Psychology of Color: Red

How color affects your mood involves not only the interaction of light waves with your brain, but also your cultural conditioning and personal experiences. For instance, in America, brides wear white because it symbolizes purity. However, in China, white symbolizes death and brides wear red because it represents life.

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Photo courtesy of Central California Wedding

When choosing colors to bring into your home, knowing the emotions colors can stimulate or represent can assist you in creating an environment to help you feel the way you want– whether its serene, energized, hungry, or pensive.

For our Psychology of Color Series, we’ll be investigating different colors and answering questions such as how will it make me feel, how can I best use this color, and what rooms should it go in?

Our first color (in case you haven’t figured it out yet), will be Red.

Red is considered a warm color, which means it stimulates energy and emotions and creates intimacy within a space.

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Red is considered by many as one of the strongest emotion stimulating colors. Some associate it with violence, anger, and danger, others with desire, luck, and passion. Red has been shown to increase some people’s heart rate and breathing. So using red as the dominant color in a bedroom or bathroom, places of relaxation, may not create the ambiance you’re looking for as it enhances alertness and brain activity.

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While red makes for beautiful walls, it is generally used as an accent color since too much of it can make a space feel smaller and be a bit overwhelming. When using red, keep in mind that it draws the eye, so anything red will be the first thing noticed in a room. This can be played to your advantage to create stunning aesthetics.

Photo courtesy of Elle Decor

Photo courtesy of House Design Trends

If you love feeding people, then using red in your kitchen or dining room will make sure they always come hungry since red has been shown to stimulate appetite. This is why many restaurants use red for their interior decor.

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Do you have a color you want me to write about next? Let me know in the comments box below.