1. How color influences our emotional state

Specialists noticed that green hues help with bronchiectasis, stimulate heart muscle contractions, increase mental capacity; red hues stimulate the secretion of digestive tract glands, recover the physical capacity and yet they can lead to over-agitation with some people, and soft brown and blue hues speak about rest and relaxation.

Those people who are easily agitated shouldn’t live in a room with red walls, just like a melancholic person should not choose the purple and violet interior.

All colors are divided into warm, cold and neutral hues. Warm hues are red, orange, and all other hues dominated by them. The cold hues are royal blue, sky-blue, and all specter of green-blue and blue-violet tones. Green hues with dominant blue are considered cold, and with dominant yellow or red-considered warm. This is easily traced to nature elements – sunlight, steam, and fire, coolness of water and shade of green leaves. White, grey and black are neutral colors; they diffuse other colors in the color palette.

Colors are also divided into chromatic and achromatic. Chromatic colors are yellow, red, blue and all mixed hues; achromatic colors are grey, white and black. It was noted that warm intense colors seem to be closer, and that is why they are called protrusive. Cold colors, on the contrary, seem more distant, and are called retreating.

Coloring is a combination of all colors in the coloring composition. It is defined by the predominant colors of similar hues. Thus, if the interior is dominated by grey and blue hues, and if there are small elements of yellow, brown and white it is perceived as grey and blue coloring.

Color harmony is a consistent combination of colors, favoring their artistic sophistication. There are two types of harmony – nuance and contrast harmony. Nuance harmony lacks strong contrast of colors and their light and saturation, even though small contrast can be present. A state of calm is achieved by balancing color surfaces. This means that large surfaces (walls, ceiling, coverlets, curtains all have demure neutral light hues, and smaller surfaces (some textile elements , ceramics, art glass etc.) are bright, deep in color. Nuance harmony most often can be seen in bedrooms and nurseries, working rooms and rooms of elderly people.

Contrast harmony with collation of bright cold and warm colors can be used in common spaces of 2-5-bedroom apartments and country houses. It is a complex but very interesting task to harmonize the color elements in the living premises (walls, ceilings, floor, decorative textile, furniture etc.) in order to create complete integral assemble. It should be taken into account that contrast harmony can quickly tire the eye and worsen state of mind of a person. This is why bright chromatic colors should be balanced and toned down with achromatic colors (grey, black and white). Thick woolen bright red armchairs require calm balanced background color, which is created by light grey walls, grey fuzzy carpet, light-grey or golden curtains. Certain colors and their combinations can make a person feel happy, sad, anxious or melancholic.

Red color creates elevated mood, but at the same time it is unquiet and turbulent: it annoys and quickly tires the nervous system, decreases working capacity. Influence of this color raises the blood pressure,speeds up respiratory rhythm. That is why it is not recommended for living premises.

Orange color makes for good mood and celebratory ambience.

Yellow color is clear, fresh, stimulates eye sight and nervous system.

Green color of leaves and grass brings out calm and the mood for relaxation. It also lowers the blood pressure and increases the auditory sense and hearing abilities; it is the most favorable for a human being.

Blue color with all its hues gives the impression of open space, depth and cool. It calms the nervous system and improves the working capacity, even more than green color helps to relax the muscle spasms and lower the blood pressure. This is the most favorable color for people with higher than average incline toward nervous anxiety.

Violet color promotes melancholic mood and reflection. However, it was detected that this color not only relaxes, but it slows down the psychological state and therefore, quickly tires people.

Combination of several colors in one ensemble brings out more complex feelings.

2. Interior design and properties of color hues

When working on interior design each owner sooner or later faces the question - "so, how to use the properties of colors in everyday life?" When developing the interior design, keep in mind that for those rooms facing north, it is wise to use maximum light colors, and warm hues – golden- yellow, pink-cream. Walls like this reflect more light and create an atmosphere of warm and even sunny room. If the windows are facing south and south-west, then the room is filled with sunlight for long hours and becomes heated up during the warm seasons, so the colors of the walls should be selected from the cold specter - blue, blue-green or gray.

In the northern regions with any window orientation we advise to use warm specter of colors for interior design. In the elongated rooms you can paint the walls in different colors: front and back – in warmer colors, and side walls – in colder hues. It will visually correct the proportions of the room.

Walls are the background for furniture and decorative elements- carpets, paintings, curtains etc. Soothing color of the walls will lend more expression to prints, paintings, curtains and furniture in the room. If the room is furnished with light-colored furniture, the curtains are also monochrome, and you don’t like bright decorative details on your walls, you can try to finish the walls with brightly colored wallpaper or wallpaper with large print. Walls like this will promote a pleasant coloring and lively and dynamic interior design.

3. When developing an interior design take into account the purpose of the premise

When choosing the color for wall finishing you should take into account the purpose of different rooms in the apartment. Warm tones, like beige, deep golden, soft orange and red and burgundy will be suitable for a bedroom. Large ornament, but without excessive details would also be acceptable.

Nursery should have wallpaper of a cleaner color and, of course, they should be light in order not to decrease the lighting in the room. It is worth noting that observation over school children solving math problems have shown that if they had light-green color surface in their eye-sight, the number of mistakes they made went down by more than 13%. But when the children had a red object in their eye-sight, the number of correctly solved problems decreased by 19%. Large quantities of red colors, cold hues of blue and large bright prints in the interior of children’s rooms has a negative impact on a mood of easily agitated children, and distracts their attention when they are doing their homework or go to bed. This is why it is better to avoid such colors and design elements in the interior of premises for children.

When designing the interior for a small premise (for example, in one-bedroom apartment) it is better to use light and soothing grey-blue or light-green and light-yellow tones for wall finishing. Walls of the large premises (apartments with many bedrooms and country houses) can be finished in more intense colors.

Some interior design specialists prefer white color for wall coloring. It is difficult to argue with them. Indeed, white walls serve as a perfect background for furniture of any color, for carpets, paintings, textile and other decorative elements. Premises with white walls are light, comfortable and yet elegant. But the owners of the living premises appreciate the great variety of decorative tricks in interior design, and often, considering many other factors influencing the wall color, they accept not only white but many other different colors.

Coasting and stencil aren’t’ really suitable for decorating the living premises, and often they even spoil the interior design. Using them for interior design is smart only when the walls have large uneven areas, streaks and traces of cracks. Then coasting and stencil will make those deficiencies less noticeable. In order to reduce the excess detail coasting and stencil should be done in the same color as the background wall color in the room, just a little more intense one. Or you can also use the color different from the wall color, but the one balancing with it. Therefore, grey-blue background combines well with green-blue; grey with yellow-orange or light-brown, yellow – with ochroid or light-brown.

The color of the floors should first of all correspond to the level of lighting of the premise, its size and of course the materials you have at hand. Designing the interior, first of all you should decide on the overall color climate of the complete apartment, and then- of each room. You have to keep in mind that multi-colored interior quickly tires the eye, annoys, so it is better not to use more than two-three tones when decorating the interior of a living premise. Especially since the furniture and household items will contribute to the coloring of the room.

Colors of the walls and floor in a room can match based on nuance or contrast harmony. In first case, walls and floor are finished in different shades of the same color (for instance, light grey-blue walls and grey or blue floor covering; golden walls and light wood floors parquetry, etc.). In the second case, walls and floor are done in different colors (yellow-tinted walls and grey-blue floor covering).

Light, reflecting from surroundings, has a significant influence when choosing a wall color for a living premise. If, for example, there are trees growing in front of the windows, or there are lawns in the front yard, then the color of the walls in the house will be greenish; if there is a red or brown wall then the walls will be reddish etc. In order to avoid the reflecting light negatively influencing the color of walls, when designing the interior you have to make sure that their tone corresponds to the tone of light reflected.

In color compositions you should avoid dynamic combination of so called supplementary colors (for instance, red and green, orange and ultra-marine, yellow and purple). Such combinations give the impression of excessive brightness, quickly tire the eye and lead to discomfort feeling.

When choosing coloring of your premise you should keep in mind the purpose and the overall coloring of the apartment or country house.

4. Interior design for living premises

Common room (lounge) in the apartment inhabited by family of 4-5 people serves for a continues place of recreation of a family members, that is why the lounge design in general and its coloring should be clear, soothing and promoting elevated mood. Depending on orientation, you can use golden, yellow-green, grey-blue, grey-green and other cold and warm colors of low and medium intensity.

In the rooms of apartments and country houses from 3-5 bedrooms with small number of inhabitants the lounge is seldom used – mostly for the evening recreation activities and receiving visitors, so the lounge interior can be finished in intense colors promoting elevated celebratory mood (for example, in purple, red, blue or violet). These colors will serve as a great background for light furniture, paintings in golden frames, decorative sculptures etc.

Designing the interior for bedroom it is important to create an atmosphere of a total calm. This can be achieved with soothing warm and light yellow and blue tones. Or, if this room is also going to be used for work or study, then it is best to use light-green, grey-blue, grey-green, and other neutral colors, promoting mental concentration and capacity.

Thinking of interior design for children’s room, where kids of pre-school and school age will sleep, play and study, you have to focus on creating happy atmosphere stimulating kids’ activities. You have to remember that small children like red and orange colors, and school age kids like blue and green colors.

However, notwithstanding the aspiration of kids for bright and intense colors, their use in interior of children’s room should be moderate, since it was detected that these colors, when constantly present and in the eye-sight, have strong influence on children’s psychological state and tire them. When designing the interior for children’s rooms you should choose pastel colors, mixed with white – clear orange, sunny yellow, red, blue. If the room as a whole is finished in dynamic coloring, using bright colors, then it is recommended to use soothing colors like blue, green, grey-blue in the areas for studying and sleeping; they will calm and promote a concentrated learning or healthy sleep. Or, if the design of a room for kids of pre-school and elementary school age is created using calm and toned down colors (white, green mixed with white, orchid, blue or grey), then it is recommended to add to the overall coloring bright and vivid color strokes – like floor rugs, coverlets, furniture finishing, brightly colored wardrobe doors etc.

Rooms designed for children of middle and high-school age should have comfortable areas for sleep, study and rest. This can be achieved by using light moderate hues (grey, grey-blue, grey-green) or white. Walls painted in these hues promote high mental concentration during studying, and serve as a perfect background for paintings, sports equipment, models and other objects children of this age usually keep in their rooms.

Overall coloring of the children’s room should be balanced with all details of furnishing and equipment, including toys. Moreover, you should consider the fact that chaotic use of bright colored strokes can tire the child.

Room for elderly people should be designed in calm hues, without drastic contrasts. This room is inhabited by people most of the time, so its coloring should promote comfort and calmness.

In a study, concentrated mental work will be stimulated by quite brown, beige, green and grey colors.

5. Hallway interior design

Hallway is the premise of a limited space, narrow and somewhat confined. In addition, there is a lack of day light. In order to visually correct these deficiencies the walls of a hallway should be painted in light tones, creating an illusion of a more open space. Light wallpaper with horizontal stripes is used in order to visually increase the space. Vertical print created the impression of a premise with higher ceilings. If the walls in the hallway are to be finished with wood, then it is recommended to save the natural light coloring of wood, which will help to visually expand the space.

6. Kitchen interior design

Kitchen interior design in traditionally based on light tones, which ensures that it will be kept in a proper clean condition. The most preferred colors for kitchen walls are blue with added white, or blue-green, giving out the impression of cool and space.

In small apartments where kitchen serves as a dining room as well, you can use intense color of the walls – blue, green etc. In such combination bright kitchen utensils and equipment stands out beautifully on a darker background, and the room looks elegant. For kitchen finishing and decorating you can use wood. A wall covered with light colored wood looks in perfect balance with wooden kitchen furniture, bright enamel of dishes, dining room and decorative house ware with ethnic motifs, and modern kitchen utensils from colored plastic.

7. Bathroom interior design

Bathroom usually has small size, so in order to create the visual impression of a bigger space its walls are painted (or finished) with clear colors with a lot of added white color - blue, green-blue, lavender, pink, and beige. Other solutions are possible, when the bathroom is finished with glazed tiles of black, red, blue or other intense color, achieving the impressive contrast between the bright equipment and intense coloring of the walls.

In bathroom design the important role is played by curtains covering the bathtub and shower. It should be chosen with consideration for overall coloring of the bathroom. Acceptable balanced color combination can be achieved if the curtain will be matching with the bathroom interior based on nuance harmony (for example, walls are blue, and the curtain is also blue, walls are light-grey and light-coffee, and the curtain is white, etc.).However, some decorative effect can be achieved by contrasting match of colors (for instance, blue walls and yellow curtain, grey walls and red curtain, etc.).

By designing the interior and coloring of each premise you should start from the overall color composition of the apartment. This is the only way to achieve the continuity and harmony of colors in the design of interior.

8. The role played by window frame and equipment colors

A few words on batteries, risers and pipes that often spoil the interior design. In order to make them less noticeable, they are painted with oil-based or water-based paint matching the color of walls or wallpaper shade.

Window and door frames, and base moldings are usually neutral in color. However, they can be chosen as a peculiar design element, by painting them with intense enamels. The color is chosen based on the overall coloring of the apartment. Window and door frames, base moldings from natural wood look pleasant without any paint, but they should be carefully cleaned, polished and covered with transparent varnish. Natural color of wood matches well with any furniture, and gives the room an atmosphere of warmth and comfort. Attached table shows correlation between premises and colors.