Have you ever noticed the feeling you get when you walk into certain rooms? A room with warm colors may make you feel cozy, or a narrow space may feel spacious when it has different colors on opposing walls.
Color is a powerful design tool – if you know how to use it properly. The paint colors you choose, and the décor you complement them with, all influence the mood you get in a space. There’s complex psychology at play, so much so that marketing professionals use colors to evoke emotions and associations, as well as to influence consumer decisions.
When you’re planning your home renovation, it’s important to consider color psychology and how you can make it work for you.
What Mood Do You Want to Achieve?
Before you explore color palettes, design layouts, or style choices, think about the mood you’re trying to achieve for your space. This is probably easy for some rooms, like the bedroom, where you want a calm, relaxing atmosphere for good sleep, but it’s not so straightforward in some spaces.
For example, choosing kitchen renovation color palettes can be intimidating. You want the room to be welcoming and energized, so yellow may be a good choice. It’s automatically uplifting and makes the room feel bright and sunny all day. However, a bold, bright color can be overwhelming in a room that receives so much traffic, so it needs to be balanced.
Whatever you’re trying to achieve, it’s important to think about it ahead of time and let your goals guide you. It may be helpful to use a mood board to combine color palettes, design features, colors, and images that inspire your design choices.
Trigger the Right Emotions with Colors
Colors evoke emotions, whether they’re subtle or more obvious. Here are some examples of colors and the feelings associated with them:
- Red: Reds are associated with energy and passion, such as love and anger. These can be a good choice for common areas like the dining room where people congregate and socialize.
- Orange: Oranges are warm and uplifting. They can increase appetite, so they’re often used in kitchens. However, more subtle oranges are often used as complimentary tints that tone down the extreme brightness of the color while providing stimulation.
- Yellow: Yellows are associated with brightness, sunshine, and happiness, but only when they’re bright. Duller shades of yellow may be associated with sickness or decay. You can add bright yellow to a space to add cheerfulness, such as a kitchen or child’s bedroom.
- Green: Green is associated with nature, tranquility, wealth, and growth. It’s popular for virtually every room in the house in different shades, but particularly the bedroom, bathroom, and common areas like dining rooms and living rooms.
- Blue: Blue is calming and associated with relaxation and trust. It’s a good choice for rooms that are supposed to be serene, such as bathrooms and bedrooms. However, too much blue can make a space feel “cold,” so balance it with some warmer colors or neutral tones.
- Purple: Purple is a popular, offbeat color that makes spaces feel luxurious. Associated with royalty, purple can be rich and deep or soft and soothing. Purple is a good choice for spaces that are intended for creativity, but you can make a bedroom feel more opulent with some jewel-toned purples like violet or plum.
- Black: Black is a dominant color that’s often used for accents instead of a main color. It’s elegant and sophisticated, but it can be overwhelming if it’s too bold. Black should be used as accents to add depth to spaces and provides an appealing contrast with other popular colors.
- White: White is associated with cleanliness and purity. You can use white to make a room look spacious and open, especially in smaller spaces, but it’s easy to go overboard and create a sterile look. White can be the main color, but it needs balance with other neutrals or colors.
- Gray: Gray is a popular neutral that makes spaces look calm and clean. You can pair virtually any color with gray for a striking look, especially warmer colors that provide a nice contrast. If you prefer a monochromatic look, grays with different shades or in different textures can be a sophisticated touch.
Remember the 60-30-10 Rule
If color psychology still seems a little intimidating, remember the 60-30-10 rule. This rule guides your color choices. 60% of the room should be your dominant color, followed by secondary colors at 30%, and 10% for accent colors. This rule helps you avoid colors that are too overpowering or too minimal, balancing the design and allowing for creativity.
If you’re not sure of the palette, we can look at the color wheel:
- Monochromatic colors: These colors are simply lighter or darker variations of the same color, such as neutral grays or beiges.
- Analogous colors: These colors are next to each other on the color wheel, such as blue and green. Typically, these colors are the same “temperature.”
- Complementary colors: These colors are directly across from each other on the color wheel, such as blue and orange or purple and green. Usually, these colors are warm and cool.
- Split complementary colors: These colors are one color and the two colors on either side of the complement. For example, red and green are complementary colors, but green and purple or red are split complementary colors.
Knowing these basics of the color wheel can help you plan your palette and ensure your design has visual balance and appeal. For example, using gray as your 60% color with green as your 30% color and blue as your 10% accent color could be a great choice for a bedroom or bathroom.
Start Your Project with Color Psychology
Color is a powerful way to transform your space. When you’re planning a renovation or design project, think about the colors and the mood you want to convey, how they work together, and how you can create visual balance with these core principles.
Rebecca Denis
Author Bio:
Rebecca Denis, Head of Design at Revive Real Estate, is an accomplished and highly creative interior designer with over ten years of experience in the industry. With a passion for transforming spaces and a keen eye for detail, she has successfully completed numerous projects ranging from commercial spaces to custom show homes.
