Color Psychology in Interior Design:
Can the Psychology of Color Help You Decorate Your Home?
Yes, color psychology can help you create the 'right' interior design or mood for every room.
If you're looking for basic tips for applying the psychology of color in interior design, this page provides you with a quick overview.
If you're more interested in the psychological effects of a specific color,
you will find detailed accounts on the following pages:
(Read on and you'll find these links again at the bottom of this page!)
Color psychology is an interesting aspect of interior decorating, but don't worry about 'getting it right' - it's definitely not an exact science.
No color has scientifically proven, long-term effects that are the same for all humans!
The same is true, by the way, for symbolic
'color meanings' - they vary rather wildly
around the globe.
Still, research does show that we all share some basic responses to color. So when you set out to decorate your home, color psychology can provide you with the most promising color candidates for the effects you want to achieve.
Applying Color Psychology to Your Home
Here are some general guidelines for applying the psychology of color in interior design and decorating:
- Saturated colors from the yellow/orange/red section of the color wheel tend to raise our energy levels, while colors from the blue/green section calm us down, both physically and emotionally.
- This is not always true for less saturate shades/tints of these colors. Look at the picture below and test it for yourself: How do you respond to this vibrant, put-your-eyes-out geranium red, compared to the muted brick red (with yellow, brown and gray in it)? And what's your take on that bubble-gum pink?
- Neutral color schemes are generally found relaxing (and boring, by some - it does take a bit of practice to make a neutral color scheme look stylish.) Click here for ideas on how to create neutral color palettes - they can work in any room in the house.
- Dark colors generally make a room feel smaller; it doesn't really matter if they are 'warm' or 'cool' colors. (On the other hand, it takes more than light wall color to make a room seem larger than it is.)
-
Some color combinations are loved almost universally; for example, blue combined
with neutrals (blue is the majority's favorite color). For more information about creating great
color schemes, check out the articles about
Choosing Color Schemes and finding the
Best Paint Color(s).
And how do you apply color psychology to the interior design of your own home?
I suggest you pick colors you really like, and then test their effects on
- your walls
- your furniture
- yourself and
- your fellow humans, and then ...
... follow your heart.
No one says you have to abide by The Rules for applying color psychology in your
home. Honor your own taste and preferences, and surround yourself with what you really love.
Be different - everyone is!
Color Affects Different People Differently
Even though we humans respond to colors in similar ways, the concrete psychological
effects of any given color won't necessarily be the same on you as on your sister.
Or on someone from the other side of the globe, for that matter. Here's why:
- No two people see color in exactly the same way; our eyes are all slightly different. Using color psychology when you decorate your home won't guarantee that everyone who shares that space with you will see, feel and respond to the color as you would like them to.
- Different cultures create different 'meanings' for colors. These are traditions, not 'the truth'. Nevertheless, your thoughts about a color do influence your response to it. For example, some Asian cultures associate the color white with death and mourning, while Christians in the Western Hemisphere use it for christening and wedding dresses (there's a bit more to this, but I wanted to make a quick point).
- We experience our lives 'in color'. Colors will, in turn, bring back personal memories and the feelings we associate with them (Grandfather's garden, a trip to the seaside, a favorite dress...). When you're looking to apply color psychology to the interior design of your home, you could draw on these memories and experiences to create a feel-good home.
Choosing Colors to Decorate Your Home
If you share a home with others, choosing home decorating colors can be a very interesting process (you could actually turn each other into study objects for color psychology!).
Before you settle on an interior color scheme, it's good to be clear about how you will use the room in question, and at which times of the day.
The lighting makes a big difference to how a color looks, and how it affects you.
For example, if you're using your bedroom only at night, and mostly in lamplight, painting the walls a deep velvety magenta can create a really luxurious effect. But the color may not look that great on a bright, sunny morning.
And if you're using this room to work in during the day, you might find 'deep magenta' rather suffocating. (Click here for some bedroom color scheme ideas!)
Once you have decided how, and at what times, you will use each room, it's time to apply the psychology of color to the interior design of your home. Ask yourself:
How do I want to feel when I'm in this room? - Calm and focused? Energized? Relaxed? Secure?Here's where color psychology can provide you with information and choices.
To get some ideas, have a look into the psychological effects of each color - here are the links again:
 Psychological Effects Of The Color White |
 Psychological Effects Of The Color Grey |
 Psychological Effects Of The Color Black |
 Psychological Effects Of The Color Brown |
 Psychological Effects Of The Color Orange |
 Psychological Effects Of The Color Red |
 Psychological Effects Of The Color Pink |
 Psychological Effects Of The Color Purple |
 Psychological Effects Of The Color Blue |
And - don't believe everything you read about color psychology in interior design. Take it with a pinch, or rather, a fistful of salt. As a science, the psychology of color (in interior design and elsewhere) is very young. The shade of green you like is probably not the one they used in that experiment.
Trust your own senses. It's what you enjoy that counts.
"If someone has a brown lounge ...
... what does that mean about them?"
I was recently contacted by a furniture merchant who was looking for someone to help them generate media attention by discussing color psychology in the context of people's furniture choices and decorating colors. (The above question was given as an example of how they wanted to use the psychology of color in their marketing).
Here's my current thinking about this kind of approach:
1. As far as I know, color psychology experts are not saying that all hues of a color will elicit the exact same response in all humans.
If you want to make meaningful statements about color psychology, you need to be specific about the exact hue you're talking about. What kind of brown? Light or dark? Reddish, yellowish, greenish, purplish?
There are more hues of brown than you can shake a paintbrush at, and you'll find lots of people who like one brown hue and hate another one.
In other words, the question "If someone has a brown lounge, what does that mean about them?" is a very reduced, pop 'color psychology test' question.
2. People's responses to particular colors don't "mean" anything
about these people.
People are attracted to colors for different reasons - memories, previous experiences, the way a color makes them look, or the way it combines with other colors they already have in their home (hardly anyone's lounge is just "brown").
I have not come across any serious color psychology researcher who claims that people's general color preferences "mean" something about those people (to say nothing of cultural differences).
If a furniture merchant claimed to know what my color choices "mean" about me, or if they used some kind of "expert" in color and psychology to make that claim - I would perceive the merchant as unprofessional and unserious. And buy my furniture somewhere else :-)
