Choosing the Right Colors for Your Home

Colors enrich our world. When we are surrounded by colors, we are able to create a particular atmosphere that suits our needs. This article lists four tips on choosing colors for your home.

We can harness the strength and benefits of colors when we use them to enhance our home. Blending colors successfully can help create a harmonious environment that is calm and relaxing or lively and energizing. Here are four tips on how you can enhance your health and well-being by choosing the right colors for your home:

Sumersault Window Valance- Geo Girl

1. Let the yellow sunshine in 

When you are designing your home environment, consider the amount of sunlight that enters each room. Make sure you get enough glow from the sun’s beams. When sunlight is received into your mind and body, it will give you a feeling of purification. Allowing sunlight to flood into dark corners also rids a room of its staleness and kills some bacteria.

2. Choose colors that heal and inspire 

When you are decorating, think about the effects of color on the room itself and its future inhabitants. How will the room be used? Who will occupy it? Will their problems be alleviated or worsened by your color choices? What are their ambitions and aims? An orange room, for example, will instill cheerfulness into its occupants.

3. Match color with size

Before choosing colors, consider the size and shape of each room. The stronger the color, the smaller a room will appear. Small rooms tend to look more spacious when decorated and painted in pale colors. In larger areas, colors may appear to be more intense. Avoid using a strong color for a big room as it can cause claustrophobia. For dark narrow rooms use light, clear colors.

4. Light and shade 

Before using white, check how much daylight the room receives. A bright white room can be tiring for the eyes and cause frustration. Deep colors may look good with a room that gets plenty of sunshine. When deep colors blend with sunlight, they become several shades duller at night, but can look cozy on firelight or candlelight. If you are painting only one wall in a different color, do not choose a wall where there is a door or window as this dissipates the color energy.

Adding Accent to Your Home Furniture

Do you find your home furniture dull because of their plain colors or design?  You can make the interior of your home more alive by adding accents to your furniture.  Popular furniture accents include art objects or paintings.  However, you do not need to limit yourself when it comes to creativity.  Use some of these unique accents to bring more style and zing to your home:

Decorative Bowls and Plates

Bowls and plates make good decorative elements for the living room.  Place round plates on top of long rectangular tables to create balance.  You can choose to have decorative or souvenir plates, whichever complements the tone of your furniture.  If you have small children, it may be best to display souvenir plates made of tin or aluminum. 

Folded Fabric and Scarves

Do you have odd cuts of fabric stored in your home?  You can stitch them together and turn them into mosaic or quilt-like table runners.  You can also fold them into triangles and drape over couches and chairs. 

Scarves may not seem like a common accent, but they also add beauty and tone to your home.  Use them to wrap a chair’s backrest or to cover a wooden table.  Silk scarves in royal colors go well with dark furniture.  Use light colored cotton scarves for light brown wooden furniture.  If you wish to be more creative, buy plain colored scarves and jazz them up with beads and sequins. 

Mini Pillows

Little pillows are decorative elements that can be added to couches, lazy chairs, sofas and the like.  These pillows can also serve as back support for those who have back problems.  If you suffer from allergies, be sure to use hypoallergenic pillows and pillow cases that are not likely to gather too much dust.

Photo Albums

Photo albums, with their varied covers and design, may be used to decorate any part of the house where visitors usually stay.  Aside from being an accent to furniture, they also serve as “entertainers” to visitors who may need to wait a while. A great type of photo album to use these days is the digital photo album.  It stands like a framed photo on top of a table and can be programmed to do a slideshow of several photos.    

Favorite Collectibles

Do you collect something that can probably serve as décor?  Some people show off their collection by placing them atop shelves and long tables.  You can display whatever you wish be it a collection of pepper mills, matroshka dolls, or M&M dispensers.  The important thing is, you have something that adds life to seemingly plain home furniture.