Does red seem exciting or
overpowering to you?

All About Color

Because we see colors with our hearts -- not our heads -- they have the power to put us in a variety of moods. Read on to learn how your color preference reflects your personality.

For some, a warm and cozy red library or fireplace room makes an ideal gathering spot. Others would trade the intensity of red for a blush of rose with the same tonic effect.

In dining areas, ambers, peaches, or corals spark appetites and electrify the conversation; lemon, jasmine, and golden yellows unleash creative juices in studios and home offices.

 

Green soothes and connects
us to nature.

Pacifying colors -- blue, green, and purple -- stay reservedly in the background, cooling, calming, and reenergizing weary spirits. Put them in rooms for resting and refueling.

Pale, serene greens slip quietly into a living room, bedroom, or reading room, hushing it with a whisper. Medium greens connect to nature, grounding and freshening the spirits of a home office, family room, or spa. Deep greens comfort a library, bedroom, or sitting room. But lime and parrot greens tend to waken and activate.

 

Blue brings contentment.

Blues and purples work meditative wonders. Pale azure and glacier blues wash a room in coolness and unstructured serenity. Proud, strong blues work responsibility and contentment into the mood. Pale purple-blues prompt reflection and dreaming.

Neutralizers are the "noncolors": browns, beiges, grays, and white. Perfect for neutral territories of the house, such as kitchens or baths, these colors bridge together rooms, other colors, and moods. They neither activate nor pacify; they blend, combine, and cooperate.

White, another neutral hue, brings out openness, airiness, and an expansive spirit. It generously welcomes other colors into a room, framing them and showing them off to their best advantage.

 

Zip up your decor with orange.

Activating colors, such as yellow, orange, and red, move forward, warming and cheering, and inspiring conversation in varying degrees. Red, the intense one of this group, sparks emotions forcefully. Orange applies less pressure, and yellow merely suggests.

If these extroverted colors please you, put them to work in the activity rooms of your house. Ruby, raspberry, or brick reds pack a punch in entries or halls. Even people who can't relax amid strong colors find a short spurt of red's exhilaration comfortable as they pass through a brilliant hall.