As a home decorator or someone who simply wants to breath some fresh air into your living environment, it's important that you get out of the habit of reaching for the white paint when it's time to freshen up your walls. Not that there's anything wrong with white paint - it's just so standard that it has quite truthfully become a bit boring and sterile. To give your environment a splash of personality, why not try some real color?

Beware The Power Of Color!

We all know that color influences our moods. Unless your walls are white (or even off-white), your environment can actually dictate the kind of behavior that you want to experience. Now we're not suggesting that you engage in any psychological warfare or anything, but we are suggesting that you take some time in selecting the colors that you want your walls painted with because they can create a feeling - whether you want them to or not!

Moods, Feelings, and the Effect of Color

Generally, deep blues, greens and browns reinforce the feelings that we experience when we're outdoors. These are the colors of nature, however black, white, gold, purples and/or rich reds give us a feeling of elegance or even royalty. Yellow, red, and orange colors can visually warm a room, while blue and dark purple can cool it down. Calming colors are green and blue while colors that excite us are red, orange, and yellow.

The Role of Decorative Painting in Creating a Mood

Decorative painting makes use of these feelings and combines them in such a way that they may even create multiple moods in one setting. Generally, decorative painting attempts to set an overall mood while the objects and/or appliances in a room complete the mood. For example, a room that's painted blue may include light purple carpeting and dark green blinds. The blue walls tie the purple and green together because both purple and green contain a little blue inside of them: red + blue = purple; yellow + blue = green.

Complimentary and Accent Colors

Complimentary colors are hues that blend in well with a main color because they contain a little of the main color. And our carpet and blinds example demonstrates the use of complimentary colors. Accent colors on the other hand are small bits of color that make a main color stand out. Back in our example room, a collection of small red pottery or a yellow lamp might appropriate serve as accent colors.

Making a Bold or Subtle Statement With Color

Decorative painting - whether it's applied to half a wall, one wall, two walls, or all the walls of a room can certainly exploit this science of color theory and help to make a statement. The statement needn't be bold - your environment can certainly quietly speak through muted colors and subtle variations. The important thing is that you're aware of its power and use its power to your advantage.