How Color Influences a Room's Emotion

It is no secret that color can be a powerful tool used in interior and exterior design. Color is used all the time throughout every aspect of styling, fashion, clothing, and marketing. In fact, you probably have your favorite color shirt you love to wear or a color car you may prefer. These color preferences can come down to color psychology and how a color can make you feel.

Room Temperature
Color has a psychological effect on how we gauge temperature. Typically, we associate colors like blue with cooler atmospheres, whereas a color like red may indicate a warmer environment. Many designers believe that you should use your home’s natural climate environment to choose colors inside your home.

For instance, if you live in the desert oasis where it is continuously warm and surrounded by warm sandy tones, you may want to incorporate cooler tones in your home. Likewise, if you live in a winter wonderland, warmer colors in your home can make your home feel like a getaway retreat.

Warm- and Cool-Tone Emotion
Warm tones are associated with colors like red, orange, and yellow. Cool tones are associated with colors like blue, green, and violet. Warm tones are used to make a room feel more stimulating and inviting. Cool tones make the atmosphere feel more refreshing and relaxed. Consider what type of influence you want in each room. This factor can help guide you in color choices.

Dulling or Enriching Color Influences
You also can have power on how much a specific color influences a room. For instance, let us explore blue:

Accent: If you use blue as a subtle accent tone in a room, you can create a calm and passive feeling atmosphere.

Monochromatic: Make that room monochromatic and all blue, then the blue may feel overpowering. Overpowering blue can create a lack of emotion, coldness, and detachment from an atmosphere.

Saturation: Y can also influence color through the saturation. For instance, a pastel blue has less influence than a vibrant, bright blue.
These are all little tricks to investigate when creating your space.

Creating Balance
Ultimately, balance is a vital tool in using color. For instance, using neutral tones can help create balance. If you chose to use colors, create balance to prevent over dominance. You can mix warm and cool tones to help create contrast. Just note whatever color is predominantly used in the room will have the most influence.

Different colors can create different psychological influences as well. For instance, think of using red in a room that you want to provoke a warm and cozy atmosphere. Now use green and you may make the space feel revitalized and earthy. Yet, make a room green and red and your mind will quickly associate these colors with festive and seasonal décor.

It is essential to make sure your colors agree with one another. In fact, many designers will create digital or tangible mood boards to see how different colors work with one another. You can utilize this idea to see how colors react in your setting and go from there.