Which colors for the interiors?

Colors are a wonderful way to create a certain mood in rooms. But that’s not all: with a particular colored coat of paint, you can make rooms appear visually larger or smaller. But which color should you use to paint which room? Is blue better in the bathroom or in the bedroom? Since we too have gone back and forth about this again and again, and spent numerous evenings browsing the internet, I would like to show you some information here about color design for interiors:

Which wall color suits me?

Before you start painting the walls with colors right away, you should first calmly consider what mood you want to create in the respective room. Should the room feel more sensual, cozy, or rather calm and cool? In addition, some colors influence the perception of room dimensions, and some can significantly change daylight. But it is always important to take your own taste into account; everyone has favorite colors that they like to have around them. When designing rooms, you should consider this and choose colors that make you feel comfortable.

Tricking the eye with colors

Small rooms

For smaller rooms, you should tend to choose light and cool colors; wallpapers with small patterns are also preferable. Cool and light colors expand the room and appear farther away.

If a wall has no door or window, it can be given a large pattern that serves as a good contrast. Gloss effects can also be used here as a highlight.

The wall colors white, off-white, and light powder colors draw the viewer’s gaze into the distance. Small rooms therefore immediately appear much larger with a light wall color. If you want to bring more depth into a small room, paint the narrow side with a dark color and the side walls with a lighter color.

Large rooms

In larger rooms, you can certainly use intense or warm tones. Warm and bold color tones shorten the room, because these colors visually come toward the viewer. Furthermore, warm colors give a sense of security and thus create more coziness.

Low rooms

If you want low rooms to appear higher, you should paint the ceiling with a light color and additionally illuminate it. Elongating, vertical patterns on the walls also help the room appear higher.

High but narrow rooms

If the rooms are high but narrow, you should choose a horizontally oriented pattern and not extend it all the way up to the ceiling, but leave a wide strip free. Paint the ceiling additionally with a dark color.

Visually enlarge niches, dormers, or bay windows

Niches, dormers, and bay windows can be visually enlarged by choosing light contrasts.

Walls and ceiling in one color

If the walls and ceilings are painted in the same color, this creates a calm, enveloping effect.

Eye-catcher – a colored wall

A wall in a different color makes for a wonderful eye-catcher. However, make sure that the colors harmonize well – ideally by using color cards or a test coat. If you are not quite sure, always choose a non-color as a contrast, such as white.

Consciously choose the floor color

When choosing the floor color, an additional aspect can also be added to the room; a darker floor, for example, grounds the room and conveys security. Many DIY stores have samples you can take with you so that you can check whether the floor matches the wall color and whether you feel comfortable with it.

Which color for which room

All colors create a certain effect; you should definitely take this into account and carefully consider which color to paint your own four walls. Here I have described the most popular wall colors in more detail:

Gray

The non-color gray is very often underestimated as a wall color, which is a great shame, because it lends rooms elegance. Gray appears neutral and matter-of-fact to the viewer and is therefore very well suited to emphasizing details, such as pictures. The color gray makes other tones shine. Just be careful of too much gray as a wall or ceiling color: it is perceived as gloomy and heavy.

Tip: We chose a dark gray in our study and are very enthusiastic about it. With white furniture and accessories in white and red. It has become one of our favorite rooms.

White

The color white is one of the non-colors and is a neutral room color. In interior design today, white plays a key role, because this color neutralizes, lightens, or enlivens others. Many people furnish their rooms completely in white in order to recover within their own four walls from the big colorful world.

This color does not push itself into the foreground and is therefore well suited for the bedroom or for relaxation rooms.

Blue

Blue is a cool color that has an expanding and consistent effect, because it is associated with the sky and the sea. The color stands for harmony, loyalty, calm, relaxation, and balance. For small rooms, a light blue is therefore a very good choice, for example for a small toilet or bathroom, because it appears distant and light and expands the room. But blue is also a good choice for bedrooms or rooms for relaxation, as it has a calming and reserved effect, creates peace, and promotes concentration. Dark shades of blue appear compact and provide support. It is also interesting that rooms painted blue are always perceived as a few degrees cooler. As a ceiling color, blue lets us dream beautifully.

Yellow

The color yellow is associated with the sun and light and conveys a feeling of lightness and cheerfulness. In a room, yellow has a radiant, opening effect and is ideal for rooms with little daylight, such as north-facing rooms or bathrooms without windows. The color yellow has a stimulating, invigorating effect and increases desire for sex. Furthermore, this color promotes concentration, conversation, eagerness to learn, and has a positive effect on our memory. It can be wonderfully combined with dark colors. This color is ideal for discussion and meeting rooms and in rooms used by young people.

But not all yellow is the same: if the color contains more green tones, it appears rather fresh and bright; with an excess of red components, sunny and warm.

Extra tip: Why not paint the ceiling yellow sometime? Most people perceive yellow ceilings as brighter and more radiant than white ones.

Orange

Orange is an energetic, life-affirming color that is usually perceived as warm, optimistic, and also loud. When rooms are painted in this color, they convey dynamism and activity and appear stimulating, warm, and cozy. Orange is a friendly and “social” color. Why not paint a wall in the office or training room orange? Furthermore, orange stimulates the appetite and promotes sociability, and is also ideal for kitchens or dining rooms or for north-facing rooms with little light. If a ceiling is painted orange, it makes the room lower, but has a strongly stimulating effect.

Extra tip: Do not lighten orange with too much white; it loses all its luminosity.

Green

This color stands for nature and freshness, and gives us creativity and regeneration. Green in a home provides calm, balance, security, and comfort. This shade awakens the desire for something new and is considered a source of creativity. A room with green wall paint has a vitalizing and restorative effect.

The color green cannot be described as either a cold or a warm color. Here it depends very much on the shade, because depending on this, green can have a fresh or invigorating effect (high proportion of yellow) or a calming and cool effect (high proportion of blue). Thus, only a very light green has a calming effect and is recommended for designing living and working areas that should radiate calm and stimulate intellectual activity or creativity.

A light and fresh green should not be missing from any home, whether as a wall color, accessory, or plants. A room with green wall paint feels as if you are surrounded by a hedge; as a ceiling color, it has a protective and covering effect.

Turquoise and blue-green

Turquoise and blue-green are the moderate mood of green and blue. These colors have a stabilizing, compressing effect and are more defining than blue. Turquoise creates cool distance and brings about a cool but personal room atmosphere.

Red

Red is the color of love and stands for passion as well as power. It has an active and fiery effect, but also an aggressive one, and visually narrows rooms. This color stimulates both psychologically and physically, and promotes physical movement and work. It promotes blood circulation in the body, stimulates the metabolism, increases desire for sex, and makes you happy. Like orange, red stimulates the appetite and can therefore also be found in dining rooms and kitchens. If you have the problem of being overweight, then it is better to prefer blue or green in the kitchen.

For rooms in which you want to calm down, you should not choose red as the dominant color, because it is unsuitable here. Since red is perceived as warm, it is ideal for cool rooms in order to save on heating costs.

Depending on the color composition and intensity, it becomes passionate, demanding, or heavy and material. Red rooms or red color accents are clearly an eye-catcher; just be careful with too much red – this can also have an aggressive, unsettling, and oppressive effect. Paint larger areas red only cautiously; rather use color accents, such as painting just one wall as an eye-catcher. A red ceiling color is not recommended, as it appears heavy and unsettling.

Purple and violet

Violet is a wonderfully mystical color of magic that can give a room something mysterious and ambivalent. Depending on how intense the purple chosen is, the room can also appear delicate and floral or cool and melancholic. Furthermore, this color gives rooms a solemn mood, making it excellently suited for reception rooms. In living spaces, this color can create too sacred a mood in the long run, because violet makes you passive and has a calming effect. Violet curbs appetite and the desire for sex, so use it carefully in kitchens, dining rooms, and bedrooms.

This color is a true magician: it can give rooms depth or visually make them smaller. However, rooms painted entirely in violet can dampen the mood, and as a ceiling color, purple feels oppressive.

Pink

Pink is associated with being a typical girls’ color and is therefore perceived as feminine, sweet, and innocent. It conveys a feeling of lightness and spaciousness and brings gentleness into the room. This color reduces aggression and makes people receptive to the moods of others. This color is a romantic color and harmonizes wonderfully with white furniture and accessories. Experts agree that pink is the best choice for the bedroom. But be careful with shades of pink that are too dark: a strong pink overwhelms the room and should therefore rather be used only for color accents, such as painting just one wall. As a ceiling color, pink has a translucent effect.

Brown, ocher, sienna

The color brown is a warm, passive color and is associated with the earth. It creates a wonderfully calm atmosphere and gives the resident a feeling of security and comfort. Brown as a room color radiates coziness and gives the room a natural, rustic character. These tones warm and soften, have a calming and balancing effect. You can use these colors almost anywhere in the home. Light brown tones as wall colors have a slightly invigorating effect; as a ceiling color, a covering effect. Darker tones appear solid and compact as wall colors and oppressive and heavy as ceiling colors.

Gold

The color gold is a radiant color that is perceived as opulent and classic. Golden accessories give a room that certain something.

Silver

Silver is a cool and modern color and has a very metallic effect.

Black

Black is one of the non-colors that works wonderfully as a combination color. However, black as a wall color has a reversing effect, and too much black is perceived as gloomy and heavy. A black ceiling is completely discouraged, because it feels burdensome and burying.

Color combinations

Light and neutral wall colors go excellently with glamorous room details such as decorative moldings, stucco, or extravagant furniture. The brave should dare to paint a room in a dark wall color. You will be amazed at how this room can be transformed. Used correctly, dark colors appear dramatic and attractive and transform inconspicuous rooms into expressive spaces. Now you can choose whether you would rather paint the floor, walls, and ceiling with related colors so that the contours of the room blur, or create contrasts by choosing contrasting colors for moldings and accessories. If you want to set accents, the accessories must stand out clearly from the dark wall color; only then will they become a highlight.

If, despite all the information, you still do not dare to paint the whole wall in one color, then try varying the tonal value of your wall color or decorating a white wall with a wall decal or a border.

My personal experiences

So far, we have painted every room in a color; personally, I find it much more cheerful and it gives the rooms character. I am especially proud of our study, because we were brave and painted this room dark gray with a white ceiling. While painting, I remember having a few doubts about whether it was really a good idea, but when the bright white furniture, the red accessories, and the colorful books flowed into the room, this room became my absolute favorite room. Our living room, which we painted in two colors, terracotta and a warm yellow tone, has also become a cozy room.

I found choosing the wall color for the children’s room difficult. Because many activities are combined in this room, and they do not always go together. In this room, the children should play creatively and later also learn, but in the evening our children should find the necessary calm here. We then decided on a rich yellow tone, since the children are supposed to learn and play here during the day. In the evening, we transform the rooms into a cozy sleeping den with dim lighting and dark blinds. Only my favorite color, violet, have I not yet been able to incorporate into any room, but we are far from finished painting.

Photos by Sabine, meinhaushalt.at

Read also: Furnishing – Different Interior Design Styles