There is probably no quicker way to give an entire room a quick facelift than to give it a coat of paint in a completely different colour. This can be especially true if you are staging your Waterloo Region home for sale. And no matter, if you decide to do it yourself or hire a professional to do it for you (the best idea for a truly great result) the choice of colour in your home decor, is always going to be your decision to make. However, it can be a tricky one.
Why? Because, according to colour experts and even psychologists, you should think beyond the mere visual when making that choice as different colours can evoke very different moods in a space and some shades may be better suited to the intended ‘ambiance’ of the space than others. Here are a few pointers:
Blues
Shades of blue are not only calming and soothing but they also improve concentration, making them an excellent choice for a home office space as well as for rooms where relaxation is the intended purpose, particularly the bedroom. Blue is also, however, said to reduce and suppress the appetite so it may not be the best choice for the kitchen or dining room, unless you are always on a diet!
Yellows
Shades of yellow can be trickier to incorporate into a home decor scheme than many other colours in general and given that it is a colour that tends to sharply divide opinion – some love it, many hate it, at least as a home decor option – making good use of it can be hard. Yellow is said to both raise the metabolism and provoke arguments so if you are going to make use of it at all you should do so carefully. However, used on an accent wall it can have a wonderful, energizing effect that is truly striking.
Greens
Shades of green, like their close relatives blues, are considered to be calming colours but they also reflect a sense of nature and balance. Softer shades of green, especially if combined with other neutrals, can be a wonderful choice for the bedroom, living room and even the bathroom but when used as anything other than an accent colour a bright green can be very hard to live with.
Reds
Have you ever noticed that a great many restaurants use an awful lot of red in their decor? There is actually more to that than just design choices though as red stimulates both excitement and the appetite. Used in the home it can be an exciting and unexpected choice but it should be used sparingly, as there are very few people who could actually live with an all red room on a day to day basis.