Fans of HGTV (and design shows on any channel) will have heard a lot about the importance of color and how it informs good interior design. That’s not just “TV designer talk.” There is actual science behind how colors can affect your mood, productivity, and more.

WHAT IS COLOR PSYCHOLOGY?

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Simply put, color psychology is the study of how color affects our mood and behavior. Many studies have shown that certain colors tend to inspire certain emotions. For example, blue is widely considered to be soothing, yellow happy, green nurturing, and so on. However, it’s not an exact science. Everyone’s response to color is unique. Your background, culture, personal history and taste will affect the way you react to certain colors.

IS COLOR PSYCHOLOGY THE SAME THING AS COLOR THEORY?

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No, although both are often used in interior design. Color psychology looks at the effects that colors have on our mood, feelings and behavior. Color theory is more about the properties of colors and how they interact with each other.

HOW TO USE COLOR PSYCHOLOGY IN YOUR HOME

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Let’s say you want to create a specific feeling in each room of your home, and you decide to do that with color. Before you go all in and color drench every surface of every space a different color, take a minute to think about how those rooms and colors relate to each other. Do you really want to live in a multi-colored collection of cubes? If that’s a yes, you do you. For the rest of us, Houzzwire suggests we “Use the 60-30-10 Rule: 60% of the room should be a dominant color, 30% a secondary color, and 10% an accent.”

Another thing to consider: All colors—even those in the same family—are not created equal. This is where color theory comes into play. As a rule, warm colors lift the mood while cool colors are calming.

WHICH COLORS WORK BEST IN WHICH ROOMS?

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Hold that thought. We’ll have room-by-room suggestions in our next post.

FUN FACT

Image: Kelly Sikkema

Ever wonder why most pencils are yellow? That’s a case of color psychology in action. See Why Are Pencils Yellow? The Story Behind the Color Choice for the story.)

To learn more about color psychology, check out these articles:

• How Color Psychology Affects Moods, Feelings, and Behaviors
• The Psychology of Color: How the Shades Around You Impact Your Emotions
• Color Psychology Chart: How Colors Influence Emotions