Choosing color for your home: What colors mean and how they make you feel

Deciding on colors for your home can sometimes be nerve-wracking. Painting a room is hard work and nobody wants to paint a room only to decide that they’re not happy with their color choice. When we enter a room, the colors in the room affect how we feel, how we react, if we want to stay or run for the hills. Here is a short guide on what colors represent to us and how color choices affect us.

Reds are exciting, stimulating, and warm. They can represent danger but also love. Red is a very strong color that can bring about strong emotion. It can make a room feel warm and cozy but be careful using it in bedrooms as it can also cause restlessness.

Pinks are cheerful, feminine, and youthful. It is a very relaxing color and is great in children’s rooms.

Oranges represent warmth and friendliness. Orange can also stimulate both your appetite and creativity. It is a good choice for kitchens, dining rooms and creative areas.

Yellows can be cheerful, warm, and fresh but also intense, stimulating and hot. Choose your shade wisely. Pure, bright yellow should be used cautiously because it may be overstimulating. Paler yellows are fresh and uplifting. Yellow is a good choice for an entranceway or activity area.

Greens represent harmony, calmness, and friendliness. Greens are appropriate for most areas of the home.

Blues represent safety, calmness, and peacefulness. A deep, intense blue however, may cause stimulation and restlessness. Most blues are perfect for bedrooms and bathrooms.

Purples represent royalty, dignity, poise, drama, and soberness. Light/pastel purples represent freshness, kindness, femininity, and sensitivity. Light shades of purple are great for bedrooms.

Helpful Links:

http://www.homeandfamilynetwork.com/decorating/color.html

http://www.hgtv.com/hgtv/pac_ctnt_noban_nolnb/text/0,1783,HGTV_17896_28156,00.html

http://www.hgtv.com/dc-design-colors/choosing-interior-color-schemes/index.html

Going Green – Eco-friendly Paint

I made the choice recently to switch to environmentally friendly paints. Often I basecoat an accent wall for a faux finish or mural but sometimes I need to paint the whole room. I had noticed that at the end of my day painting, even with plenty of circulation – which isn’t always easy here in Arizona in the summer, I would go home with a headache. So, the last time I was asked to paint a whole room I decided to use eco-friendly paints.

For this particular job, I especially wanted to be safe because it was a nursery and the bundle of joy would be coming home to his new room in a month or so. I had been doing research on paint prior to this job and new it was the direction I wanted to go in. Regular latex paints, although definately less toxic than alkyd (oil-based) paints, have volatile organic compounds (VOC’s) that continue to off-gas (emit chemicals into the air) for years after the paint job is done.

I used Harmony (no VOC’s) by Sherwin Williams for the basecoat and Duration Home (low VOC’s) also by Sherwin Williams mixed with my glaze for the finish on top. Not all colors can be mixed with no VOC paint so that is why I chose Duration Home for my second color. What a difference it made for both me and the homeowners who said they almost forgot I was painting because they couldn’t smell anything. I could smell it just a little but I didn’t get that headache by the end of the day! It costs about $10 -$15 more per gallon than regular latex paint but well worth the extra cost.

Eco-friendly paints have no or low VOC’s and very little odor. They are much safer for us and our environment. They come in flat, eggshell, or semi-gloss sheens and are very durable. Most, if not all, of the major paint companies now carry no and low VOC paints as well as Home Depot and Lowes.

So the next time you have a paint project, think of the environment and your family’s health and go GREEN! You’ll be glad you did!