Your choices of colour for your home can profoundly impact how the space feels. The colour wheel can be used to understand how to combine colours in unique and vibrant ways. Complementary colours opposite each other on the wheel, like blue and orange, create high contrast and energy. Monochromatic schemes use different shades of one colour, while analogous schemes combine a primary colour with the two colours on either side. A study found that bedrooms painted blue led to the longest sleep, as blue may help lower heart rate and blood pressure, whereas purple was too stimulating for restful sleep. Colour selection is important for achieving the right mood and quality of rest.

1. Colour Psychology – colour in your
home
Your choices of colour for your house can have a profound
impact on how your home (and the people in it) feel. Are
you maximising the potential for colour in your home?
It’s all too easy to opt for simple old Magnolia, but if you
want to use more vibrant colours, especially in
combination, you need to understand the colour wheel.
This really opens up your options, as you can use unusual
contrasts for a really unique room.

2. The Colour Wheel
The basic rule is that colours opposite each other on the
colour wheel are complementary, according to Charles
Blanc’s colour wheel (the colour wheel which inspired 19th
century artists such as Vincent Van Gogh and Claude

3. Monet). Blue and orange, red and green and yellow and
violet, then, are the complementary colours created from
the primary colours (red, yellow and blue).
What colours go together?
Monochromatic
This means that you choose different shades or intensities
of the same colour and use them in combination, for
example a pale blue, then a pale blue with a lighter hue,
and one with a darker tone. This is done by adding white or

4. adding black (or grey) so that the basic colour remains the
same.
Analogous
This approach entails combining one main colour (usually
the primary colour) with the two colours either side
(usually tertiary colours). It often gives a look a feel of
warmth or cool (think cool blue or hot red). Yellow, yellow-
orange and orange (think Van Gogh’s Sunflowers) are an
example of an analogous colour palette.

5. Contrast
A contrast colour scheme is one which uses colours from
different segments of the colour wheel. Red and blue are
contrasting, therefore, because red is from the warm half
and blue from the cool half of the wheel. The more
transitional colours which separate the two colours, the
greater the contrast (until they reach “contrasting”, or
“complementary”, colours). Magenta and orange, for
example, are contrasting, but magenta and yellow or
magenta and green are a much higher contrast.

6. Complementary
A complementary scheme uses complimentary colours –
opposites on the wheel. This makes it one of the most
dynamic colour schemes you can opt for – opposite colours,
like combining blue and orange, are guaranteed to add
energy – perfect for a room like the kitchen. If you’re
wondering how you could combine these colours, think
statement wall in one of the colours – a strong blue, for
example – with accessories and accents in orange. This
orange coffee machine is a great counter top staple to

7. liven up a room. Orange is also said to spike appetite, and
leave feelings of warmth and reassurance, so it is perfect
for Living and Dining rooms.
Colour and sleep
Colours are also analogous with emotions. Hotels on the
move company Travelodge conducted a survey in 2013
which asked an audience about their sleep quality and the
colour of the room they sleep in, and drew some
interesting results.

8. Out of 2000 respondents, it was those sleeping in a blue
bedroom who slept for the longest. For rooms where you
want to be calm and relaxed, blue is ideal – studies even
suggest that it may slow the heart rate and even bring your
blood pressure down. It is a shade linked to being calm and
soothed. Green and yellow are also supposed to nurture
feelings of calm and relaxation, and these colours came in
second and third in terms of sleep quantity enjoyed by
respondents, with blue rooms allowing on average seven
hours 52 minutes, yellow bedrooms seven hours 40 and
green seven hours 36.

9. Colours to avoid in the bedroom include purple, as it is too
stimulating, and grey and brown, viewed as too dreary.
These came in at the bottom of the Travelodge survey, with
those sleeping in a purple bedroom enjoying only five hours
56 minutes of shut eye!
Chris Idzikowski, a Sleep Expert from the Edinburgh Sleep
Centre commented on Travelodge’s discoveries, saying:
“[t]his is an amazing result, as there are specialised
receptors called ganglion cells in the retina part of our
eyes, which are most sensitive to the colour blue. These

10. receptors feed information into an area deep in our brain
that controls 24 hour rhythms, and affects how we perform
and feel during the day. That interaction between light,
sleep and wakefulness is supremely important.”
Who knew that colour was so crucial in helping you get a
good night’s sleep? Make sure to match up both your colour
coordination and the moods you intend to create in your
room in order to get a room that is both harmonious and
works for you!
For more please see: http://www.hss.com/