Decorating colour

Humans respond to colour.

Yellow reminds us of happy faces and smiles, white is neutral and restful, red can be exciting. By changing the colours in a room, we can change a room from a happy room into a cold room. Think about some of the places you may have been recently and what colours they were painted.

When you are thinking of the colours you would like to use in a room, you need to think about:

• What is the room used for?
• Who will use the room the most?
• What sort of personality would you like the room to have – happy, serious, cool and so on?
• What colour are things in the room that you would like to keep in the room?
• What colour are the rooms nearby?

Most rooms are mainly two or three colours with small amounts called accents of brighter or stronger colours.

Accents usually make the colour scheme a little more lively. Don’t use too many accents though otherwise the room may look strange.

If you look outside, nature gives us some good ideas for decorating and tells us that normally things look good with: The darkest value at our feet, such as the forest floor. The medium level at eye level, such as tree trunks. The lightest value above us, such as the sky.

How much there is of a colour affects how you see it. Normally the more there is of a colour the darker it will seem.

This is why when you look at a colour chart and then look at the same colour on the wall, the colour on the wall can seem more intense.

If you are picking a dark colour that you think may be too dark you should use a slightly lighter colour.

Surface textures also change the way we see colour. Smooth surfaces reflect light while heavily textured surfaces, such as carpet, reflect light in a diffused way. This means that the light is reflected at different angles depending on where it hits the surface. This makes the reflection harder for our eyes to see.

The same colour painted in a glossy paint on a wall will look lighter than the same colour in a heavy woven carpet.

The lighting will also change the colour you see. When choosing colours think about when the room will be used most and what sort of lighting there will be at that time – natural (from the sun) or artificial (from a man-made source such as lights). Then choose your colours to work with that lighting.

Colour also looks different on ceilings than it does on walls. A colour painted on a ceiling looks darker than the same colour on a wall because there is less light on the surface.

Other colours can change how colours near them look. For example, if you hold a buttercup flower under your chin, your chin will look yellow. This is the reflection of the buttercup colour.

If you paint a wall white and then put in bright green carpet, the walls will start to look a little green because they are reflecting the floor colour.

Curtains, furniture and pictures will also absorb and reflect colours so will change how a room looks.

If you are trying to choose colours you need to make sure that other colours aren’t distracting you.

When you are choosing colours from a colour chart, place a grey isolator over the colour you are looking at. This will hide the other colours around it so you can see what the colour looks like.

Resene recommends that people painting should try their colours in the area they are planning to paint using Resene testpots.

There are so many things that affect the way the colour will look that a testpot is the best way of making sure the colour is right before full painting begins.

Think of your own bedroom

• What colour is the room now?
• What colours do you like?
• What colours don’t you like?
• What other colours could you paint the room and why?
• How would the room feel if you painted it those colours?

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