Colour Me Beautiful – Colours for the Home
Colour can totally transform your home, creating a certain style and mood. There is a whole psychology and science behind colour. It affects our behaviour, impacting our moods in both positive and negative ways.
Want to know what colours to choose for your brand new home? Read on for some more advice or talk to our experts.
Choosing Interior Paint Colours
People like to make rules for colours but choosing a colour scheme for your home is a very creative and personal process. There are no set rules. Simply understand how different colours work in various spaces and use this to guide your decision.
With that in mind, you should ask yourself the following questions before choosing your colours:
- What is the room/s used for?
- How much lighting is coming into the space?
- What type of emotions/mood do you want to invoke?
- Who spends the most time in that room?
- What are the adjacent room colour schemes?
- Do you want to change perceptions of the room’s shape or size?
- What are the colours of existing furniture, furnishings and flooring?
Colour Guidelines
Colour experts emphasise the use of the following guidelines to help you select the right colours:
- Develop a colour scheme by collecting pictures of rooms that you like and a good range of samples. Experiment with them to determine your selection. When developing your colour scheme, keep in mind that the most successful schemes usually have a palette of two or three principal colours, with additional touches of other colours in small doses.
- Remember that colours tend to look darker than they appear on colour charts. When used in large quantities or in a small room, strong colours like reds and oranges will appear even stronger and more intense.
- Check and select your colour under the actual lighting conditions of the space that you’re painting. The same colour may look very different when compared under artificial and natural lighting.
- Your flooring influences colour immensely, so when choosing colour, don’t forget what’s below you. Flooring should ideally blend in nicely with the colour/s.
- Furniture, pictures and ornaments absorb and reflect colour in different ways, affecting the final colour you see. It’s always best to view colours in a fully furnished room to get a true picture of how it looks.
- Bright colours like reds tend to make a space seem smaller while light colours like white will make it larger.
- Research suggests that warm colours like reds, oranges and yellows tend to evoke emotions like excitement, confidence and hope. Cool colours like blues, greens, and violets tend to evoke peace, calm and tranquillity.
- The colours both inside and outside your home should match the architecture and era of your home.
What’s Your Colour Personality?
Colour psychologists have come up with four colour personality types: Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter. Each has certain psychological characteristics which correspond to a specific colour scheme.
By applying this to your home, you can choose colours that reflect and support your personality type. Generally speaking, Spring and Summer types tend to connect more to lighter and neutral colours while Autumn and Winter types tend to connect more to brighter and intense colours.
Have Fun and be Playful with Colour!
Never rush into choosing colours for your home. Instead, take the time to talk the experts and consider the advice above. This will ensure that every room in your new home is uniquely yours, from the interior to the colour on the walls.
When you build with McDonald Jones Homes, the MyChoice Design Studio can guide you with all the colour selections and interior design options for your home. Working alongside you, our experts will help you create a truly customised style statement for your home.
For more information about building with McDonald Jones Homes, or for more inspiring colour advice, talk to our experts today.