How Gorgeous Paint Color Can Make You Feel Wonderful

Can gorgeous paint color really make you feel wonderful? Is there a way to choose this miraculous color without overwhelm? Yes and Yes! Learn how you can use the scientifically based studies of psychology color to your advantage, along with smart tips on how to incorporate your best colors into an organized color palette for your whole home.

how do you make any decision on any color, let alone which color should go where?

 Let’s be honest. Isn’t Default Landlord White a bit of a disappointment?

Therein lies the rub: A wall color that’s too light looks anemic but it’s “safe”. Worse is a wall color that is too strong or bright as it seems to bounce off the walls. It can be so distracting that it is difficult to notice the artwork, furniture or even people in a room. 

Add in the desire to choose colors that will somehow work magically with your furnishings in an interesting yet tasteful way and you have the recipe for color decision paralysis.

is there a basic recipe for color selection decisions?

Yes, surprisingly.

Generally, in any given room, it works best to determine what you might call the anchor for the design and color scheme you want to develop.

• Start with the biggest piece in the room. This will usually be your sofa or a large rug area rug.
• Use the sofa color as a starting point or pull one or two colors from the rug to select co-ordinating shades of these colors.
• Plant these colors into a range of neutrals in light to dark shades plus vary the textures where you can.
• Add in your colorful art, pillows, throws etc. that riff on the main colors. These accessory colors can also be more random because you already have a baseline color organization for the room.

It’s these small details that make a home design sing and might also be the most meaningful to you.

where do you start if nothing in the room has been decided on yet?

The wide range of paint colors and shades available are both good news AND the source of utter confusion for most of us.

Though it may feel initially overwhelming, it’s actually an opportunity. You’ll be able to start with another type of anchor.

Take a minute. Investigate (by scientific study) the actual effect colors have on us emotionally…you can then select your colors for specific purpose and well-being.

How To give paint color selection context and a job

To wit, when you walk into a specific room, what feeling or mood do you want to have?

Choose your weapon according. While color preference is personal, color families  have their own universal effect.

• Warm colors: These are the whole range from yellow through orange to red. They can add a feeling of comfort and stimulation but can also incur feelings of anger and hostility. Warm colors can also make you feel warm by association.
• Cool colors: These cover the range from green through blue to purple. On the flip side of warm colors, cool colors can describe calmness and serenity, but can also nudge you over the edge into feelings of sadness or indifference. As with warm colors, cool colors have a certain psychological effect and can make you feel somehow “cooler”.

Shade and intensity are important factors in color selection. Adding white, black, or even some of another color alters the effect. You might have a pastel, a very dark rich color or color diversity as with a yellowish-red or a green-ish blue.

These colors that seem to have a “side-kick” color are how you determine what the undertone of a color is. The easy short hand way to assess which colors work together is the warm toned (and undertoned) colors always work together and conversely, the cool toned/undertoned colors work without argument.

This isn’t to say you can’t mix in a little of the opposite warm or cool color for a pop,
But rather that this is a fail-proof way to determine color choices that will work together.

What kinds of feelings are evoked with specific color choices?

Red paint color feels stimulating and energizing. 

Red spells danger, passion, energy, warmth, adventure and optimism. 

It also has a strong effect on people.

• Revs up confidence and enthusiasm while encouraging action.
• Tends to ward off fears and anxieties by promoting a sense of protection.

Red stimulates appetite, making it an obvious choice for dining rooms, but since it’s stimulating across the board, it’s a questionable choice for a baby’s room. Though it will perk up any environment, it can also be overpowering and can actually lead to headaches. Handle with care. It’s a particularly good accent color because it focuses attention anywhere it is found.

Adding white to red yields shades of pink, but entirely different associations will emerge…and another personality dimension...see below

Pink paint color feels like a breath of fresh air and vibes love and flirtation.

It’s distinctly feminine. Pink is very good for bedrooms because it can be calming and restful. If mixed with fuchsia it will introduce passion.  Who knew?

Though real men can wear pink shirts, a pink room can come across as childish and/or girlie. You’ll have to “butch up” the décor with bits of dark charcoal, brown or black.  Other neutrals such as navy and grey will work too.

Bonus: everyone looks good and healthy in a pink room.

Yellow paint color feels like the warmth of the sun, energy and creativity 

The first person to coin the phrase “wake up and smell the coffee” must have been standing in a yellow room.

Yellow is a natural “wake-up call” because it’s said to be invigorating to the nervous system.  As you make your way to your morning stimulant of choice, you will find that a yellow kitchen is a big help in jump starting your day.

Dining rooms also benefit from a good dose of yellow because it encourages conversation too. Other attributes include mental spark-up and enhanced memory. Rooms with a northern exposure have a naturally “cooler” light, which you can counteract effectively with a sunny yellow.

This is not a restful color. In fact, the stronger shades can even enhance feelings of emotional distress. Think twice about a yellow bedroom unless it’s a multi-purpose room and/or you really love the color.

Orange paint color feels like stability, reassurance, warmth, and energy. 

It’s a social color that encourages conversation and could even lead to dancing.

Clearly this is a great color for living rooms. It’s also said to be good for digestion too, so it rules as a dining room color.

The opposite of “shrinking violet” (curiously, it’s also opposite purple on a color wheel), orange fairly shouts “flamboyant”. That said, different shades of orange like rust, peach or terra cotta have universal appeal.

In the “believe it or not” category, orange can make a room look smaller because it “pops” out and forward. Though it may seem counter-intuitive, dark colors appear recede and bright and light colors come forward.

The term “seeing red” is a colorful euphemism for being very pissed off, yet studies show that the color orange elicits even stronger emotions.

If you want to be “safe” use this color in a room with a lot of natural light. But then, if you want to be “safe”, you probably wouldn’t select orange to begin with. Enjoy!

Bottom line: don’t consider yellow or orange if you want a laid-back relaxing color scheme.

Green paint color feels like well-being, harmony, security and balance. 

If you want to walk on the other side of “Wild”….yellow added to blue creates green.

Second only to blue in terms of popularity green infers stability and solid values, it’s said to help  alleviate depression and anxiety. Green stands for nature and ecology. A known to aid concentration, green is great for offices, libraries and other study areas.

Not all greens are great however. While all the greens associated with the great outdoors such as lime, olive and forest greens are both tranquilizing and refreshing, steer clear of any shade that screams “Institutional”.

Green can also make people complacent to the point of being entirely too laid-back.  The antidote is to mix up various shades of green ranging from deep olive to the light yellowish green of new leaves in the rest of the décor. A shot of orange here and there will perk things up too.

Hospital green could actually make you feel a little sick and those lurid or slimy greens won’t make your day either.

Blue Paint color feels safe, trustworthy, protecting, and contemplative. 

Rhapsody in blue, anyone? According to studies, it appears to be a Wonder Color.

• It is soothing and can cause the body to produce chemicals that are calming.
• In fact, blue is said to prevent nightmares, and stimulate intellectual thought, so it’s an obvious choice for bedrooms and rooms used for study.
• If it’s true that blue keeps hunger at bay as studies would indicate, then it’s also a candidate for dining rooms and eat-in kitchens for those who watch their weight.

In any given study of color preference, blue is overwhelmingly the front-runner. Though blue is traditionally for “boys”, it’s actually the least gender specific color.  Men and women like it equally.

Not all blues are created equal.  

• Electric and otherwise brilliant blues feel exhilarating and dramatic.
• Indigo blue has a more profound effect and is associated with self-mastery, wisdom and spiritual realization.

If you have in mind an “every day” sort of blue, look for a blue that has warm undertones, however faint. Light turquoise or that pale blue/beige color the sky takes on when the cloud cover is wispy are good directions to investigate. Otherwise, if the room in question has little natural light, or if it faces north, the effect could be too cold to be welcoming.

purple paint color can feel uplifting and calming simultaneously

As with blue, not all “purples” are created equal! Different shades will alter the associations, meaning and energy.

At the darker end of the spectrum:

• Ultraviolet – otherwise known as eggplant, most likely. This dark purple is considered the epitomy mystery, insight, transformation…even magic.
• Royal Purple – the color of ancient Roman nobility. It also reflects all the power words you might expect such as luxury authority and respect.
• Violet – This is a vibrant hue that feels more intense than the darker purple colors. It evokes feelings of passion, creativity, and ambition.

As more white is added to the original dark purple shade, the associations and feelings become more gentle and dreamy.

Mauve – This a unique hue of purple as it’s sort of a bluish purple that veers towards pink. It feels gentle, soft and graceful. It is often associated with nostalgia and sentimentality.

Lavender – It’s a soft, light pastel that veers towards the blue side of purple. It signifies grace and refinement and is associated with femininity, romance, and calmness.

Lilac – It’s a soft, light pastel that veers towards the pink side of purple. There is an implicit dreamy quality about lilac. It’s often associated with a mythical, mystical twilight zone between heaven and sky.

If you’re looking to invoke a calm sanctuary for your bedroom/bath area, lilac is a good bet. However, it’s a good idea to lend structure to your color scheme with bits of dark color like navy, eggplant, black or/ silver. 

The lighter sides of purples that offer “calming” effect can also read as “limp”.

What kinds of feelings do neutrals, color neutrals and dark colors paint colors evoke?

As you might expect, these colors are also meaningful to use for describing how you want to feel in any given room. In addition, darker versions of these colors can add a dimension and extra wow factor to your rooms. In the next post, I’ll address how these colors can be used for emotional appeal and also how to use darker colors that won’t feel like the room is “smaller” or more dungeon like.

Of course, if you do want these effects, you could reverse engineer some of the suggestions to taste.

How do you proceed once you have found the right color/color family?

Get Real About Your FABULOUS COLOR

• Bear in mind that your FABULOUS COLOR will still need color coordinated furnishings to go WITH.
• Buzz kill: you won’t have limitless color options for new furnishings to coordinate beautifully with your color(s) of choice.

Yes, you can try to reverse engineer your color scheme by selecting your furnishings to work with your preferred color at random, but this method is a lot like “Finding Waldo“.

It’s easier to find a version of that FAB COLOR in a rug/sofa/chair/drapery etc. to use in the appointed room first.

The point here, is to remember the value of an originating anchor color concept. Otherwise you might actually paint yourself into a PROBLEM because you can’t find furnishings that will work with that FABULOUS COLOR

Over To You

I’d love to know what you think...

Was there a tip that was especially helpful? Hopefully, you found a little inspiration and maybe even resolved a long standing quandary brilliantly!

are there other topics you might be interested in?

Setting out to create the best version of beautiful home design, tailored especially for you, has a lot of potential questions built in. Please let me know. I’m here to help. You can write to me here.

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• How To Choose Terrific Home Paint Colors You Will Love 

All photos without specific photographer credit are courtesy of Unsplash.com, unless otherwise noted.

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Cindy Bergersen, ASID Allied

Cindy Bergersen has been a professional home design consultant for over 30 years. She is also a published author on the broad topic of home design and all its elements. Decades of experience as a design consultant to private clients as well as retail clients for well known, high end furniture retailers has proved to be invaluable training.

She is both passionate and committed to sharing her experience and knowledge to help anyone, help themselves, to a beautiful, comfortable home, without confusion or overwhelm about where to start and how to proceed.

When not with clients or writing about home design in real terms for real life, she might be found cycling through city parks or curled up on the sofa with a good book. You’ll find more details here.