The way we decorate our homes and the colors we choose should reflect our personal taste, style, and mood. Our home is, after all, a sanctuary (or should be) where we can rest, relax and recharge at the end of a hectic day and spend our free time in peace and tranquility.
Whilst personal taste and style matter, so does choosing the right colors to create the right mood and feeling. Color has the ability to affect not only our psyche but also our productivity too. How we choose to use splashes of color on the walls or the furnishing we select makes a huge difference to how relaxed and comfortable we feel, or how energized and uplifted we are.
The bathroom is definitely a space that needs careful consideration when thinking about these matters. There can often be a tendency to make it clinical, cold and functional rather than somewhere to lock the door, relax and chill out.
We’ll discover (with some expert insights) how bathroom colors can impact your mood and how to redefine the space to make it your own.
Color psychology as a concept
The idea of color psychology is by no means a new one. Did you know that it was first discussed as a concept, as far back as the 17th century when Sir Isaac Newton made the discovery of how colors were made when light passes through a prism?
He understood colors to be human perceptions of wavelengths of light. From this, he described three different color groups. Primary (red, blue, and yellow), Secondary (mixes of all the different primary colors), and Tertiary (mixes of primary and secondary colors).
The ideas developed over the following years and with advancements in technology and science. The theory of color started to cover the properties of color in its two forms which are paint/print and light/screen. The properties of a color are its hue (which is how it appears), its chroma (how pure it is and what shades or tones it has added to it), and its lighting (that's to say how saturated it is).
It’s little wonder that sometimes when we look at paint charts for our home we feel a little bit bamboozled by all the choices! There are now even trends such as the Pantone Color of the Year, designed to get everyone redecorating their homes with the latest fashion-inspired colors.
What do colors actually ‘say’?
If colors could ‘speak’ to us, what would they say? This can inform the kind of hues you choose for your bathroom. Let's look at some of the combinations of primary and secondary colors to establish what mood they create.
- Red. Using red as an accent paint or for entire walls can have a stimulating effect. It often creates feelings of warmth, motivation, and comfort, depending on the shade and tone used.
- Orange. Orange creates a mood of confidence, warmth, and creativity when used as a feature paint in a room. It can look bright and sunny or muted and earthy depending on the shade you choose and the amount you add into a room.
- Yellow. A positive, happy, sunny color, yellow creates feelings of happiness and vivacity. Used as an accent color it can inspire creativity.
- Green. Green can be such a calming color as it’s often associated with nature, health, and vitality. In the right balance, it can promote feelings of relaxation and balance too.
- Blue. Blue hues offer calm and tranquil effects that are comforting and offer feelings of peace.
- Purple. Purple tones can be calming and uplifting at the same time. Paler lilacs and pastel shades offer calm and clarity whilst deeper shades are passionate and flamboyant.
Within all these colors there will be variations in tones and shade meaning that at their most vibrant they may feel a little too much for a small space like a bathroom, but in more pastel or muted tones can provide just the right amount of depth and feeling.
Colors and bathroom design
Of course, your primary concern when thinking about colors for your bathroom should be whether it suits you and your lifestyle and whether you can live with it in the long term. Trends come and go and it’s fun to experiment, but it’s often better to use neutral or calming bases that can be jazzed up or accented with trend-led designs - which can make it easier to switch up and change when the need arises (and less costly too).
Factors like color temperature and repetition can have a huge impact on our emotions and our moods. We’ll look at this more closely in a moment. Color temperature refers to how warm or cool a shade or tone you choose is. The repetition of it involves using the color or putting it into a design element in the room that’s then used repeatedly (for instance, think about the colors of the towels and bath mats you might choose, you’d want them to match - or the color design of the tiles or bathroom panels you select).
Personal choice in bathroom colors
It’s key to keep your personality at the forefront when thinking about bathroom design and the colors you choose, but it’s also necessary to understand that an element of neutrality is essential to keep the space calming and serene, too. Keep that in mind when selecting your bathroom wall panels.
Think perhaps about clean, warm, neutral wall colors and floor coverings that can then be enhanced by splashes of color and vibrant shades in the fixtures and fittings you choose. These can then be changed at random when trends (and your moods) alter and can be an inexpensive way of keeping a room fresh and vibrant whilst staying in tune with interior inspirations.
It’s important to create a space you feel you can relax and unwind. How many of us can say we get much ‘me time’ these days? Having one room that can become a secure sanctuary and is decorated to reflect that is all the more essential in today’s busy world.
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