Colour choice can affect your moods

Red for passion in the bedroom, blue for its calming influences. Kya deLongchamps looks at the power of hues

IF YOUR home is suitably fashionable but makes you uneasy, it is worth remembering that our response to the colours around us is psychophysical. In specialist terminology, that’s the ‘the electro-magnetic radiation of light on human mood and behaviour’. According to colour psychologist group, Colour Affects (UK), who teach in the corporate and interior design field, colour really does touch on unconscious, primitive instincts, prompting us to enthusiasm or withdrawal. It’s a complex issue but works in the same way a rainy sky or a bright one would make us curl up in a duvet or tempt us outdoors.

The Colour Affects team go so far as to divide the colour spectrum into ‘personality type colours’ and work with interior designers to answer the needs of these colour types in promoting harmony and peace in the home. What’s most interesting is that it’s not just the colour, but the combination of colours that matters, so in short, there are no ‘wrong’ colours to use. You can find out more about the whole fascinating business and even train to be accredited colourists with Colour Affects at www.colour-affects.co.uk.

COLOUR FEEL: How you will respond to the colours on those larger canvases of your home — the floors, walls and larger pieces of furniture — will depend on both an instinctive response and to some degree your past and personal preferences. If your grandmother’s kitchen where you spend your happiest childhood moments was a honey yellow, it’s quite likely you’ll have this positive association with warm yellows tucked away in your unconscious. As we’ve learned, there are no ‘wrong’ colours and you can shift alter the impact of even strong, racy colours through careful additions of other shades. Mixing the colour in a shade (with black), tone (with grey) or tinting with white, can alter its intensity while keeping say its character as say a green or a blue. The light falling on the colour will radically influence how it looks in a large area of wall or floor, so keep the aspect of the room in mind to forecast the success of your scheme.

PRIMARY SENSES IN THE SPECTRUM

RED: A colour of excitement, optimism, action and downright passion, we are hard wired to respond strongly to the sight of an intense red. Your pulse may even rise in an all-red room not tamed with other colours. If you want to up the passion in your bedroom, red is a colour to stimulate your spirit, and it will also prompt you to feast in the dining room. Keep it out of children’s rooms.

Scheme ideas: Rein in the boldness of red with harmonising colours or orange and yellow, nestling close to it on the colour wheel. Darker reds are less energising than those bright synthetic reds which will repel rather than invite you into the space. Try chocolate tones with red for deep sensuality. Orange has the emotional pep and warmth of red with the additional joy of yellow. Red is fabulous for that one feature wall and rusty red and forest greens won’t fight, but play off each other and can be used to zone a multi-purpose room. Soft coral red is huge for 2012.

* Reeling in Red for 2012: Dulux 10 YR 21/436 , Fleetwood Vogue ‘Moulin Rouge’ and Colourtrend ‘Kimono’.

BLUE: Clean and crisp as a cloudless sky, pale icing sugar blues can be deeply calming, promoting deep thought and are a favourite colour for bedrooms. They are less successful for eating areas, as there are few blue foods, and our appetites respond accordingly. Deep blues touching on navy are challenging and better contained on feature walls or combined in patterns of other colours where they are less of a visual bully.

Scheme ideas: Nostalgic chalky blues are gorgeous and relaxing in the bedroom where they marry well with white highlights of fresh white linen, sheer window treatments and white woodwork. The harmonising colours for blue will be a blue green or blue purple, the colours set close to it on the colour wheel. Look for a warm undertone or blue schemes can be perceived as chilly. Purples and lavenders, are restorative, comforting shades said to foster intuition. Pale blue with a dash of tangerine is retro’ heaven handled carefully. Grey, white and duck egg blue will throw open a pokey space.

* Blissful Blues for 2012: Fleetwood Vogue Tiffany Blue and B&Q NaturePaint Aquablue.

YELLOW: Warm, joyful, welcoming, and a colour of action, yellow sings out in hallways, kitchens and living spaces, and with the right undertone can light up north-facing rooms. Being such a lively character, yellow is said to be a positive addition if you suffer from depression or lack of motivation, but for the same reason keep brighter yellows out of the bedroom where it may prove too wide-awake to bare. Shades, tones and tints range from sunshine to soft butters, and combined with golds are positively sumptuous.

Scheme ideas:An overbearing yellow can stimulate anxiety, so keep things soft and you can range its light promoting beauty over every wall. Tonal schemes (different intensities of yellow) work well. Soft purple and its family of secondary and tertiary colours will present a bold contrast if you want to be brave and add the darker shade in smaller quantities for balance. Ochre shades of yellow are safer if you find the brighter shades too bossy.

* Yes to Yellows for 2012: Dulux Morning Glo’ and Farrow & Ball Babouche.

GREEN: The single most important secondary colour (combining yellow and blue). Quite simply, because it’s the signature colour of our natural surroundings, green is generally a laid back choice. Bathrooms and living areas look great in sage greens, and is a choice that’s never gone out of style.

Scheme ideas: If you want to see what goes with green, stand up and look out the window. Nature should be your first inspiration, offering a balance of a main colour and accents that works effortlessly in reds, greens and golds. Try those accents in bolder, blue based ‘baize’ greens to grab attention with classic formal charm in a pale neutral interior. A playful pea green is right on target for the upbeat day-glo schemes of 2012.