Issue Date: September 29, 2002

In this article: Why color has such power Color and your emotions Quiz yourself: A personal palette Hues clues Also this week: Fall gardening

Living colors

By Kathleen McCleary

Annual Fall Home & Garden issue

If you're a "Sex and the City" fan, you may have noticed that Samantha, the aggressive siren who's more than comfortable with her sexuality, lives in an apartment decorated in passionate crimson. Or maybe you've spotted the rich browns and golds used in President Bartlet's private quarters on "The West Wing", reflecting the warmth and complexity of his personality.

You may not always think about the colors that define your favorite characters or movies, but they're there, an integral part of establishing mood and personality, just as colors do in your home. Color is a powerful force in our lives: It can lift our spirits or sink them, depress our appetite or increase it, make our hearts beat faster or soothe us.

Because color is so powerful, it should come as no surprise that the greatest fear of do-it-yourselfers is choosing hues. "There's a reason why 78% of America lives with white walls," says designer Christopher Lowell, author and host of the Discovery Channel's "Christopher Lowell Show". (His statistic is based on an Internet poll he conducted.) "People don't get anything done, because they can't get past that color barrier. We live in a world of color but can't translate that into our homes."

We want to, though. Lowell says the question he's asked most often is, "What color should I paint my walls?"

Go to top

Why color has such power

One reason we're reluctant to splash color throughout our homes is that we know color arouses strong reactions, and we don't want others to hate our choices. "People are afraid to put their personal taste out there because they don't want to be rejected," says Mark McCauley, a Barrington, Ill.-based interior designer and the author of "Color Therapy at Home". People tend to have much stronger views about color than about, say, styles of dining room furniture.

That's because color induces reactions based on both instinct and association in a way Chippendale furniture doesn't. Some color associations are highly individual. You may hate purple because it reminds you of your nasty Uncle Victor, who always wore purple sweaters; someone else may love it because it brings back memories of kind Aunt Mabel, who favored purple scarves. Other color associations are more instinctual, the same for every human across every culture. Red, for instance, is the color of blood and fire, things that naturally get our attention and make our hearts thump. It also stimulates the appetite, which is why you see it in so many restaurants.

Similarly, green is associated with leaves, grass -- things in nature most of us find relaxing and tranquil. That's why actors relax in the "green room" before performances.

Interior designers use our color associations to create moods -- in homes, in commercial spaces, even in the movies and on TV. "Sex and the City" production designer Jeremy Conway says he used color theory to help "visually define" the characters. As detailed in the upcoming book "Sex and the City: Kiss and Tell" (Melcher Media/Pocket Books, $40), for hard-charging lawyer Miranda he chose a bruising color scheme of black, blue and purple in the first season, during which she got her heart broken several times. But Miranda's color palette has changed. "Her character has really developed," Conway says. "She bought a new apartment; she's more confident. So we're shifting into tints -- pale lilacs and lavenders -- that reflect her development. She's come quite far in terms of color."

Go to top

Color and your emotions

Sometimes, color can evoke emotions we didn't even know we had. When Doug Wilson, one of the designers on The Learning Channel's popular "Trading Spaces", designed a sunroom for a homeowner in Philadelphia, he painted the walls a bright aqua. The rest of the woman's house was filled with the earth tones she said she adored -- browns, terra cotta, beige. "I gave her something as far away from earth tones as you could get," Wilson recalls. "And she loved it. When she saw it for the first time, she burst into tears. It was just so emotional for her to have that bright color and freshness in her home. With color you can give people something they didn't even know they wanted."

As more and more color permeates everything from our favorite TV shows to our cellphone covers, we're also growing more aware of -- and confident about -- using color in our homes. "People feel more capable of making intelligent color decisions on their own instead of slavishly following trends," says Jay de Sibour, president of the Color Marketing Group.

The past few decades have seen an "oatmealization of America," as Wilson puts it, "where burgundy, green and oatmeal go into every house." (Think about the avocado green and harvest gold of the '70s or the mauve of the '80s.) Color philosophy now, he says, is based more on "what feels good for the space" than what's currently hot.

That's not to say certain colors don't ride waves of popularity. They just don't saturate every aspect of décor anymore, and color preferences change so fast that even color experts can barely keep up. The Color Marketing Group, made up of design professionals across many industries, meets twice a year to predict what colors will be hot in 18 to 24 months. Some trends, such as the faltering economy, are easy to spot; others, such as the fervent patriotism and renewed nesting that followed the events of 9/11, are impossible to forecast.

Some ways in which news events affect color trends:

In tight economic times, people generally are more conservative and favor traditional colors: colonial blue, taupe, hunter green. People want value and longevity from what they buy (including paint), so they're less likely to purchase something that might go out of style in a year and need to be replaced.

Concern about the environment has moved from "hysterical" to mainstream, de Sibour says. Colors that reflect that concern (blues, greens, browns) are settling in to continued popularity.

A year after 9/11, there's a sense that people want to renew and refresh, so colors are becoming cleaner and brighter, de Sibour says. That means more bright red, cobalt blue and warm yellow.

Ethnic influences also appear in color choices. "When people migrate, they don't leave their colors behind," de Sibour says. Hence, vibrant south-of-the-border reds, yellows and oranges are popular, as are Asian-inspired hues like jade green and Chinese red.

Color experts agree: Don't worry about trends. Think about what makes you feel good. "We go to the home store and ask Bob in the light bulb section if he thinks this color will look good in our house," Lowell says. "Don't give away that power!"

Portland, Ore.-based writer Kathleen McCleary has a honey-colored living room accented with cherry red.

Go to top

Hues clues

Use the rule of 60-30-10. Think of a man dressed formally in a suit: 60% of his look is the suit color, 30% is the shirt color and 10% is the tie. Use the same proportions in your home. The dominant color (painted walls) should be 60% of the color in the room, a secondary color (rugs, upholstered furniture, window treatments) should be 30%, and an accent color (pillows, lamps, art) should be 10%. "It works every time," says designer Mark McCauley.

Remember the "fifth wall." If the walls are taller than 8 feet, paint the ceiling two shades darker than the walls. If the walls are 8 feet high or less, paint the ceiling two shades lighter.

Make colors flow through your home by using the same three colors in all the public areas, but in varying proportions. Take the wall color from the living room and use it on the ceiling in the dining room, and take the ceiling color from the living room and use it on the dining room walls.

Go to top

Quiz yourself: Your personal palette

Color preferences are highly individual. Take this quiz we designed to help you pinpoint the colors that will work best in your home.

1. Think of a color, any color. It does not have to be your favorite, just the first color that comes to mind.

2. If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be? (Think specific: Nantucket, Acapulco, Paris, Santa Fe ...) Now, visualize that place and name four colors you see there.

3. What was your favorite room in any house you lived in as a child? What color was it?

4. Imagine you're going on your dream vacation (the beach, a ski trip, a national park, Hawaii). Picture your destination. What four colors surround you there?

5. Name one of your most beloved friends, family members or teachers from any time in your life. What color do you associate with that person?
(The answer could be based on either a color that person wore often or simply a color that evokes the feelings you had around that person.)

6. Look in your closet and drawers, and study your clothes. Do one or two colors predominate?

7. Look around your house and find three favorite objects, anything from a painting to a piece of pottery to a worn flannel shirt. What color are they?

Now look at the colors you've written down. The ones that appear the most often make you feel happiest, safest and most relaxed. That means you'd probably be very happy living with those colors on your walls, furniture or floor. To find the best shades (after all, there are literally thousands of blues, for example), go to a paint store and bring home lots of strips of various shades of your three top colors. Then, designer Christopher Lowell suggests, leave them in a busy area -- say, the dining room table or kitchen counter, someplace you'll see them often. Every time you walk by, eliminate one or two strips. At the end of a week, you'll have it narrowed down to two or three. Then match different colors by choosing shades that are all in the same position on the paint strip -- the middle blue and middle yellow, for instance.

For more info, see "Colors for Your Every Mood" by Leatrice Eiseman (Capital Books, $29.95), "Color Therapy at Home" by Mark McCauley (Rockport, $35), and Christopher Lowell's "If You Can Dream It, You Can Do It!" (Clarkson Potter, $29.95) and "Seven Layers of Design" (Discovery Books, $29.95).

Cover photograph © Marshal Safron