Article URL: Liven Up Your Interiors Using Colors
Color is an essential decorating tool. It is what you notice first about a room and its interiors. The color scheme you use has the ability to change the perceived shape and size of furnishings as well as the perceived shape and size of the room itself. This is one important aspect of your decorating plan that is both exciting and fun to work with!
The Psychology Of Color
One of the biggest factors that influence the human state of mind is color. The psychology of color and how it affects human behavior is a science in itself. Studies indicate that color itself does not affect us, rather it is what our perception of that color is, that does. Most people have heard phrases such as “green with envy” and “in the pink”. Looking around at restaurants, classrooms and offices, one can see that the colors they are painted in influences the behavior and mood of the people who frequent these places. Even consumer products are packaged in bright colors which are chosen to attract attention and make one want to buy. If the use of colors is so important in places outside the home, why do people hesitate to use color inside their home? And why do people insist on using neutral colors only? Are neutral colors perceived to be a “safe” bet?
The first step is to understand the psychological effects that specific colors have on us. The color black, for example, may represent elegance to one person but, to another, it may represent death. If those two people were placed in a room with everything being black, the first would come out of the room feeling elegant. The second, however, would be depressed and upset. Though both were in the same room and saw the same things, they had different feelings about that room. Before proceeding with a specific color, it is also essential to know what the general perception of that color is. For instance, the color red is known to stimulate the taste buds, so it is an excellent choice for dining rooms. Both green and blue are fresh and calming colors of our natural environment, and thus could be suitable choices for bedrooms. Yellow and orange are very cheerful and energizing like the sun, so they can be the right choices in rooms where you would like to feel energized, like the kitchen.
The Use Of Color In Interiors
Any color in the rainbow can work in a room, but the choice of exact colors can only begin once you ask yourself the following three questions:
What is my perception about this color?
What is the intended style of the room I want to use this color in?
What am I going to use this room for?
If you want to have a beautiful home, you need not worry about following current trends, because trends are famous for just coming and going. Sonia, a homemaker who has used colors skillfully to decorate her home, feels, “The people who reside in the home can easily make it beautiful by choosing colors that indicate their personalities and their likings.” This is easily done by deciding on a color scheme. A color scheme refers to a planned, pleasing, and interesting combination of colors for a room or a house.
Ideas For A Color Scheme
Back to Nature - If one casts a glance at their natural surroundings, such as flower gardens, lawns, and lakes, they will see the most pleasing and beautiful combinations of colors available.
Personal likings - If you have a preference for specific colors occurring together, you might like to use them together in a room.
Accessorizing - A painting, a rug, a vase, or stained glass with nice colors may give you an idea for a color combination.
Color wheel - Colors that are adjacent each other or colors that are directly across from each other on the color wheel can form the basis for a color scheme.
Considerations While Selecting A Color Scheme
The colors you and your family generally like.
Your existing furniture and accessories. These may limit possible color choices.
The shape and size of the room. If a room is smaller than 12 by 15 feet, using light colors will make the room look larger. Painting the woodwork around doors, windows, ceilings, and floors an identical color as the walls will give a spacious effect as well.
The shape and size of the furniture. If the furniture is huge in size, it might be more in harmony with the room if it is covered in a fabric that is the same or similar color as the walls behind it.
Relationship of the room to adjacent rooms. If the door between rooms is going to be kept open most of the time, having a similar color scheme in the two rooms would be a good choice.
Tips For Decorating With Color
The following tips will help you arrange colors effectively so that you can enhance a room without creating a cluttered look:
Use only two to four colors in a room at a time.
Use different colors in different quantities. One color should always dominate and the other colors should accentuate.
Balance a specific color in a room by repeating it throughout the room instead of using it in just one portion of the room.
Camouflage defects in the architecture, such as unevenness in wall plastering or an improperly fitted door frame, with subtle and neutral paint colors that blend with the remaining neutral walls, floors, and ceiling.
Give emphasis to desirable architectural aspects like bay windows or fireplaces by using strong color contrasts there.
Give a room a “larger” feel by using furniture that is the same color as the walls. This makes the furniture seem to disappear.
Use strong and bright colors when you would like the room to be stimulating or if you want to make a large room feel cozy.
If the furnishings in the room are few and uninteresting, using a dramatic color scheme on the walls or floor has a good effect.
If you have strikingly beautiful accessories like rugs or paintings, you can draw attention to them by using subtle or neutral colors on furnishings.
In order to create a neutral color scheme in a room, you can use a variety of “un-colors” like browns, grays, beiges, whites, and taupes.
Varying textures and patterns is absolutely critical when going for neutral color schemes or “one-color” schemes in a room.
Using Strong Colors
A lot of attention is being given to the use of bold colors in wild combinations such as violet and lime green, orange and fuchsia, or turquoise and red-orange. But one must be careful not to just casually throw colors together. Violet and lime green can work since they are complementary colors (opposite each other on the Color Wheel). Orange and fuchsia won’t clash either, because they sit next to each other on the Color Wheel. That is why it is worth investing in a good Color Wheel, so you can see beforehand how different color combinations look.
An important point to consider is whether you can live with, for example, a turquoise and red room for an extended time. This does not imply that strong and dramatic colors do not have their place. Subtle, neutral wall colors (like off-white and taupe) are safe bets, not to mention very easy to live with. However, livening them up with bright highlights in your upholstery and accessories gives a lovely touch. “For example, a bright multi-colored rug, a few colored vases, stained glass decorations, vivid paintings, oval mirror-work cushions in jewel tones, bright foliage, and eye-catching prints are all ways of accessorizing a room with style,” observes Sonia.
The cumulative effect will be soothing and the bursts of color will give provide a signature statement. Strong and dramatic colors are first best experimented on rooms with less usage like hallways. Try thinking of yourself as a chef creating a recipe which consists of the perfect ratio of ingredients - a generous serving of violet with a scoop of pearl and a sprinkling of burgundy could turn out to be exactly the right recipe for your room. Finalize your main color course and then add carefully selected appetizer colors to your platter.
Brighten Up!
We are constantly enveloped in a wide spectrum of colors. It could even be said that there are too many color choices available today, which sometimes makes it very difficult to make a confident choice. But, by skillfully applying colors on the canvas that is your room, you can easily create a masterpiece of your own. Have fun with colors. Along with livening up your interiors, you will be livening up your life!