The role of colors in interior design

Color plays a larger role in interior design than you might think. It can influence perceptions about the look of the room and the objects in it as well as what people look at in the room and what they notice and don’t notice.

Three effects of colour in the interior design of your home include perceptions of the size of objects and rooms, placing emphasis on focal points and minimizing less attractive features, and directing attention around the room.

Color and Perceived Size and Weight

Color influences people’s perceptions of the size of objects and rooms. If, for example, you have a small room or a tiny nook in your home, and you would like it to feel larger, painting it with light cool colours, such as icy blue, or light neutrals will do the trick. As painters, especially landscape painters, know, these colours appear to recede from the eye, giving a feeling of three-dimensional depth to the two-dimensional surface of the canvas. Just as they appear to recede on canvas, so they will appear to recede in your home, creating a sense of expansion even in small spaces. Light-coloured spaces also feel cool and airy. As it is with rooms, so it is with objects. Lightly coloured furniture and objects also appear larger than they are, but they also appear to be light in weight. These are two concepts to keep in mind when you are trying to arrange, unlike objects to create a casual, informal sense of balance.

The opposite is true of dark and warm colours. In a painting, these colours appear to advance and stand out in the foreground against the background of lighter colours. If you have a very large room or one in which you want to create a cozy, intimate feel, use warm or dark colours. In cool climates, rooms done in dark or warm colours at least look warm. When choosing dark coloured furniture or objects, remember that the objector furniture will appear smaller than it actually is but will also appear to be weightier.

Color to Accentuate the Positive and Disguise the Negative

You can use the perception that dark and warm colours advance while light and cool colours recede to draw attention to wherever you want in a room. You don't even necessarily have to introduce dark or warm colours to a room done in light or cool colours or vice versa. If you want to draw attention to a particular architectural feature, furniture grouping, or piece of art, all you have to do is make sure that the background is lighter in colour than the object you want to be noticed. So, in the case of a room decorated in dark or warm colours, use muted or lighter shades of dark colours as a background for a darker or more brightly coloured focal point. If you want to draw attention away from an unattractive feature, simply make sure that it is lighter than its surroundings.

Using Color to Draw Attention Around Your Room

Focal points are important, but you want people to notice and be drawn to other areas as well. Painters know that repetition is their friend. They repeat colours in various areas of the painting to draw the eye of the viewer around the canvas. In a room, simply choose an important colour or two from your focal point, and repeat that colour or those colours at frequent enough intervals that they will catch attention and draw the eye of the viewer around the room.