Colours for Home Offices

Whether you’re picking colours for your home office or a space where thousands will work, the same rules apply.

Neuroscience has made it clear that it’s important for people doing knowledge work to coordinate their internal energy state with the mental resources required by whatever they’re doing. When you need to focus, it works well to feel less energized physically while the reverse is true when what you’re doing isn’t as mentally absorbing, either because it is literally easier or because you’ve done similar things so often in the past. So, when doing something that requires concentration, go for a calming, less saturated and lighter palette, and when you’re doing something easier, such as answering routine emails, being in a space with saturated darker shades can keep you productively purring along.

Research consistently shows that when we look at the colour red, even briefly (think: a second), our cognitive performance declines, so moving the colour red out of your line-of-sight while you work is definitely a good idea. Red brings thoughts of alarm/danger to mind and that means we’re a little distracted when we find ourselves looking at it and when even the tiniest bit of our brain is diverted from the task-at-hand our performance falls precipitously.

Seeing shades of green results in us thinking much more creatively—so greens should replace reds around anyplace you need to think—because no matter what you get paid to do, sometimes creative thinking comes in handy.

When you’re selecting colours for workplaces, don’t forget to consider the colours and patterns (we’ll get to patterns in another article in this issue) that will be behind people during video conference sessions.

All of us, regardless of our race, look healthiest in front of shades of pink, so if looking like you might be running a marathon as soon as a session concludes is important to you, a smoke-y pink behind you is handy (FYI, your skin colour will most accurately transmit, all else being equal, if you’re in front of a shade of grey).

If you’re interested in sending a message that isn’t related to your physical health, be thoughtful about the colours that appear behind you as you participate in video conferences—use the material in this issue on our associations to particular hues and on colours used together and in patterns to guide your selections.

Socializing with colleagues is important in workplaces; we’re going to cover colours for mingling in another article in this issue.