Have you ever been conflicted as to why your interior designer decided to choose that particular shade of color for your bedroom? Or why others are doubting your creativity? Choosing the right color scheme for each room may be one of the hardest parts of designing a room. Although it is easier if you have a theme in mind, nevertheless, each shade of color has different meanings and different effects on our brains.
Colors are closely associated with affecting mood and emotion. Our eyes transmit signals to our hypothalamus, which is responsible for secreting hormones into our body. For example, the color blue has a calming effect, brown makes us feel secure and content, and black exudes elegance but can sometimes influence depression.
The Calm and Relaxing vs the Creative and Welcoming
The purpose of each room determines which color you want to paint it with. Warm colors, such as orange, brown, and yellow, tend to make a room vibrant and make you feel warm, while cool colors, such as white, blue, and green, tend to make a room more cool and relaxing. The vibrancy of warm colors make good combinations for rooms that are meant for activity and to stimulate creativity and thinking which are good for living rooms and study. The soothing effects of cool colors make them a good combination for bedrooms and bathrooms.
The Neutrals
Neutral is defined as without color or something that has no definite color name, such as beige, grey, and some shades of white. Light neutrals make rooms look bigger and because of their neutrality, it makes it easier to decorate with furnishings. Neutral colors emphasize the furnishings and will work for any style you’re going for.
The Color Wheel
If you aren’t used to the idea of a color wheel, it’s a representation of colors that makes it easier to find colors that complement each other. A color’s complement lies directly on the opposite side of the color in the color wheel. This helps artists and designers to choose which colors are good to supplement each other. Sessions College has a great free color calculator tool and different harmony options that you can use.
Looking for Inspiration
If you still have trouble deciding which particular color or which particular shade to use, you can just step outside and look at nature. Nature has always been one of our inspirations when it comes to making things come into harmony. Nature has a beautiful way of expressing itself that makes anyone looking at it feel majestic and awe-inspiring. Not to mention, there are numerous ideas for themes that you can easily find wherever you go. If you are in the midst of designing and you have that idea in the tip of your mind but can’t seem to bring it out, social media can help you with that and even give you more ideas to play with. Pinterest is the ideal place to go to to satisfy that creative curiosity you have. Pinterest is an image sharing social media service where users group pictures in “pinboards” depending on their preference.
The 60-30-10 Rule
If you haven’t heard of it, it’s a decorating rule wherein 60% is the dominant color, 30% is the secondary color, and 10% for the accent color. It easily gives you an idea of how the room will look like. This rule not only makes it easier to decide on how you’re going to decide on your interior paint or background paint, but lets you foresee how the finished product would be and which furniture, accessories, and paintings will go well with it.
How ever you plan to decorate a room, be it from experts such as an interior designer or just by your own creativity, knowing your colors and playing with them will help you decide. There’s more to colors than just aesthetics, as they do stimulate our minds and can have different effects depending on the colors and them you’ve decided on.
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