The Role of Color in Interior Design
One of the best parts in custom home design is personalizing each space to your taste. Choosing materials like glass, wood, brick, and stone, to exact items like kitchen faucets, the front door, or the kind of flooring you want in each room can be fun and overwhelming at times. Many people leave interior design for the last step, but it is a good idea to keep it in mind from the start. Your basics, the color of your cabinets and closet doors, the counters, faucets, and everything else installed during construction can have an impact on your overall interior design, including the colors you ultimately choose.
Your interior design is up to you, your personality, your favorite color palette, and even your favorite textiles. Some designers can design a whole room around a single piece of furniture, fabric, or a featured accessory. But don’t dismiss the role color plays in tying it all in to one cohesive space.
Table of Contents
Color Psychology
More Than Paint
Deciding on a Color Scheme
A Look at Popular Colors
Red
Orange
Yellow
Green
Blue
Purple
Pink
Brown
Black
Gray
White
Natural & Artificial Light
Final Thoughts
Color Psychology
There’s a reason you like blue, or purple, or yellow, or any other color. It’s a theory of how individual colors affect things like mood, cognitive function, creativity, and productivity. For example, green and blue are considered calming hues that evoke relaxation. On the other hand, vibrant tones including orange, red, and more cause feelings of energy and passion. Neutrals like gray and white bring on a sense of serenity.
Like the general study of psychology, color psychology is based on the scientific effect of something – color and its many hues – on the human brain. Also as in general psychology, the effects of the colors may seem similar, studies have show that individual people respond differently to what are considered ‘standard’ color schemes.
More Than Paint
Color psychology relates to more than the paint color on the walls. It extends to the colors of materials like counters, cabinets, and floors, as well as accessories like pillows, bedding, and even the color of the end table lamp and its shade.
Deciding on a Color Scheme
My favorite color is purple and has been for a long time. There was purple on my bedroom walls as a teen, and in the comforter on my bed. I have a number of purple shirts and dresses, a pair of purple shoes, a purple umbrella, and even a purple purse. For a while, my cell phone was purple. Purple and white were the main colors when my husband and I got married.
But I look at the pictures online of completely purple rooms – like kitchens with purple cabinets and even purple veining in on the counters – and think that’s just too much. Purple doesn’t go everywhere. Instead, I enjoy a splash of purple in my textiles or on a smaller feature wall. I back off of its intensity by mixing in neutrals like white, gray, or black, or even blue and red – the primary colors that result in purple. Even with these other colors, purple can still stand out.
No matter what your favorite color is, there are ways to make it the main focus or weave it in with expert subtlety.
A Look at Popular Colors
The primary colors you learned about in kindergarten are red, blue, and yellow. The secondary colors – colors made from combining those colors – are orange, green, and purple. Pair these with neutrals like black, gray, or white, and the color palette of your home will come alive.
Red
This primary color evokes many different feelings in people. The feelings of joy, love, passion, desire, sexuality, and sensitivity make it the perfect color for lovers. Other positive emotions include energy, vigor, strength, courage, and leadership.
But there’s a reason the sentiment “seeing red” is negative. Red can also be associated with anger, rage, malice, wrath, and even danger and war. These negative emotions need to be balanced with neutrals like white and beige that offer a calming effect.
Orange
The vibrancy of the color bring with it a number of emotions with its reflection of sunshine and nature. Happiness, calm, joy, relaxation, warmth. Love, attraction, passion, sexuality, pleasure, desire, attachment. Creativity, fascination, adventure, healing, and energy. These and others are the many positive feels associated with orange. Deceit, betrayal, aggression, dominance, distrust are some of the less affirming feelings associated with the color.
Other colors along the orange spectrum, like gold, represent wealth and prosperity – making it an easy color choice for a client who desires success and fame, especially when decorating a space for business.
If you’re looking to use orange in a more relaxing space, like a bedroom or living space, it is best used with complimentary tints that tone down its extreme effects. Orange and its stimulating effect on the appetite make it a great color for indoor or outdoor kitchen.
Wherever you use it, mix in orange as the pop of color against other neutrals for the highest impact.
Yellow
Yellow, like orange, is synonymous with sunshine – and its light and happiness. Emotions it often evokes include joy, happiness, care, and obedience. It also symbolizes intelligence, productivity, cordiality, energy, freshness, and nature. A word of warning: use yellow carefully, as it also brings on feelings of jealousy, doom, decay, sickness, and, yes, caution.
Consider yellow for the kitchen, dining space, or smaller spaces like hallways or bathrooms. The positive emotions of the color will help uplift spirits and add brightness to a room.
To keep the mood happy and bright, use yellow’s brighter shades. When using dull yellow or other darker shades, keep in mind they tend to evoke the more negative emotions. The color tends to stimulate uncontrollable emotions, drive up blood pressure, and stimulate temper with no other provocation so make sure to complement yellow with other colors and neutrals that balance it out.
Green
Many people see green and think of nature. This translates into the human psyche as freshness, peace, and trust, and makes green a powerful color when it comes to interior design. Various shades of green are associated with food and the comfort it brings. Green relaxes the senses and, in the exact opposition to yellow, lowers hypertension and blood pressure.
Other positive vibes associated with the color green include harmony, growth, fertility, safety, protection, calmness, serenity, and comfort. Be careful with darker variations, as the shade you choose may evoke feelings of greed, jealousy (think of the phrase “green with envy”), cowardice, sickness, or conflict.
Light and aqua shades offer a calming effect, while darker shades often represent green and jealousy. Shades somewhere in between, like olive green, is a symbol of worldwide peace and harmony – perhaps that’s why the Boy Scouts of America, now Scouting America, chose it as part of their official uniform.
If you want to use green in your home, make sure to vary the shades throughout the home. Opt for the lighter shades for your walls and pop in darker shades with indoor plants. Despite their darker shade, the plants themselves are a part of nature and act in an overall positive way.
Blue
When it comes to blue, we’re hard pressed to find something bad about it – it’s the only color discussed here that has an array of positive effects with little negative effect on the psyche. Although it may evoke sadness for some, it’s positive feelings far outweigh the one. It is considered among the most calming of colors in the interior designer’s palette. Some of its calming effects include relaxation of the mind, heart rate, metabolism, blood pressure, and even hypertension. Aquatic, sky, and light blue shades offer a healing effect for the mind.
Some other emotions associated with blue include control, bliss, softness, knowledge, power, intelligence, faith, trust, courage, and integrity. Blue is also representative of elegance, luxury, and prosperity.
The application of blue has no limits! Different shades can be used all over the house. Use darker shades like royal blue as a primary color and mix in neutrals or other colors like yellow for kitchens, children’s play areas, and more. Bedrooms can handle a combination of light and dark tones, as can the dining room. Keep it light and airy in hallways and bathrooms.
Purple
As I mentioned before, my favorite color is purple and has been for some time. As I dove in more to the topic of color psychology, I found that it’s a popular color with teens and inspires them toward creativity and performing arts in an attempt to find their path – I was attracted to the color not long before starting high school, where I found my love of theater.
When it comes to colors and what they symbolize, for many, the color is often associated with elegance and royalty. It also inspires creativity and design – it’s no wonder a writer would like the color purple. Hue determines vibe: Hues like plum and violet add their brightness and flair to any design, while lighter shades like lavender and mauve produce a calm, yet regal effect.
With purple, reflect emotions and feelings like elegance, luxury, richness, sophistication, drama, depth, and excitement, or even creativity or mystery. You can also hope to evoke calm, tranquility, and relaxation, depending on the shade you use.
Where are the best places to add splashes of purple? Use it in dressing rooms, walk-in closets, in-house studios, or even the kitchen to spark creativity. Use the more regal shades of purple in a foyer, living room, or other space where you host guests. It can help produce a sense of calm, elegance, and luxury and make them feel welcome.
Pink
Sweetness, warmth, comfort. Love, compassion, nurturing. Romance. These are just a few of the emotions evoked by the color pink. The more vibrant shades of pink, including magenta, fuchsia, and more, can be statement colors when paired with an anchoring shade like light blue.
Use complementary tones of vibrant red and neutral white for a sense of form and function. Since various shades of pink may evoke feelings of compliance or loss of romantic attachments, as well as sweetness, adding in other colors can help minimize those extreme feelings.
Other feeling feelings and concepts reflected by the color pink include cleanliness, functionality, sophistication, and glamour. Use it in rooms for teen girls, the living room, or the bathroom – or other places where you want to evoke feelings of joy and bliss.
Brown
Everything in moderation, including the color brown. Design to incorporate it in a way that reflects warmth and comfort. The natural and soft hues of brown relaxes the senses – to the point that too much may actually lead to inactivity, lake of inspiration, and other negative effects. Pair it with more vibrant shades and hues of other colors to create a feeling of resilience and security. Suggested pairings include yellow, white, red, green, and orange, to eliminate gloom or less happy feelings in spaces where inhabitants should feel joy, calm, or excitement.
Brown is associated with a wide range of emotions, from negative emotions like sadness, loneliness, depression, isolation, and indifference. It can also evoke positive feelings like safety, security, dependability, warmth, and comfort. Still more emotions connected to the color are determination, rigidity, strength, power and sophistication, and many more.
Black
Simplicity, functionality, elegance. It’s a popular go-to for modern interior design and architecture. When you get down to the nitty-gritty psychological aspects of the color, designing an all-black palette can be overwhelming and gloomy. Break it up with white, or nearly any other color to tone it down. Given its strong association with form and function, add black to your kitchen, living room, dining area, or bathroom.
Some of the other emotions most commonly associated with the color black include desire, protectiveness, elegance, modernism, sophistication, efficiency, control, and beauty. But be careful, black can also bring feelings of grimness, depression, and terror when used incorrectly.
Gray
Gray is a neutral that evokes a wide array of emotions. As with many colors on this list, various hues as well as applications (where you use it in the home) can result in different responses. Like black, it reflects form, functionality, and simplicity while also conveying style, elegance, and sophistication. It’s other positive emotions include strength, power, rigidity, determination, and will power. Negative impressions include, like black, depression and gloominess.
Used correctly, gray can be the ultimate neutralizer against bright and vibrant color schemes. While it may seem unobtrusive, avoid using light gray on walls. Instead, use a darker shade and surround it with the vibrancy of yellow, pink, white, and others for an uplifting mood. Another way to incorporate gray in your brighter spaces is through furnishings. The color adds elegance, sophistication, and a neutralizing presence to your room’s design.
Given the range of emotions associated with gray, its often best to keep the color in textiles and accessories as opposed to walls and ceilings. Our best advice for those wanting to make it a focal color, focus on bringing in natural light for a warm and welcoming appeal.
White
Just as with the other colors we have discussed, there are a number of shades of white. Ivory, eggshell, and an array of others are standards for walls and ceilings – ready to be modified with other colors on other walls and in textiles for a personalized look. The feelings of tranquility, peace, harmony, cleanliness, and hygiene that white brings are some of the many reasons why white is incorporated into the designs of Japanese architecture, spa facilities, and even Scandinavian cultures. The color symbolizes simplistic living and is perfect in such spaces. Inhabitants surrounded by the color white are rarely disturbed by extremities and excitement, another positive aspect of the color for such applications.
White reflects feelings of brightness and openness, giving a space a larger and cleaner look. On the psychological level, white’s calming powers help minimize feelings of claustrophobia, eases hypertension and anxiety, and regulates body functions like blood pressure and heart rate.
Still other feelings evoked by the color include openness, trust, fraternity, control, effectiveness, and functionality. The “blank canvas” of white also encourages creativity, challenge, productivity, and efficiency. I always say I work best staring at a white wall. There’s nothing there to distract me and I can focus on the words on the screen rather than a loud, distracting color.
It’s the perfect color to use all throughout a home, increasing visual space and reducing tension at the same time. White looks great next to any other color to create an unmatched vibrancy. For feelings of elegance, luxury, and prosperity, use white alongside gold, gray, and yellow. Add some vivaciousness to the room with bursts of red, orange, green, and the like. For a calming and relaxing room, add blues and other muted tones.
Natural & Artificial Light
While the color of a room can have a great impact on the emotions of an inhabitant, so can the light source and quality. Natural light is best of all, with its additional source of Vitamin D and other healing qualities. It also adds a unique finish to any color in a room. The glow of natural light sets various colors and tones off in a way no artificial light can duplicate – even those bulbs marked “sunlight” for color intensity.
Artificial light has a separate effect. It doesn’t bring the warmth and other benefits of natural light. Additionally, artificial light needs to be positioned in just the right way for it to have the effect you hope for. Overhead fixtures need to be chosen carefully, so their light can be cast in directions that fill the space in the same way the sun’s light can. Even lamps need to be chosen and positioned carefully for the light and color to have the impact you hoped for.
Final Thoughts
There are dozens of shades of each color of the rainbow, each invoking a series of emotions that’s as individual to each inhabitant as a fingerprint. The staff and designers at Acipe Design help you create your dream home from foundation to completion. From choosing the fixtures for the bathroom sink to the color on the bathroom walls, we help design the home of your dreams.
Contact us today!