Choosing Interior Colors for Your Home

No discussion on home and interior design is complete without attempting to cover in part or in full the concept and use of colors. With the right dash of colors and the correct combination of hues, you can do a lot with the interior of your living room, with the mood in your bedroom, with the style of your kitchen, and the uniqueness of your bathroom. Are colors that powerful? In the right hands, they can be great but placed on the wrong hands and the results will be catastrophic.

Colors are highly functional. It can make a room appear larger, a room a lot cooler, more aggressive and even more suggestive. Colors like blue, green and purple, for example have calming effects and can soothe those exposed to it. Some even say these colors help reenergize fatigued bodies and tired souls. Let's give a run-down on the effects, or claimed effects, of some colors.

Blue like what have been mentioned earlier represents calmness, creates physiological tranquility and psychological contentment. Using it in your home emits a vibe of balance and harmony, of a settled, united, and secure living space. But it is also a color that represents sadness.

Green, although, seemingly soothing to the eyes as well is more of an expression of human will, persistence and determination. The color represents firmness and consistency and when used in living spaces can emit a sense of personal security and self-esteem. Meanwhile, one can safely surmise that homes with predominantly green color schemes have residents that are more assertive and at the same time more practical and creative. Green is also the color of life, newness and fertility. However, it is also the color of envy and jealousy.

Orange, on the other hand, is a lively color representing energy, potency, power, and strength. It is simply an expression of vital force, with focus on feelings of desires, appetite and craving. That is why people who use orange are more ambitious, and has strong desires to achieve something in their life, to be successful and to win. In a home design, orange can be very warm and autumnal.

Other meanings behind the commonly used colors include fear, mourning, evil, and death for Black. The color Pink represents a feminine disposition, young and cute. Purple means regality and represents the luxurious. Meanwhile, Red is an obvious indication of anger, aggression, boldness, danger, and heat. White, on the other hand, represents purity, cleanliness, newness, and innocence. Yellow indicates feelings of happiness, warmth, and at times caution.

Keep in mind, however, that meanings behind colors are highly subjective and is highly dependent on the culture, and ideals of the person viewing them. So what might be great from our Western perspective can be highly offensive for people living in other parts of the world.

The same goes with color combinations. Grouping colors together to create color schemes can be simple and innocent for our eyes but have entirely different meanings to other groups. For example, use red, white and blue independently and it will have a number of distinct meanings, different for each person viewing them. However, combine the three and Americans will instantly feel a sense of patriotism and pride.