With COVID-19 among us, we have been spending a lot more time at home which may have led to noticing your walls needing an update.
Maybe your walls are outdated or maybe you just don’t like the colors of your walls in general.
That’s understandable.
More importantly, the color of your walls can have a MASSIVE impact on your mood and emotions, so why not choose paint colors that will help improve your life?
That’s what this article is about: how to choose the right paint colors so you can improve your mood and overall well-being.
Let’s get to it 🙂
The Psychology Behind Color And It’s Effect On Our Everyday Lives
When choosing a paint color, you should consider how the color may effect your mood and the people around you.
For example, the right paint colors will help you create an energetic living room, or a calming sanctuary for deep rest, or maybe even a creative space so your kids can get inspired.
The sky is the limit with paint colors and the effect it has on our minds is HUGE so we highly recommend considering your goals with the room then making color decisions around that goal.
Before we get into all that, let’s better understand colors impact on our daily lives:
What exactly is color psychology?
As we mentioned earlier, colors have an effect on our overall mood and can even impact how we handle emotional and physical stress.
To give you a better idea, studies suggest blue and green tend to evoke a more relaxed environment. In contrast, colors that are red, orange or yellow can help you feel more energetic and be more productive as a result.
For more than 350 years, the effects color has on us has been studied by artists, interior designers, fashion designers, scientists, psychologist and many more.
But enough about the history of studying color, let’s look at the different personalities of color:
Different Personalities Of Color
Your feelings and behaviors are altered by how you perceive the world around you so if your walls make you feel bad, then it may have a pretty big impact on your daily life (especially during COVID).
With that in mind, you will first want to identify what the overall goal for the room and then start to consider the different personalities of color.
For example, let’s say that you want to paint the new baby room so you can create a soothing and relaxed environment. In this case, you may want to stick to light colors or pastels to create a comfortable space. Colors like light green or baby blue would be a good choice.
In contrast, if you decided to paint the walls bright vibrant red, you may have a more anxious and stressed baby.
Now maybe you want to be more productive throughout the day in your office, choosing a color palette like blue, orange, white and grey would help your energy throughout the day.
Does this all make sense?
Great 🙂
With all that in mind, there are only two types of paint colors: warm and cool.
Interior designers often choose a balance of both when designing a room.
Understanding Color Temperatures
Understanding warm and cool colors is essential to starting your painting project.
One of the best ways to understand this concept is by picking up your own color deck from your nearest Sherwin Williams (yes, the color decks are free).
Now that you have your color deck, let’s take a look at the differences of warm and cool colors:
Warm Colors
Warms colors evoke a feeling of being cozy and inviting. Warm colors can also make room feel like it is smaller than it is or make large room more intimate.
Warm colors are derived from the warmness of sunsets and can be reds, browns, orange-reds, tans, yellows and even yellows that have green undertones.
Cool Colors
Cool colors on the other hand, are located on the opposite side of the color wheel.
When these colors are applied to walls they tend to give off more of a calm, peaceful and/or relaxing feeling to the environment.
With that in mind, warm colors tend to advance and stand out, cool colors will blend in the background and tone everything down.
Cool colors also make rooms feel larger than it really is. In contrast, cool colors also may not feel as comforting as some warm colors.
Cool colors include (but not limited to): blues, blue-greens, purples, gray or colors you may see on a winter day.
How to Choose the Right Color
Alright, now that you know how paint colors can have a dramatic effect on your overall well-being, how do you choose the right color for each room?
Well that’s easy, what is the goal for the room?
Then pain the walls you want to create that energy and the right furniture to compliment that same energy.
Let’s take a look at the most popular paint colors and how they may effect the room or rooms you wish to paint:
Blue
Blues are an excellent paint choice for almost any room when matched up properly – and it’s important to understand that baby blue and navy blue will give off very different feelings.
What we have seen work well is matching up dark and light blue to compliment each other (and maybe add a third color such as white?).
Bottom-line, blue is an excellent choice and navy blue in particular has been very popular this year – so definitely try it out.
Pink
Pink is just a subdued red and can have a dramatic effect in relieving anger, negative feelings and helping bring people up in a more optimistic view.
Maybe all you need is a light pink wall in your home to help lift you up?
Green
My favorite color is green (hence the branding 🙂 ) and it’s a great color for almost any room.
Greens are especially great in offices, rooms you sleep or somewhere you want to feel relaxed, yet prosperous 🙂
Greens are also great for people who want to create an “outdoorsy” effect.
White
White is an amazing color that is timeless and pair well with anything. White can also make your room feel more open and spacious.
By definition, white evokes purity, goodness, innocence and does not add or subtract energy from your environment. Instead, it’s neatrul color choice and compliments any color very well.
Use as an accent (trim and ceilings) or paint your whole house white. It will still look great.
Red
Red can make a room feel very overwhelming and also make a room feel romantic – it all really depends on the hue you chose.
A vibrant red has been proven to increase your heart rate and blood pressure and is linked to being irritable.
If you use red in subtly, however; it can add an element of excitement you may be looking for.
Purple, Lavender
As most of us know, purple is a color of royalty and is traditionally known for luxury, romance, sophistication and mystery.
Purples can help spark up your creative juices and help you through a project.
If you are leaning towards painting your bedroom purple, consider pairing light with dark purples or leaning towards the lighter side like lavender.
Orange
Orange brings a level of energy and excitement to a room that’s difficult to fully understand without experiencing it.
As you may expect, painting fitness rooms, your office or anywhere you want to increase your energy levels.
In contrast, we wouldn’t recommend painting your kitchen orange because it may be a bit too intense.
Yellow
Yellow has a way of brightening up a room with a lively, comforting feeling.
Yellow has also been proven to also increase your energy provoking happy and joyful feelings. It can also stimulate your mental and physical energy so it may be a good to paint room yellow where you first start the day.
Yellow also looks amazing in bathrooms, the laundry room, outside walls, or anywhere a bright, sunny look is welcomed.
Black
Black is one of the most popular paint colors of 2020 and for good reason. When matched appropriately black can make a room feel bold, sophisticated, modern and cozy all the same time.
Gold also pairs really well with black.
Black is synonymous with strength, authority, formality, and power. It can, however, make your room overly dark or foreboding.
Gray
Gray is the most modern, trending paint color for walls, painted cabinets and even home exterior painting projects.
Gray colors tend to be a timeless, practical look and leaves a ton of room for adding your own personal touches.
We have noticed that most homeowners prefer gray hues as a main color and balancing with colors like white, green, black or multiple shades of gray.
Ready to paint your house?
Now that you understand how color can effect your room and the things to look for when choosing a color you should be more than ready to get started.
If not, you can also schedule a free quote and if you decide to work with us we will provide you with a FREE color consultation.
What is your favorite color and room combination? And what energy are you trying to evoke?
Let us know in the comments below 🙂
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