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.