What is Environmental Psychology?
Since the first of our ancestors set up a home and cared about the experiences of people living there, there has been environmental psychology. Whenever people developing or managing spaces have cared about making...
Colour psychology applied in the home of TV’s Doc Martin
For many of us, there’s no better way to spend time with the television than watching Doc Martin. Martin and Louisa and James Henry live in a murky world of tired, grayed out colours,...
Stress levels reduced by lighter wood colours
Lighter coloured stains on wood may be better options than darker ones. Burnard and Kutnar tie an oak finish to lower stress levels in workplaces, but found that a walnut one didn’t have the...
80% of people prefer curves…
Creating a path? Work in a curve. D’Acci, collecting info on urban streets, found that “80% of a . . . random sample of 102 people stated to prefer, ceteris paribus [other things being equal]...
How woodland sounds enhance wellbeing
Hearing nature sounds is relaxing, very relaxing. A press release from the United Kingdom’s National Trust reports, “The crunch of snapping twigs underfoot. Lilting birdsong from above. The rustling of trees in the breeze....
Lighting conditions that give you more self-control
Do you spend too much, eat too much, or do anything too much? You might be interested to know that you have more self control in certain sorts of light than in others. This...
Are you an extravert?
People wearing or near more saturated colours are perceived as being more extraverted and open to experience, than people who aren’t; apparently viewers judging others don’t consider the possibility that a sweater or shirt...
Standing up to work
Sit-stand desks are the current office must have. Can your employer really value whatever you spend your day doing if they don’t provide a sit-stand desk to do it from? Schwarz and colleagues’ research...
Seating to stimulate conversation
We can sit in all sorts of angles to each other, from nose-to-noise to ear-to-ear. Fiorillo and associates determined that “Experiments in which participants were asked to talk to each other while sitting at...
Biophilic design is growing!
Biophilic design uses the same design principles indoors that we’d find in an outdoor space where we feel very comfortable. In a workplace design study utilising biophilic design elements such as plants, water (a...
Indoor plants
Indoor plants are a magic elixir, poised to make our lives better, as long as we remember to water them (or dust them if they’re good fakes). Research shows that being around plants boost...
Tense?
Add an aquarium to your world. Fish are the perfect new friends to invite into your home. Research consistently shows that watching actual aquariums or videos of them, does good things for our...
Pantone Colour of the Year 2020 – Classic Blue
In 2020, Classic Blue was named colour of the year by Pantone Color Institute, a leading source of colour expertise, the Pantone Color Institute provides colour insights and solutions and announces a different colour every...
Colours around us
We’ve chosen three books which might appeal to you, to show you how colour has an impact on us. Published research makes it clear that the colours on the surfaces around us have a...
Dealing with Colour Blindness
If you or someone you know has colour blindness you might find that you are having difficulty identifying and differentiating between certain colours. Often the struggle is between red, green and yellow, some confuse...
Coordinating Light and Surface Colours
Warm colours generally look best when they’re being lit by warm coloured light bulbs while cool colours are most attractive under cooler lights. So, surface colours and light colours should be selected together. Just...
Create harmony in your home with colour
Using some colours together creates more harmonious or pleasing combinations than others. Among combinations that are more desirable are: The same or similar hues The same or similar saturation levels Each relatively light or...
Silently Signaling With Colour
Cultures have meanings that they link to particular hues—so if you’ll be sharing a space with someone from a different part of the planet, it’s good to get their input on colours you intend...
How children relate to colour
Infants have colour vision, just like adults, using only black and white in spaces for them isn’t desirable. Children are more apt to say that their favorite colour is red than adults, but actually,...
Colour and Gender
[restrict] To settle a continuing dispute in many homes, women do indeed have better colour vision than men (men’s vision is more tuned to moving objects than women’s). So, if you’re trying to decide...
Favourite Colours
Around the world, when people are asked what their favourite colour is they are more likely to say it is blue than any other colour. The colour that people are most likely to say...
Guide People Through a Space
Like moths drawn toward flames, humans approach warm colours. If you want someone to move across a space in a particular way, paint the wall behind the desired final destination a warm colour. Have...
Stop the walls closing in!
What you’ve heard throughout your life is true, lighter colours on walls do indeed make those walls seem a little farther away than they actually are while dark colours on the same walls bring...
Make a Space Seem to be at a Particular Temperature
Warm colours and cool colours are actually appropriately named, surprisingly enough. When we’re in a space where warm colours predominate, we feel a little warmer than the actual temperature, when we’re in a space...
Speed Up or Slow Down the Passage of Time
Time going too fast for you? Time seems to pass more slowly in warm coloured spaces than cool coloured ones. Spaces where people may need to think time is passing more quickly than it...
Seem More Attractive
When men see women against a red background they think they’re more attractive than they do when the same women are seen in front of another colour—and red has the same effect on women’s...
Optimize Physical Performance
Seeing red gives us a burst of strength, literally. If you’re a weightlifter with a home gym, it’s the colour you want to be looking at when you’re working out with your weights. Red...
Influence Appetite
Research generally shows that our appetites get a boost when we’re in a space that features warmish colours and is quashed in areas that mainly use cooler ones. Also, to keep our appetites in...
Support Pleasant Interactions with Other People
Amiable exchanges with other people make our lives better in so many ways, and surface colours can boost them along. Warm colours in a place where you’re planning to spend time with others, whether...
Feeling Optimistic
Seeing the colour pink seems to help women think more optimistically. Maybe this is the colour to be looking at while working with a new recipe for the first time, working out your life-plan...
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