Do you feel anxious in a yellow room? Does the color blue make you feel calm and relaxed? Artists and interior designers have long understood how color can dramatically affect moods, feelings, and emotions. The colours you choose for your decorating schemes will affect the atmosphere of your room. Pick the right colour for your room and you will create just the right feel you want. The colour you choose can also affect the space in other ways. For example, enlarging the room or making it cosier, which will also make you feel differently about the room. However, there are many versions of blue, white and green and they won't all create the same atmosphere or effects you are looking for.
Here is a guide to help you get exactly the right mood you want in every room.
Light Neutrals
Light neutrals for many of us portray the feeling of a smart hotel with the atmosphere of relaxation, sophistication and sanctuary. Decorated a room without any dramatic colour will always give your room a soothing atmosphere and will help a small room feel bigger.
Light neutrals are not the easiest colours to work with if you want to make a statement. To be successfully, make sure you use different tones, and add in contrasting textures. Linen, cotton and leather all work well. Metallic accessories can also add subtle shimmer.
Dark Neutrals
Darker colours such as black, grey and dark brown can create a sophisticated atmosphere for your rooms. These colours are great for creating drama in a colour scheme, and using an earthy tones such as brown can provide a feeling of stability and security. On the downside, black is mostly associated with mourning and depression. They will also make a room look smaller, but if the proportions of a room are generous enough, why not.
Dark neutral are best treated as accents rather than used over large areas. To create a contemporary living space, grey is an excellent choice. Use it on a feature wall or for the flooring, then team with pale upholstery and a dash of red in accessories as an accent.
White
White is often associated with purity and serenity, this means it's an obvious choice if you want to create a feeling of calm and cleanliness to a room. Rooms that are painted completely in white can seem spacious, but on the downside, it can feel cold and impersonal. If the light entering your room is cold, say north facing, you should then pick a white that has a hint of warmth to it. Just the slightest tinge of pink, or a creamier tone to your white will work better than a pure white.
A white room looks great when combined with natural textures and colours. For example, pale wood and wicker will add balance to the cool feeling of a white room. Add in some blue-striped fabrics to get that seaside style, or add black to get a more sophisticated take on white. Dark flooring, furniture, picture frames and so on can create a more modern looking room.
Yellow
Yellow is often described as cheery and warm, and can be just the stimulus to the atmosphere your room needs. Yellow is also the most fatiguing to the eye due to the high amount of light it reflects, which in turn makes it the most visible colour. Yellow can also create feelings of frustration and anger, which means people are more likely to lose their tempers and babies will tend to cry more in yellow rooms. You might want to go easy on it in a bedroom and save it for kitchens, or an often overlooked space like a hallway.
Use pale tones of yellow to stretch the space to cheat the eye into thinking it's a bigger and brighter room. Yellow is a good colour to take the chill off the space for rooms that receive cool light. Pure yellow can feel a little childish, but used alongside grey's and black will create a grown-up and contemporary feel. Keep the furnishings sleek, and accessories unfussy to match. Alternatively, take a cue from nature and balance with orange for a citrus-inspired look.
Red
Red is a bright and warm color that evokes strong emotions. It is the colour of love, romance and passion, but be careful red is also considered an intense, or even angry colour that creates feelings of excitement or intensity. The trick when using red in a room, is to use just enough to add vitality without making it an overpowering feature.
Red is a traditional choice for most people in dining rooms. he use of red makes the space feel more intimate, and will create a sociable feeling that's perfect for get-togethers. Red makes a great accent colour to bring energy to the area. Deep tones of red are perfect to give a living room a rather comfortable feeling. For example, use it for upholstery on chairs, curtaining or accessories.
Blue
Blue is described as a favorite color by many people and is the color most preferred by men. It is often described as peaceful, tranquil, secure, and orderly. Blue is a particularly popular choice for kitchens, bathrooms and bedrooms. On the downside, it is also associated with sadness, which may mean it doesn't strike the right note for everyone.
Blue is considered to be a cold colour, so it could make your room feel cold unless it's a south-facing and receives a lot of sun . If blue is your preference for a room, think about moving towards purple, the red mixed in with blue warms the colour. Use paler shades of blue on walls to make a small space feel bigger. Paler blue walls will appear to recede from the eye, stretching the dimensions of the room.
Green
Green is a cool color that symbolizes nature and the natural world. As it's the colour of nature, growth and renewal, green can evoke a feeling of energy without being over stimulating. Green also represents tranquility, good luck, health, and on the downside, jealousy.
Although green is considered a cool colour, it is actually a mixture between cool blue and warm yellow. Green is a soothing shade, so you might want to use it for a living room or bedroom. To give a north facing room a great boost, use a green with plenty of yellow tones to create a sophisticated and cosy feeling to the room. Representing both the vitality of nature, and its calming influence, green is great for creating a studious feel in a home office, or book-filled living room.
Conclusion
Use these general guidelines to get a good starting point in your search for that perfect colour scheme. But remember that colour choice is a very personal matter. You are the one who has to live with your choice, so choose a colour that suits you, your family and your lifestyle. If you have any other tips to share, please leave a comment below!
Choosing a colour scheme for you home can be very difficult, so why not get a professional to help you decided.
