The Effect of Color in Home Design

If you want a space to feel smaller, like the walls are closing in on you, cover them with a strong warm color like red or burnt orange. A warm color is useful when covering a wall at the end of a hall way. This makes the space feel less long and narrow.

Occasionally, a burnt orange can be applied to an irregular space like an attic bathroom with a sloped ceiling, to make it feel more cheerful. This would seem to violate the rule about cramped space, but if washed in pretty light from a skylight, it creates a womb like beauty that would be more comforting than a gloomy hospital-white gloss on the walls. Then the white of the porcelain will stand out as a beautiful accent color, and reflect the light from the sky light.

Another use for dark warm colors, is to make a room seem more finished or furnished than it actually is. Warm dark colors are cozier when it is cold out side, and when you want a space to be welcoming and comforting like an embrace. Dark brown furniture accented by jewel tones like burgundies, dark blues, or dark greens evokes a sense of scholarly refinement and distinction. Think of the signature opening of "Masterpiece Theater" on PBS, or a traditional library.

If you want to brighten a dark rich room, you can add white accents. For instance, if the walls were burnt red, and the finishing was white, it would keep things from feeling too dark. By painting the trim and furniture chocolate brown, you would dive deeper into the feeling of hibernation, which may suit you.

For the opposite effect, you need pale cool colors like ivory or pastel blue. If the cool color is continued from ceiling to wall, and then to floor , the walls will appear to recede, creating the illusion of more space. To make the space feel even bigger, cover all the room's surfaces (including furniture and accessories) in the same light color as the walls, and wash the walls with light.

Walls painted white, or a pastel yellow, blue, green or apricot go well with white furniture and white curtains. The combination creates an ethereal atmosphere. Adding the same pastel color or colors from the wall to decor accents like pillows or porcelain, will tie the room together. For instance, if your walls were the palest sage green, and a design was stenciled on them in apricot, then the same green and apricot colored fabric on throw pillows would look lovely sitting on a white love seat. Apricot colored flowers with green leaves painted on white porcelain would be the finishing touch for this romantic room that evokes memories of spring or summer. Scandinavians use light colors indoors to keep them from getting depressed when it is dark for months on end.

Color can also effect your perception of vertical space. If the ceiling is a lighter color than the walls, or even a lighter shade of the same color, it will appear to be higher than it is. You can also add a cornice around the perimeter of the ceiling and paint it a darker color than the ceiling and walls. This will seem to raise the ceiling up.

Conversely, if the ceiling is darker than the walls, it will appear lower than it is. If the ceiling is much too high, you can further the illusion of lowering it by adding a chair rail all around the walls, at waist level. By painting the wall beneath the rail a darker color, you suggest a dado, which makes the excess vertical space feel more supported.

To keep a very light colored room from feeling bland, you can create contrast by staining the wood floors a dark brown, and adding giant plants, baskets or pots, or a combination there of. If you cover large pieces of furniture in a fabric the same color as the walls, the furniture will look smaller. For balance, then add a piece of small furniture in an accent color.

If you paint the walls white, be sure it is a white tinted, almost imperceptibly, with a color that will keep the room from feeling gloomy. A touch of pink is great for lifting your mood and making the light seem prettier. Most people won't know it's been mixed into your white paint; they'll just feel better in that room with out knowing why.