The Language of Color

What is it that makes most people afraid of coordinating colors? They create safe colorless rooms in the hope of avoiding a mistake. It takes courage to have your individual style and taste characterized your room. Of course the fear is that you will make a mistake and all your work will be wasted. With a little bit of knowledge and a few simple guidelines outlined in the following articles and you can have the beautiful, colorful room you always dreamed about.

Color inspires us and affects our emotions. Dr. Max Lüscher, a Swiss professor of psychology and the inventor of the Lüscher Color Test, felt the importance of color originated when human lives were completely governed by day and night. Daylight brings sunshine, higher temperatures, warm colors, action, movement and an increase in metabolic rate. Night brings darkness and cool hues, along with rest, inactivity and the metabolic rate slows

The emotions are greatly affected by the colors that surround us. To find the colors that you will be happy with, take a look at what you wear. We dress ourselves in the colors that we like and look good in. You may find your color inspiration in a work of art, a picture, or the beauty of nature. The simplest advice I can give you is choose the colors you love and you will be pleased with the outcome.

• Red- Creates passion and drama in a room. Many restaurants use red because of the studies showing it stimulates the appetite. Someone that uses red is self-confident.

• Black – Signifies mystery, drama, and formality. It is said that every room should have a touch of black.

• Yellow – Warmth and energy. Although this color is frequently used in nurseries, studies have shown it actually agitates babies.

• Blue – Relaxing, cooling. Many institutions tend to use this for a wall color.

• Green – Balance and calming Green is a color that blends with any color tone as long as it is the right tone.

• Purple – Royalty. A color loved by many little girls that has found its way into grown up rooms as well. Striking color combination with warm gold.

Let’s talk about the most common terms you will need to know when discussing color.

• Primary Colors – Red, blue, and yellow. All colors are a combination of the primary colors.

• Secondary Colors – Orange, green and violet. Secondary colors lie midway between the primary colors on the color wheel. These colors evolve from combining primary colors, i.e. red and yellow result in orange.

• Tertiary Colors – Red-orange, yellow-orange, yellow-green, blue-green, blue-violet, are of combination of primary and secondary colors.

• Intermediate Colors- Red-violet and yellow green are intermediate colors because they are composed of a warm and cool color.

• Neutrals – Black, white and gray are not found on the color wheel but most mixed colors will contain a portion of one or more of these neutrals.

• Hue – Another word for color. Red is hue; green is a hue, etc.

• Value – Refers to the lightness and darkness of a color. Navy is a dark value of blue; mint green is a light value of green.