How to Create the Perfect Mood with Paint Colors

by Kate Theisen, Contributing Writer for Direct from the Designers™

Are the colors of your walls positively affecting you? Paint colors themselves can be very beautiful and aesthetically pleasing, but the fun doesn’t stop there. The color you select for a room changes its atmosphere. For example, cool colors such as blue and green used in your bedroom are extremely calming, aiding in regenerative sleep overnight, whereas warm colors such as yellow used in the kitchen can help create warm happy memories your children will cherish for a lifetime. Here are some ideas to ensure you select the best colors in each room of your home, so you and your family can put your best feet forward each and every day.

Selecting paint colors can feel like a daunting task when you try to take into consideration each family member’s temperament. Start by learning how colors affect each one of us to ease your mind and make the shopping experience more fun.

Cool colors: lavender, green, and blue are calming
Warm colors: red, yellow, and orange are stimulating

Cool colors tend to create relaxed moods that are calming, especially when you want to reconnect with your partner at the end of a long day. Warm colors do just the opposite: they help us to feel invigorated and excited for communication with extended family and friends.

Each room’s paint hues need to be taken into careful consideration. What type of mood do you want to set for day and evening? To begin, think of the mood you want for your bedrooms. Most people prefer calm cool colors to enhance calming communication and restful sleep. Great sleep and soothing reconnection with your partner pave the way for an amazing morning. When you wake up feeling refreshed, your work and personal life excel, productivity naturally increases, and you’re set up to have a happy mood throughout the day.

If you are a parent, your children’s well-being is always the top priority. Setting your stage at home requires the utmost care in selecting the best colors to ensure a wonderful, happy, and successful future. For children’s bedrooms, it is best to go with cool colors like blue, green, or lavender. Although popular, pink is not the healthiest color to go with. Pink depletes energy whereas lavender instead creates calm and relaxation, allowing for regenerative sleep and feelings of increased energy.

You might also want to know what paint will invite warmth into your home. Foyers and halls are best done in warm colors to invite and welcome others inside. When your friends and neighbors feel they have been brought into a warm, welcoming front entrance, they’ll want to engage in good conversation.

Next is the living room. Most families want to quietly enjoy each other’s company in this space. Comfortable neutral colors such as earth tones like beige will make your family want to sit around together. You can always add pops of warm colors with comfy blankets and pillows to add a sense of warmth into the room. The coziness might help your family to reconnect in conversation and leave the smartphones off for a while.

Paint colors in bathrooms are very important as well. White and blue are calming cool colors and give the perception of a very clean look and feel—which everybody can appreciate.

Last but far from least is your kitchen, where all the magic happens. Families congregate in the kitchen. Happiness, warmth, celebrations, and memories are made there each and every day. Warm colors are best in the kitchen; red or yellow create a warm sense of togetherness and entice the palette, making way for enjoyable dining and conversation. Your dining room is also a good candidate for red— it can even lead your guests to believe that your culinary skills are better!

Nowadays, it is essential to talk about the popularity of gray. More and more people are painting the insides and outsides of their homes in gray. It is a very striking color, especially when paired with a white border for a pop of brightness. Gray essentially is a cool color, but because of its popularity, there are more variations available that range from warm to cool. Brighter grays can give off a warming feeling whereas bluer grays have a cooling effect. Gray is an awesome color to create a warm or cool feeling in your room of choice and it can also be enhanced with not only white, but any warm or cool pop of color you like. For example, if you want a warm gray, use pops of cream or light yellow in your pillows, blankets, and room accents. If you are going for a cool gray effect, use purple, lavender, green, or blue accents for your pops of color.

Choosing colors of paint does not have to be overwhelming. With a little knowledge of how each color affects your mood, you are ready to shop and create a sense of well-being in every part of your home.