Greetings, readers! Today’s topic is going to be about my absolute favorite aspect of interior design: color. Yeah, let’s talk color.

Color is a discipline with its very own language and culture. Different cultures have different interpretations of color and what they represent. For example, in western culture, white is associated with purity and innocence; it is most often worn by brides. In some eastern cultures, however, white is a mourning color.

Not only can your color choices make or break the ambiance of your home or workplace, but it can also have an impact on the mood and sensory system. Human beings have a very complex relationship with color. In my opinion, color is the most expressive element of interior design, art, and lifestyle. The brighter the hue, the more visceral the impact, physiologically and psychologically. We all see and feel color differently, and there are a lot of variations, hues, chromas, and values of any particular color.

In the natural world, color harmony is perfect. It is of utmost importance to strive for color harmony for the simple reason that color affects our moods and behaviors. Scientific studies show color not only having an impact on our mood, it also affects learning and working conditions within the built environment.

Interesting to note – our perception of color is also closely related to gender. Some studies show women have more color perception than men; some 8% of the male population is color deficient as compared with 0.5% of the female population.

Research shows men have a hard time distinguishing subtle variations of color like sky blue versus turquoise blue or lime green versus moss green.

Color has vibrations, it carries its own chi. What is chi? According to feng shui, chi is the invisible energy that surrounds us, the energy of life, and our environment. I will refrain from getting too deep into color psychology and human reaction to color and instead focus on the correct use of color in interior design applications.

A common error people make while choosing wall color is picking some variation of their favorite color or, worse, randomly picking one of the trending colors without taking into account the fixed elements of their space like flooring, furniture, or architectural details. This is a mistake. Your favorite shade of lemon yellow may look cute in the frame of a handbag but will be a complete disaster on the walls.

Of course, most people are not daring enough to take these kinds of fearless color decisions. The majority of us fall into the other category. Many are confused and terrified of picking the wrong color, not without good reason since the wrong color can harm a room’s ambiance.

I am not discouraging the use of your favorite color. In my design practice, I often incorporate my client’s favorite color in the design theme. My advice is to use your favorite color as an accent color unless that color is neutral, like beige or taupe. Remember – tonal relationship of color is crucial for a successful color theme. 

Here is a design secret: The tried and trusted secret rule is the 60-30-10 color rule. This is the best way to balance the color scheme in your home.

The 60-30-10 concept incorporates three color families.

·      60% of the room should be a dominant color, including the walls and heavy furniture.

·      30% should be the secondary color. Rugs and accent furniture fall into this category.

·      10% of a room should be an accent color. Bright and bold colors are great but in small doses.

That’s it for now, but I will be back next time with more interesting facts of interior design.