it to dry to be sure you’ll see its true color and how light or dark it will end up. Then be sure to view it at different times of the day and with natural and artificial light. This will give you a much better idea if it’s really the color you want. Most of all, know that paint is a very personal choice and, unless you like re-painting, make sure you choose what you like.