Summer’s a great time to freshen interior colors in your home
More than ever before, the home has become a sought-out retreat from life’s busyness and outside influences. People are returning to the home in droves for sanctuary, entertainment and family connection, not to mention a place to stay cool during the heat of summer. Consumers are not simply looking for furniture and accessories. They are looking for a better life!
Color is all around us, and it affects everyone. You are rarely aware of the fact that you make decisions based on color every day. Psychologists have studied color’s effect on people for years. The research supports the notion that people share many common responses to color.
The impact of colors in an interior space can be subtle or obvious. They influence and even persuade us consciously as well as unconsciously on four important levels: Emotional, Psychological, Physiological, Relational.
Most of our customers have a lot of questions about choosing colors for walls, furniture, window treatments or home accessories. Color use in interior decorating does not have to be haphazard. Although colors can, and often are, chosen on the basis of a vague feeling or general preference, more deliberate choices can serve to improve the quality of life for every member of the family.
If you use color with a specific intent or purpose in mind, it will reinforce the idea that color can truly serve us. There are definite benefits to using the right colors to accent and highlight the features of interior spaces and furnishings. Specific color choices can be used as design tools to:
• Help create and elicit certain moods within the home.
• Calm people down for relaxation.
• Liven up a room for entertaining.
• Help concentration.
• Increase appetite.
• Make us feel good.
• Lessen the tendency for arguments in the home.
• Accentuate art and strengthen other colors.
• Make various complexions and skin tones look their best.
• Receive lighting well.
• Promote physical healing.
• Make homes look beautiful.
Color serves a purpose in the home
You can use color to elicit responses in others that support a desired mood or atmosphere. For example, the color ‘red’ increases hunger. This information may be helpful when selecting paint for a breakfast nook, or when setting a glamorous table for a special dinner party.
You can use color to serve a specific purpose; to bring out the best in yourselves, to spark creativity, to calm yourselves down, or to invite others to sit beside you and have a conversation.
You may be limited in your use of color in some environments such as at work, but your home is the one environment where you have a lot of control. It is the place where you can use color to your advantage, greatly improving the quality of your lives.
Did you know that using a pale, soft green in the bedroom of someone who is ill can actually speed their recovery? And did you realize that the color apricot— and many variations of it— makes a splendid backdrop for any color complexion? In other words, if you paint a party room a pretty apricot, everyone will look great in the room and your guests may actually stay a while and visit with one another more meaningfully.
Here’s another example. Being exposed to bright yellow for prolonged periods of time can irritate people and make them feel easily provoked. Obviously then, bright yellow may not be the best choice for a baby’s room or for a room that two children share.
All of these examples describe ways that color can serve you. There are hundreds more. When selecting colors for your home, first consider the space you want to decorate, and then choose colors to support the purpose and function of the room.
About the Author
Ivet Ivanova is the owner and lead designer at BOGARI European Contemporary Furniture in Greenville, SC. Born in Sofia, Bulgaria, Ivet and her husband, Lyudmil, moved to Greenville when his company transferred him in 1997. With more than 25 years of interior design experience and a passion for contemporary style, Ivet enjoys working with European contemporary and modern designs that offer a distinguished look for the Upstate area. She finds that Greenville, though steeped in tradition, has a growing audience that loves the comfort and beauty of contemporary furniture.
