Colour can have a profound effect on how we feel both mentally and physically with us not even being aware of it. Mentioned below are some emotional associations that humans tend to have with certain colours, which is important to keep in mind in order to create the mood you are seeking.

While most of us may not spend a lot of time thinking about colour, it affects every single day of our lives. Colour can influence our mood and our thoughts. Colours affect people in many ways, depending on one’s age, gender, ethnic background or local climate. So it is important to choose wisely.

To have a beautiful home you do not have to worry about trends. Colour trends will come and go. The people who live in a home make it beautiful by choosing colours that reflect their likes and personalities. The trick is to blend the colours you like into a pleasing combination. Colour has the power to change the shape and size of the furnishings as well as that of the room itself.

Find clear answers to questions like what you want to create and which colours will help you create the moods, suitable for you and your family. If this seems a difficult task, try to look at the magazines, decorating books, for ideas and let your fabric be your guide. This is in fact a good approach to take even if you are starting from scratch. Fabric, carpeting, furniture and tile are available in a more limited range of colours than paint, so choose them first and then decide on your paint colour. Too many colours can make a room look busy or cluttered.
Paint is fairly inexpensive and transforms a room more quickly than anything else. So you can afford to experiment a little.

Understand that colours behave in three basic ways. Active, passive and natural and you can easily match every room’s colour to your personal desires and taste and to the room’s purpose. Light colours are expansive and airy, they make rooms seem larger and brighter. Dark colours are sophisticated and warm; they give large rooms a more intimate appearance.

Warm colours are vivid in nature. They are bold and energetic. Caution needs to be taken while using the warm colours as they tend to advance in space. If an element in your design needs to pop out, consider using warm colours to do that.

Cool colours are soothing in nature and tend to recede. Therefore if some element of your design needs to be in the background, give it cool tones.

Here are some general guidelines that can act as a good starting point in your search for a paint colour. But remember colour choice is a very personal matter. You are the one who has to live with your new paint colour, so choose the hue that suits you, your family and lifestyle. And after investing time to select just the right colour, make sure it continues to look that way by investing in top quality paint.

White
White is what we see when all colours come together in perfect balance. It represents purity, simplicity, cleanliness, peace, humility, innocence, youth, birth, winter, snow, goodness, sterility and marriage.


Black
Black is the absence of light and therefore, of colour. It represents power, sexuality, sophistication, formality, elegance, wealth, mystery, fear, evil, unhappiness, depth, style, sadness, anger, good technical colour, mourning, and death.

Neutrals (black, grey, white, brown) are basic decorator’s tool kit. All neutral schemes fall in and out of fashion, but their virtue lies in their flexibility. Add colours to liven things up, subtract it to calm things down. Black is best used in small doses in different forms.

Orange
Orange is a combination of yellow and red. Orange is considered a warm colour like red, but to a lesser extent, orange expresses energy. It has luminous qualities and has been used for attention getting purposes. Orange brings up memories of all leaves. It symbolises balance, warmth, enthusiasm, vibrancy and is demanding of attention. While not a good idea for a living room or for bedrooms this colour is great for an exercise room. It will bring all the emotions out that you need when jumping into your fitness routine.

Yellow
Yellow represents joy, happiness, optimism, idealism, imagination, hope, sunshine, summer, gold, philosophy, dishonesty, betrayal, jealousy, deceit, illness, spirituality and inspiration.
Yellow captures the joy of sunshine and communicates happiness. It is perfect for kitchen, dining rooms and bathrooms, where happy colour is energising and uplifting. In halls, entries and small spaces, yellow can feel expansive and welcoming. Despite yellow being a cheery colour, it is not a good choice in main colour schemes of a room. People are more likely to lose their tempers in a yellow room. Babies also seem to cry more in a yellow room.

These general guidelines are a good starting point in your search for a paint colour. But remember colour choice is a very personal matter. You are the one who has to live with your new paint colour, so choose the hue that suits you, your family and lifestyle. And after investing time to select just the right colour, make sure it continues to look that way by investing in top quality paint.

Purple
Represents royalty, spirituality, nobility, ceremony, mystery, transformation, wisdom, enlightenment, cruelty, arrogance, and mourning. Purple is considered as exotic colour. Purple dye was made from the mucus gland of the snail, it required thousands of snails to yield one gram of dye causing it to be a colour only nobles could afford. Today purple is a trendy colour targeting creative types.

Red
Red is the colour that we all pay most attention to. It is the warmest and most energetic colour. We associate red with love, danger, desire, speed, strength, violence, anger.

Red can evoke a fight response, raise blood pressure and make the heart beat faster. Red would not be a colour of choice for psychiatric wards, prisons or hospitals. Red raises a room’s energy level. It’s a good choice when you want to stir up excitement, particularly at night. In the dining room or living room, red draws people together. And stimulates conversations.

In China, red symbolises celebration and luck.

In India, red is the colour of purity (used in wedding outfits).

Green
It is one of the most often cited favourite colours. It represents nature, environment, health, good luck, youth, vigour, spring, generosity, fertility, jealousy, inexpensive, envy, misfortune.

It’s cool quality soothes, calms and has great healing powers. It is often worn in operating rooms by surgeons.
In a kitchen, a medium green cools things down, in a family room or living room, it encourages unwinding but has enough warmth to promote comfort and togetherness. In a bedroom, it’s relaxing and pleasant. Green also has a calming effect when used as a main colour for decorating. It is believed to relieve stress by helping people relax. Also believed to help with fertility, this is a great choice for bedrooms.

Blue
Blue represents peace, tranquillity, stability, harmony, unity, trust, truth, confidence, security, cleanliness, order, loyalty, sky, water, cold, technology and depression.

Blue can slow the pulse rate, lower body temperature and reduce appetite. It is also considered a business colour because it reflects reliability.

In China, blue is associated with immortality.

In Columbia, blue is associated with soap.

For Jews, blue symbolises holiness.

In the middle east blue is a protective colour.

Blue, thus, is often considered to be the safest global colour.