| Some spaces make your heart rate slow down, | | | | hypothalamus that has numerous effects on our |
| others send your pulses racing. Think about these | | | | moods, mental clarity, and energy." Color is also used |
| questions. When you go to a museum, do you look | | | | as an identifying factor in both large and small scale |
| for Picasso, with his sharp disjointed characters, or | | | | places where it may be hard for someone to locate |
| Claude Monet, with his soft gentle gardens? When | | | | themself, such as a parking garage, or in home |
| you go to an amusement park, do you ride the roller | | | | settings where those with failing health may not be |
| coaster or the merry go round? Are you a thrill | | | | able to easily find their way or identify a space. Spas |
| seeker and adventurer, or would you prefer to | | | | use colors competely differently then night clubs. So |
| cuddle up with a beloved book in a big soft chair? | | | | how can color work for you?Find A |
| Would you prefer to spend an afternoon walking a | | | | Centerpiece!Clearly, color is a major influencing factor |
| shoreline, hiking a mountain, tending a garden, reading | | | | in life. How can you use this to make your space |
| a book or watching TV? Since it's all about the feeling | | | | reflect you. It's actually not hard. FIND A |
| you want a space to achieve, let's look at how color | | | | CENTERPIECE! Find something that attracts your |
| affects feeling.According to color studies, red is | | | | attention and draws you to it in a positive way. |
| known as a "warm" color, while blues and greens are | | | | Something that puts your head into that zone where |
| "cool". Red and its surrounding hues are thought to | | | | the world fades away. I often pick up shells while |
| be "exciting and active" while blues, violets and green | | | | walking on a beach and look at the shades of cream, |
| are associated with "passive and calming". Light colors | | | | lavender, blue, and gray found there. Nature is pretty |
| are also thought to be "active" while deep colors can | | | | good at putting palettes together. The black, white |
| be "passive". Think about a white room versus a | | | | and grey of a seagull, the bright greens, pink and |
| room painted a flat deep hunter green or navy. Put | | | | yellows of hibiscus, the blue that fades to black in a |
| some low level light in the deep room and it's a | | | | sunset, the deepening colors of layers of hills falling |
| shadowy glen, where light is absorbed by the walls, | | | | backwards, all provide sources of inspiration. Some |
| while white walls reflect the light and activate a | | | | people like earth colors, some Caribbean pastels, |
| space. Colors that activate spaces, such as red, are | | | | some flaming sunsets, some Times Square at night. |
| thought to also stimulate the nervous system, while | | | | Find a centerpiece for your space, an object which |
| the passive colors release tension, and calm | | | | contains colors and what I'll call "an emotional energy" |
| nerves.Color is carried by light into our brains through | | | | that you love. Something that makes you happy |
| our eyes. According to an Hiroshi Sasaki's "Color | | | | when you look at it, something that in it's essence |
| Psychology" (1991), ancient Egyptians, Chinese and | | | | makes you feel good.Paintings, fabrics, a piece of |
| Indians believed in healing with color: "red to stimulate | | | | nature, a piece of art, a photograph, a wallpaper |
| physical and mental energies, yellow to stimulate the | | | | mural, are great items to provide that centerpiece. If |
| nerves, orange to stimulate the solar plexus and | | | | what attracts you is monochromatic, then use hues |
| revitalize the lungs, blue to soothe and heal organic | | | | of the color around your room. Change the scale in a |
| disorders such as colds, hay fever, and liver | | | | coordinating fabric, and add a pillow in a lighter or |
| problems, and indigo to counteract skin problems ". | | | | darker shade for an accent. If your centerpiece is |
| Babies born with jaundice are given blue light | | | | multicolored, use the colors in paint, or coordinating |
| treatments for a cure, and other studies have shown | | | | fabrics, and they'll go together, and it will suit you |
| that replacing fluorescent lights with full spectrum | | | | because your centerpiece will tie it together. If you |
| lights, can change behaviors. He even theorized that | | | | want to try painting and wallpapering a virtual room, |
| color transcends sight, that color can affect people | | | | click here. This is a new tool to test paints and |
| who are blind, or partially visually impaired, "that | | | | wallpapers in countless combinations in 3d room |
| neurotransmitters in the eye transmit information | | | | settings. To try designing and furnishing rooms click |
| about light to the brain even in the absence of sight, | | | | here. Enjoy! |
| and that this information releases a hormone in the | | | | |