Colouring your best mood

Many of us are not in the best of all moods as we slog our way through the beginning of any year – whether we live in the Northern Hemisphere and it’s just too cold, or the Southern one and it’s too hot (we will not mention the lucky few who live near the equator where the weather is often idyllic all year round).

When the cold and the hot keep us indoors thoughts naturally turn to changing things up during our weather-induced confinements.  As we ponder our predicaments thoughts turn to changing some colours—on walls, upholstery, rugs, and elsewhere.

Then the stress starts to build.

We go to our local paint store and come face-to-face with a sea of thousands of paint chips, all calling our name asking us to choose them. The same goes for trying to select new rugs, curtains, etc.

If we can’t narrow down the selection using any sort of rigorously derived (i.e., science-based) criteria, we feel overwhelmed and go home without, for instance, any paint at all or with the first paint colour our hand comes to rest on be it a lovely smokey violet or a mood bruising mud brown.

It doesn’t have to be like that.  Neuroscientists have learned that:

• We’re relaxed when we look at colours that are not very saturated but are relatively light (such as Sherwin-Williams’ Mint Condition https://www.sherwin-williams.com/en-us/colour/colour-family/green-paint-colours/SW6743-mint-condition or Breaktime https://www.sherwin-williams.com/en-us/colour/colour-family/green-paint-colours/SW6463-breaktime ) Please note: Sherwin-Williams colours are being used as examples not to sell Sherwin-Williams paint but because Sherwin-Williams has a great website presenting all sorts of different colours.  Shades that are less saturated seem slightly more gray-ish or smokey and ones that are lighter seem like they have more white paint mixed into them.  Less saturated and lighter colours are best for offices as well as places where you want to unwind.
• When we see colours such as Greenbelt (https://www.sherwin-williams.com/en-us/colour/colour-family/green-paint-colours/SW6927-greenbelt ), which are saturated and darker we feel more energetic so these are great shades for exercise areas or laundry rooms. Saturated colours are purer forms of particular hues, such as Kelly Green or Sapphire blue.
• Each of our cultures has associations to particular hues. For example, in North America and Europe blues are linked to trustworthiness, dependability, and competence, while oranges are tied to being a good value or less expensive.  We also associate blues with bedrooms and sleep and yellows with kitchens.
• Lighter colours on walls make a space seem larger and darker ones seem to pull walls in closer. Using a mix of lighter and darker colours on different walls can help make an oddly shaped room seem like a more pleasant place to spend time (not so extremely long and narrow, for example).
• When warm colours dominate a space we’ll feel a little warmer there and if cool colours prevail we feel colder, and the perceived temperature differences can be up to 5 degrees Fahrenheit. Paint places that regularly feel too hot or too cold accordingly.
• In spaces with lots of warm colours, we’ll have a better time socializing with others, people will generally seem friendlier.
• Warm colours seem to stimulate our appetites and cooler colours to suppress them.
• If you want to feel empowered, paint the walls of your office or wherever a cool shade.
• Time seems to pass more slowly in a warm coloured place than a cooler one, so if you’ll be spending a lot of time waiting in a space (or someone else will) paint it a cool colour.
• Darker things seem heavier than lighter ones so they should always be closer to the floor than lighter ones—whether they’re painted on walls or the colour of items that are stacked up in a pile, for instance. The same goes for colours that are warmer and also colours that are more saturated.  Also, we’re generally more comfortable when the darkest colour in a space is under our feet, the lightest is over our heads, and intermediate colours are on the walls around us.
• To make a ceiling seem higher paint both that ceiling and the walls light colours.
• Seeing the colour red, even small amounts very briefly and even in small amounts degrades analytical performance—use it in your office with extreme caution. Looking at reds does give you a burst of physical strength – so if you lift weights, paint accordingly.  Also, men and women seen in front of red backgrounds seem more attractive to heterosexual people of the opposite sex.
• Seeing all sorts of different shades of greens boosts our creativity—so if you are a poet, painter, etc., tune the colour of your workplace accordingly.
• If you’re female, seeing the colour pink will lead you to feel more optimistic.
• If you’re selecting paint colours for someone else or getting ready to sell your house, it can be handy to know that worldwide, our favourite colour is blue and our least favourite is a really yellow-y yellow-green. Also, houses with black front doors tend to sell for more than homes with doors painted other colours.
• If you have positive associations to a colour—it was the one your grandmother used in the kitchen where you loved to spend time, etc.—use it in your home.