Colour affects your mood, your behavior, your personality, energy levels and much more. Emotional, physical and behavioral changes can be made using colour. Colours all have a positive and negative side.

You can use colour in your home to create the desired atmosphere.

Red
Red represents power, fire, passion, excitement, vitality, courage, impulsiveness and sensuality. It increases blood pressure and the respiratory rate. It aids digestion and encourages appetite and conversation. It keeps us alert. Use red in activity areas, not bedrooms, offices or stress areas. Small areas of red in a textured finish look great with neutrals.

Orange
Orange is self reliance and practical knowledge. It is tolerant, optimistic, warm-hearted, bold, cheerful, gregarious, extroverted, fickle, and exuberant.
It decreases irritability and hostility; it improves social behavior. Orange is suitable for dining and entertainment areas, not bedrooms, offices or stress areas. It is good in entry rooms, hallways and in the home office and library. Use in small amounts.

Yellow
This colour represents optimism and warmth but also irritability and annoyance. It sharpens the memory, stimulates digestion and circulation and tends to increase hostility. Yellow is connected to the seat of self confidence and self control. The positive behaviors are communication and innovation but the negatives are egotism, caution and discrimination. Not to be used in bedrooms, offices, and study or work areas as it encourages detachment and nervousness. Kitchens benefit from a splash of yellow as it inspires efficiency.

Green
Green is harmony, socially awareness, dependability, and compassion. It also represents growth, inexperience, prosperity and generosity. Physically, it represents rejuvenation, balance and expansiveness. It is analytical and reflective. Green can be used in rooms that need balanced judgment. This is probably why it is used in operating theatres. It makes rooms look flat, dead and empty so it is not good in most living areas or activity areas. It encourages indecision and encourages stasis so don’t use it in a study or office. It can be used in hallways, giving a hospitable and welcoming feel. Mint green is refreshing, natural and fresh and can be used in family rooms. Green is also very good used in kitchens. Green is the opposite or complementary colour to red, which means that a touch of red or pink with the correct shade of green makes for a good colour scheme.

Turquoise
This is a cool, calming, refreshing and soothing colour. This is good for calming nervousness and for bringing inflammation down. It is single minded, introspect, self reliant and self possessed. It can be indecisive and boastful. This colour is not good for activity areas but is great for kitchens, bathrooms, bedrooms, offices and treatment rooms.

Blue
This colour is the spirit of truth. Blue brings rest. It is cooling, calming and tranquil. Blue stands for loyalty, sincerity, justice and peace. It lowers blood pressure, slows the respiratory rate and is a relaxing antidote for red. It helps to combat tension, nervousness and insomnia and is good for asthmatic conditions.
It represents conservative, authoritative and responsible behaviors and also pragmatic, manipulative and dogmatic behaviors.
Blue is best used in bedrooms, offices, stress areas and treatment rooms but not dining or entertaining rooms.

Indigo
This colour has force and power. It is spiritual, devout or faithless, discerning, optimistic, organized, submissive and immoderate. Indigo can bring down high blood pressure, is good for chest complaints, sinus problems and migraines. It is the best colour for insomnia so it would make a great feature wall in the bedroom.

Purple
This represents royalty, reverence, quietness, serenity, mysticism, creativity, spirituality and contentment. It is philosophical, elegant and evokes lateral thinking. In the negative, it can be haughty, snobbish and merciless. Purple lowers blood pressure, depresses appetite, and calms overactive glands and overactive internal dialogue. It encourages purpose and so would be effective if used in lecture rooms, entrance halls to hospitals, and in festive areas. In open plan areas, it works well to visually divide an area. It is good in an office as it alleviates eye strain. It is cozy in a small bedroom.

Pink
This colour represents affection, love and forgiveness. It is emotional, gentle, friendly, protective and guarded.  Magenta is more spiritually fulfilled and content. Pinks, from soft to darker tones are not good in entertainment areas but are better in bedrooms, chapels, entrance halls and lecture rooms. Dusty pink is soft, cozy and subtle.

Brown
Brown represents earthiness. It is tranquil, casual, safe and natural. It is a reliable, stable colour which also reflects as dull and ultraconservative. It makes for a relaxed living area. It then can take other colours as the accessories. It is an easy colour to live with as lighter and darker shades can be used with colours such as lime green, mandarin, aqua, shocking pink, white and black.

Caramel
This is an enthusiastic colour. It is also practical and sensible and can be mixed with creams and chocolate browns, golds and warm whites.

Vanilla
This is fresh, pure, professional and neutral and can be mixed with almost any other colour. Vanilla can be used in any room.

Taupe
This is a trustworthy colour. It is calm truthful and sincere. Taupe looks great with other neutrals but also with a splash of red or burgundy.

Grey
This colour shows steadiness, stability, indecision, dignity and resignation. It is a bridge between black and white where innocence and ignorance meet. Grey can be optimistic but in its negative state can be narrow minded, indecisive and depressing. Grey used in cushions on a white sofa can look graceful and neat. Pink and timber colours look good with soft grey and silvers. Grey also looks good with red.

Black
This colour is both sophisticated and intimidating. It is elegant but also indicates something is missing. It can be destructive and creative, strong and superior and yet troublesome and despairing. It is not suitable as an overall colour but can be used as successfully in accessories and even one wall can create drama when mixed with red and white and brilliant lighting.

White
All colours are equal in white. White represents joy, hope, purity, innocence, cleanliness, enlightenment and also seclusion, barrenness and rigidity. Behaviorally, it represents idealism, optimism, individualism and indecision.
White is very stark and can be used in rooms that have many ornaments, paintings and plants. It is a good backdrop for an art gallery.

Gold
Gold is purity. Gold means “I am”. It is confident, warm, optimistic and challenging. It is uplifting and has an antidepressant effect. It is rich. Gold looks good mixed with cream, which is refreshing, fresh and mature. Using gold accessories in the dining room creates a feeling of wellbeing among your guests.

Silver
Silver stills the emotions. It illuminates and pierces. Silver is revealing, contemplative, impartial, astute and flowing. It is also deceitful, disconnected and unauthentic. Silver calms the nerves and the hormones. It harmonizes. Use as accessories and frames for mirrors, art and photographs.
 
The proportions of a room and the amount of natural light are importance indicators for your colour scheme as colour can make rooms look larger or smaller or wider or narrower.