8 Unexpected Ways Your Home’s Color Scheme Affects You
What’s your favorite color? As a kid, you probably had a ready answer to that question. While you might not be able to answer it as quickly as an adult, you still have certain colors that you gravitate towards. When deciding between the gray couch and the black couch, the choice might seem like an easy one, even if you don’t know why.
We all have own our color choices that we prefer when decorating our homes, but did you know that these colors can have a big effect on your life? You might think that seeing a wall that you’ve painted green will make you happy simply because you like the color green, but the truth is much more scientific than that. In fact, choosing your home’s color scheme has the power to completely change the way you live your life.
1. Colors to Make You Feel Like You Have More Space
Anyone who has ever lived in a cramped studio apartment knows the uncomfortable, claustrophobic feeling that comes with not having enough space. It can make you feel cranky, tired and unmotivated. To make a small apartment feel bigger—or heck, make a big home feel even bigger—use white paint. White reflects light and makes rooms look bigger, giving the illusion of more space.
2. Colors to Make Mealtime More Enjoyable
Whether you’re throwing a brunch at your place or just cooking up your standard family dinner, the color scheme in your kitchen and dining room can really influence the experience. Colors like yellow, orange and red tend to make people hungrier, which makes food tastier. These colors also make people more energetic, which is a recipe for lively conversation around the table.
If you’re dieting and looking to create the opposite effect, introducing gray, black, brown and blue into your kitchen will decrease your appetite.
3. Colors to Make Your More Productive
Got a home office? Blue is proven to make people the most productive, as it stimulates the mind. Paint your home office—or at least the wall that your desk faces—with a cool ocean tone to get your work flow going.
4. Colors to Make You More Creative
Productive and creative are similar concepts with one key difference. Productivity refers specifically to the mind, while creativity involves the emotions. If you’re an artist or just looking to think like one, painting a wall yellow or just adding some bold gold accents to your home will stimulate your emotions and help you become more creative.
5. Colors to Make You More Active
Working out at home sounds great in theory, but then that half hour on the couch turns into a three hour nap and suddenly you’re just not feeling motivated to grab those free weights. If you’re looking to get more active at home, whether that means exercising, doing chores or just getting off your butt, add a dose of red to your home’s color scheme to get energized.
One small warning though: As mentioned previously, red might also make you hungrier, so if you’re painting your home gym this fiery hue, try to keep healthy fruits and veggies on hand to reduce the urge to snack on junk food.
6. Colors to Help You Sleep Better
Your bedroom should be a soothing space where you can leave the day’s worries behind as you drift off to dreamland. Get there faster by painting your bedroom blue or green. Opting for blue or green sheets, pillows, blankets and decorations will also help. Be sure to choose cool-toned blue and green colors, like royal blue, as these are more relaxing than warm-toned shades like teal.
7. Colors to Make a Cheap Apartment Feel Fancier
There’s a reason it’s called royal purple. Lavender colors will make you feel like the king of your apartment, even if it’s a windowless, fifth floor walk-up. Avoid going overboard with this one (i.e. don’t do all-purple-everything). Just a purple accent wall, rug or bold piece of furniture will do the trick.
8. Colors to Make You Happier
There are a lot of emotions that your home’s color scheme can evoke, but few decorating goals are more pure than that of happiness. If you’re looking for a color to introduce into your home that goes beyond productivity, relaxation and motivation and delivers happiness, you can’t go wrong with pink.
While it’s true that pink can be kind of a polarizing color due to the fact that it’s often seen as too girly or too childish, it can do a lot for your mood. If you’re looking to literally see the world through rose colored glasses, paint a room pink, go out on a limb and buy that wacky fuchsia loveseat or just pop some fresh peonies in a vase once in awhile.
You might just be surprised at how much your mood is boosted.
