Color is a bit like magic… it affects your well being, your activity level and your mood… all without your awareness that something is changing your perception of reality. For example, have you ever felt your nerves jangled from a certain barrage of different colors, or have you been in a room that felt too cold and sterile… or in an all beige room that bored you? If ever there ever is a place to surround yourself with colors that make you feel good, it’s in your own home.  Knowledge of color can help get you started. Colors have characteristics… Warm colors are variations of red, pink, oranges and yellows. They are active colors that communicate vigor, cheer you, stimulate appetite, promote conversation, and evoke emotions. Warm energizing colors are perfect for active rooms in your home such as entry halls, dining rooms and playrooms. Cool colors are greens, blues and purples. They can cool you down, calm and soothe your nerves, and promote introspection. Use cool colors in areas of rest and relaxation such as bedrooms, living rooms and spas. Neutral colors are open minded, down to earth colors that are easy on the eyes. They can make you feel safe and secure and seem to work well with other colors. Neutrals are perfect for rooms that connect to other rooms, and are the ideal bridge for warm and cool colors. Some neutral colors are beige, taupes, putty, khakis, gray, blacks, and creams. Neutral colors, as well as ALL COLORS, have either warm or cool undertones. Colors get classified as either warm or cool. Warm colors will have yellow undertones, (ie.. orange, fire engine red, yellow-green), and cool colors will have blue undertones, (ie.. royal blue, maroon, deep forest green). We all know the familiar color formula; Warm colors advance and Cool colors recede… well this is not always true. The usual advice will be if you want a room to seem larger, paint the walls with cool colors. If you want the room to cozy up and seem smaller, bathe your walls in warm colors... BUT… a blue can cozy up a room just as effective as an orange… and a soft yellow can seem to make your walls dissolve, enhancing your sense of space. It comes down to a matter of color value… lightness or darkness, and intensity… (how saturated or pure the color is) as much as temperature of a color.(warm or cool) In general, lighter, paler or less intense colors will enlarge the space, where darker or more intense colors will shrink a space. A Starting Place… If a particular color always makes you feel good, then it might be the perfect starting place for your entire color scheme.  Another suggestion, draw a color scheme from a favorite piece of fabric… Or emphasize your favorite painting or sculpture and pick accent colors in the room to support it… Or choose a color from your favorite object or grouping of objects… Remember to think about color proportion and to finally ‘pull it all together’ and provide unity by repeating a color from room to room that leads your eye from one area to the next.  If choosing a color is not something that you would like to do, we can help. Shelton Painting offers color consultations. We will be happy to spend time helping you choose the right colors for your home. We will provide large color samples for you to look at and discuss your personal color needs with you in your home. Once we have dialed in some choices, we will paint your color samples directly onto your exterior or interior walls. We want to make sure you see each interior color choice in your lighting, with your adjacent colors. Likewise, if it is an exterior color choice, we want you to view the color choices in the early morning light, afternoon and evening light. Above all, make your color choice fun! It is a wonderful way to make refreshing changes to your home. Whether or not you are making small seasonal color changes, or more permanent color changes, we want your color experience to be enjoyable. If we can ever be of help, please send us your questions, comments or concerns to the email link provided on our home page, or call us to set up a personal color consultation at your convenience.