Color has a profound effect on our mood. In clothing, interiors, landscape and even natural light, a color can change mood from sad to happy, from anxiety to relaxation, from fear to confidence. Some colors make you want to get out of your chair, others make you want to nestle down and read. Some colors are articulate and must be listened to. Others are very quiet. Some colors indicate that you have traveled or are well-read. Yet others create a desire for closeness, intimacy and love.

An awareness of the emotions generated by different colors is helpful in planning personal palettes, but it must be understood that this information is not absolute. The effects of color on mood will vary from individual to individual.  Color trends will come and go, but a personal color scheme, reflecting the individuality of the person living there, will remain satisfying for years to come. The people who live in a home make it beautiful by choosing color that reflects their likes and their personalities. 

Mood from A Single Color

RED:   Red is the most dramatic, emotional and active of the three primaries. It is an especially versatile color in its effects, enlivening interior spaces by creating excitement, warmth and elegance. The use of red suggests a bold and confident attitude. It is used in those areas where some excitement is needed. It is less often used in sleeping area because of its energizing quality. The complement of red is green.

BLUE:   Blue is a color universally equated with the beauty. Blue is timeless, linking the present with tradition and lasting values. It is the most versatile in expressive values. Psychologically, blue is associated with tranquility and contentment. In interior design, softer and lighter blues are generally preferred for the larger areas.

YELLOW:   It is a powerful color, both light in value and extremely intense in its purest form. It evokes a sense of energy and excitement. Yellow is a perennial favorite in interior design, combining with greens to provide the natural freshness and with red for gaiety and richness.

GREEN:  Green is the most common choice of the designers. It is often used as a dominant room color. Green goes with every other color and makes it a natural neutral. It represents the greenery of the nature and thus provides the room with liveliness.

VIOLET:   It seems to be a color of emotional contrasts. Its paler tints are unabashedly romantic, fragile and quiet feminine. It enjoyed  popularity in the Victorian era and now, as pure colors emerge again, beautiful violet is again in vogue.

ORANGE:   It is amazingly versatile, capable of emitting great energy in its purest form and as an earth tone; it evokes warmth, comfort, and reassurance. Nowadays, lighter orange is popularly known as peach.

PASTELS:   Pastels are simply lighter tints of any hue.  White added to red yields pink, and light pink is a pastel. There is not any particular definition for a pastel color but when colors become so light that they almost seem to be white, they are pastels. The pastels are becoming more and more popular as they create the most sober and elegant look. 
 

Mood From Color Groups 

COOL AND WARM COLORS:  Yellows, oranges, and reds are warm colors.  The hues opposite them on the color wheel greens, blues and purples are cool colors.  Consider the temperature of a color if you want to warm up a room on the shady side of the house or cool off a room with a southern exposure.

LIGHT AND DARK COLORS:   Light colors such as white and yellow are airy, expansive and cheerful.  Use them in small, dark areas that you want to appear larger and brighter. Dark colors such as navy blue or brown can create cozy, sophisticated feeling in oversized rooms.

NURTURING NEUTRALS:   These colors create a sense of peace and well-being. They foster quiet conversation with family and friends and can dispel loneliness.  Colors that impart a sense of warmth and serenity come directly from the earth. Other colors in the neutral group are colors associated with sea such as sand, shell, coral, pearl, stone, seaweed. GREEN is a color, which helps us to adjust to new environments and situations. It will always be found among the ‘nurturing neutrals’. The BLUES represented here will range from winter sky to stream to midnight. The neutrals are somewhat like the furniture while other palettes are more like accents or accessories.

INTELLECTUAL COLORS:   These are the sharp, witty and unique colors, which convey a message that the owner has traveled, is well read and has something to say. These colors will command respect without being overbearing. This palette also starts with an earthy, warm base. Grey is a color, which promotes creativity and will often be found in foundation of an intellectual palette. These greys will be warm and gentle. Some tones of blue suggest communication and trust, so it will naturally be found in the intellectual palette. Navy blues will often find their way in this palette, but its effect is warm and never cold and fragile. Red also appears in this intellectual palette, but the shades will be earthy and complicated burgundy, cranberry.

PLAYFUL COLORS:  These colors are exiting and used for a fun providing environment These playful , whimsical palettes create their own kind of music, like the sounds of children playing. There are highs and lows, lights and darks and always movement and activity. Used in active spaces within the home, a ‘playful’ palette can add energy and vitality. If overdone, this type of palette can become irritating and stressful. The foundation of this palette is WHITE. This could be anywhere from vanilla ice cream to snow drift to winter moon. Then comes the bubble gum pink, buttercup, wintergreen, all the berry colors and crayon colors. Many of these colors will be cool, and even in lighter tones there will be brightness and clarity. The bottom line in creating this type of palette is that the colors should suggest a sense of freedom, play, and fun.

HEALING COLORS:  This palette includes the colors, that are very refreshing and rejuvenating. Like nurturing colors, ‘healing colors’ also begin by getting in touch with nature. The first group of colors considered in this palette is GREEN. Because they have the power to help us adjust to new environments, skillful designers use lots of plants and other forms of green. Healing greens may be warm or cool, but not muddy or mysterious like those in the intellectual palette. Healing palettes also take inspirations from warm earth tones. These palettes usually contain contrast as well as clarity of color that is inspiring. They will include a range of lights and darks but will never be muddy.

ROMANTIC COLORS:  Many species, including human attempt to attract the opposite sex with colors. RED is the color of sex and lust and is often called the most romantic of colors. It is no accident that red is the chosen symbolic color for the Valentine’s Day. In interior design, however, a less intense, softer tone of red is far more conducive to romance than the pure hue.  PINK has an interesting quality that seems to halt the body’s ability to stay angry. PURPLE is another color, which is definitively romantic because of its passionate, unpredictable, and quixotic characteristics. Paler, less intense tones of ORANGE such as apricot and peach are often included in the romantic palette, suggesting purity and innocence. BLUES in the romantic palette will be cool and inspired by water.