Did you realize that carpet color can change room dimensions? Well it may not change a 10 ft by 20 ft room to a 20 ft by 20 ft room, but it can make the room “feel” and “appear” larger. Carpet color selection has a far greater impact than simply selecting a color that requires less carpet cleaning.
Lighter color carpet can make a smaller room appear larger and darker hues will make a room appear more intimate. Combined with paint colors, a short narrow room can be transformed by complementing light carpet colors with deeper color on the short walls and lighter colors on long walls. One of the most amazing principals of carpet color is the ability of color to alter moods and how people feel. Various colors can create feelings of warmth, intimacy, serenity, and can excite or stimulate. While the study of the Psychology of Color is still in its infancy, there are a number of consistent findings related to color. Carpet color can stimulate or depress appetite, lift the spirits and heighten/lessen the libido.
Utilizing color for an end purpose can be an amazingly powerful tool and exploiting this power is easy, once you understand how to implement its use.
Fortunately, most people are affected by colors in the same way. Each color has its own individual impact.
However, color is perceived differently by gender. Dorcus (1926) found yellow had a higher affective value for the men than women and St. George (1938) maintained that blue for men stands out far more than for women. An even earlier study by Jastrow (1897) found men preferred blue to red and women red to blue. Eysenck’s study, however, found only one gender difference with yellow being preferred to orange by women and orange to yellow by men. This finding was reinforced later by Birren (1952) who found men preferred orange to yellow; while women placed orange at the bottom of their “favorites” list.
Increases energy
Raises Temperature
Stimulates aggression
Creates Intimacy
Increases Appetite
Red is a powerful color, fabulous for the dining room, and making a huge comeback for living rooms as bold accents of red make a very assertive statement of style. It is not often used in large areas for bedrooms as it is a stimulating color, but used to highlight and create the element of romance, love and passionate luxury through the use of drapery, bed linen and accessories.
Red is a positive color to use for clothing stores as it does flatter the skin color, is impulsive and adds the element of luxury. It is the color of extroverts and very popular for front doors as it is rich, opulent and bold, as well as easy to see!
Romantic
Tenderness
Reduces aggression
Saps energy
Lowers drive
Pink is often a color we love or hate, it has that appeal. Soft and subtle, it is delicate, peaceful and gentle, but bold and vibrant shocking pink can be emotional and stimulating to your senses.
Pink is always a little girls favorite color, perhaps because it is friendly and protective, warm and delicate.
Interiors can be transformed with the use of pink, but men generally have an aversion to living in a pink space, maybe they feel uncomfortable around emotional colors! Therefore it is most commonly used in girl’s bedrooms, sometimes ensuites, and even guest rooms at a pinch!
Aggression
Passion
Disorienting/irresponsibility
Energy
Draws Attention
Yellow is the happiest and cheerful color to use in interior design and decorating.
Yellow is a great color for using in bedrooms, dining rooms, hallways, in fact you can use yellow almost everywhere. Obviously not vibrant sunshine yellow but variations of yellow for example deep gold for a dining room aids digestion, soft butter yellow is warm and cheerful for a baby’s nursery, bright yellow is positive and innovative when used in a meeting room.
Yellow is a positive color and useful in teenager’s bedrooms, it sharpens the memory and is good for studying.
Yellow is fabulous for retail shops as it is eye catching and welcoming. Too much yellow in a room can cause irritability so try and break it up with other colors. Blue and yellow provide a seaside feeling, yellow and white – a crisp and clean look.
Decreases Heart rate
Produces a Calming effect
Loyal & Faithful
Wisdom
Least appetizing
Blue is one of the primary colors. It is the easiest color to use when making color schemes.
It is striking as a blue and white combination – blue and white china, or the ticking on a mattress. It is open and inviting when teamed with yellow, it creates the perfect beach illusion. Matched with “lollypop” colors candy pink, mint green and pale blue, creates the perfect calm and serene environment for children’s rooms.
Blue is the ideal color for reception areas as it is formal, conservative and balancing. The most common use for blue is in monochromatic color scheme, where blues of different shades, tints or tones are combined. This creates a wonderfully tranquil space, sedative and heavenly, ideal for bathrooms or adults bedrooms.
Restful
Pain soothing
Wellness
Festive and psychologically uplifting
Bad luck
Green is a fantastic color for interior decorating because it is like the neutral color. Neutral you say, yes!
If you look in nature you will see green everywhere, and it is teamed up with every color in the rainbow and it always looks stunning! Green is used backstage “the green room” for it’s nerve calming association, is ideal in bathrooms and bedrooms as it has relaxing and calming properties. It is elegant and wealthy when matched up with velvets and silks. It is not good for skin color rendition so don’t use it in beauty parlors or hair salons, or even clothing stores for that matter.
Green is a color that can be used with a wide brush, and highlighted with bold accents like hot pink, crimson red, brilliant blue, yellow and violet.
Aggression
Attention getting
Energetic
Warmth
Appetite
Orange is a great color to use where there will be large congregations of people as it decreases irritability and hostility and improves social behavior. It is useful in large learning institutions like universities and schools. It is used frequently in rest homes and care facilities as it is warm and cheerful, lively and welcoming, generally in the form of a pale apricot to the walls and drapes.
Orange is a popular color choice for teenager children’s bedrooms as it is happy and active and has anti depressive properties.
Orange and brown was a popular color combination 20 to 30 years ago, but has now been replaced with orange and pink, and orange and red, more bold and creative options.
Stimulates imagination
Wealth
Sophistication
Artificial
Romantic
Violet or purple is a regal color, something we don’t see a lot of in interiors. It is mostly seen in the pale form of mauve or lilac.
Violet is great for girls bedrooms as it is peaceful and calm. It is a creative color so works well in working, or learning areas. When teamed with yellow, it’s complementary color it creates a very forceful statement, is dignified and regal. This combination looks stunning as an upholstery fabric on a dining chair.
Genuineness
Neutral
Comfortable
Open
Believable
Brown is the color we swore we would never have in our home again! It has taken 20 years to get rid of it and guess what, it is back! Nicely named, chocolate brown now frequents our living rooms again.
This time not matched up with orange but more subtle natural tones of caramel and tan, cream and white. It even looks quite stunning beside dusky pink and pale blue.
Oh yes, brown is back with a vengeance.
In reality it never died, how many people have brown leather lounge suites or dining chairs, most timbers take on the “brown ” name, so it never really dates, it is just how it is teamed up; like the current combinations of candy teal, brown and white or candy pink, brown and white. They provide fun whilst retaining stability.
Purity
Refreshing
Simplistic
Innocence
Reflective
White is not technically a color, it is a neutral, but we will call it a color for ease of use!
This is probably the most used color in interior design!
Most ceilings are white, most bathrooms are white, and a good proportion of bathroom and kitchen fittings and appliances are white, probably due to the fact that everything goes with white.
White gives us the impression of cleanliness and good hygiene, this is another reason why we like to use white in a bathroom and kitchen, if there is any dirt, you see it so it gets cleaned up. White reflects all light so it makes spaces appear larger and that is why it is used on ceilings.
White looks stunning when teamed with black, black and white checked floor tiles or vinyl for example. The classic look of blue and white china is forever popular.
White is refreshing and cool in hot environments. White is a color typically used with modernist interiors, so that the forms of architecture are the main focus.
White is very useful when starting out in decorating or design. Start with white walls and gradually build up color around it, this is the safe way to get confidence using color.
Cool
Negotiable
Safe
Disciplined
Dignity
Gray is not technically a color, it is a neutral, but we will call it a color, as it is easier to use in this context!
Gray is often a drab color. It goes by unnoticed unless it gets teamed up with a color of some substance like hot pink or brilliant orange.
Gray is very popular for exterior color schemes, as it is not offensive and combines well with a great deal of colors. Gray will be seen more frequently, as it is becoming the “new” favorite of neutral colors.
Dramatic
Elegant
Wordly
Finality
Sophisticated
Black is not technically a color, it is a neutral, but we will call it a color for ease of use!
Black is a dramatic color, it provides the greatest contrast when teamed with white. It is a useful color to hide or camouflage things that you don’t want to highlight as it does not reflect light.
Black lacquer is very popular in Japanese design, combined with red and white, it provides a very striking look. A black granite bench top creates a look of sophistication and elegance in the kitchen. It is a good color to use on the floor as it is dark and grounds the color scheme.
Black is not a popular choice for wall colors as it is very enclosing and intimidating, but works well as an accent color.
Black is used often for light fittings, accessories and door hardware to provide a neutral color from which to work your color scheme around.
Do colors have feelings?
They make us feel things, so yes they do! Choosing colors should not be taken lightly. Colors have meanings and influence how we feel.
Try this….what comes into mind when you think of the color red?
………..Fire, heat, passion, hunger, temper, fast racing pulse…..
You are already under the influence of color, their meanings and associations and what feelings they invoke! So why not learn about how to use these attributes to your advantage.
The only way to learn about color is by immersing yourself into it. Reading articles, magazines, books, looking at examples and critiquing them. Study the color wheel. Look at why some schemes work and why others fail.
Did you know
Carpet color selection can affect emotional moods. The psychology of carpet color selection uses the same principals as other interior furnishing. In selecting a carpet color, decide the mood you wish to create and stay within a range of color hues.
“…MERE COLOR, UNSPOILED BY MEANING, AND UNALLIED WITH DEFINITE FORM, CAN SPEAK TO THE SOUL IN A THOUSAND DIFFERENT WAYS.” – OSCAR WILDE
What is your favorite color?
Most of us, even those with limited color perception, have a favorite color. We know that there are certain colors that “feel” sad, or peaceful, or invigorating. So it is not surprising that the belief in the direct connection between specific colors and specific human emotional responses has gained acceptance within the interior design community. Professional designers seek to create spaces that are both expressive and meaningful.
Yet, some of our accepted beliefs about the connection between color and emotion are being challenged by researchers attempting to better understand this relationship. Most of the evidence for causality in the literature, it turns out, is anecdotal, contradictory, or simply misunderstood (Tofle, Schwarz, et al. 2003). Cultural identity and our day-to-day experiences in the world are significant controlling factors in how we perceive and react to colors.
Does this mean that our preconceived notions about color and emotional response are invalid? Not exactly. Our notions are probably not contextual enough. Multiculturalism is blossoming in our societies and our understanding and appreciation of color is constantly evolving. As we design in an increasingly connected world, we are challenged to seek a better understanding of how the colors we use influence human emotion.
So what is your favorite color? The answer, as Oscar Wilde surely understood, depends.
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Article by Michael Hilton.