Color Therapy & Color Inspiration

I've always felt that Color is therapeutic. I think it
plays a much larger role than most of think it does
in our every day lives. What color we wear and the
color our rooms are can greatly affect us. I am totally
addicted to color and wanted to dedicate a post to it.
The book shelf above is an image from Domino and I
think it's insanely cool! Oh I thought about doing that
once with all of my books, but I'm not sure I have the
patience to do so. The overall effect is quite neat though.

This house truly shows that there are no rules to how
many colors you can paint a house in. It's not for everyone
but it's interesting indeed. The trim, doors, floors and etc
are all different colors!

This wonderfully quirky house is so bright and
colorful that you can't help but be cheery in it.

Somehow, the owner was clever enough with all
of the color that none of it actually clashes. For
example, red and green in the above room are
complementary colors.

I adore this pink bedroom. The
pillows really make it pop!

One room can be painted two different colors.
The black ribbons around the edges of the room
really complement the silhouettes.

Here's the complementary red and green again
in lime. The painted headboard is so clever.

Who'd have thought that lime green and turquoise
would work? The red is what actually pulls it
together.

Mysterious and royal purple. Isn't
this such an awesome stencil job?

Magenta and Orange - a lovely combination.

And of course Orange and Pink.

Orange is such an energizing color. It's really
tough to be down in an orange room like this.

This bright pink carries such energy with it.

Green is associated with Mother nature and is always
soothing to the eye. When I was young, my mom told
me that looking at greenery was good for my eyes. I
never quite understood why that would be but it sure
feels soothing.

This grass green is soothing but
considerably more energetic in it's bold color.

With the right hue, green is very refreshing.

Orange and Blue are complementary colors so they
actually work very well together although we don't
so commonly use it. It's a common color in countries
such as India where they use very saturated colors
and dyes.

Red - is of course the color of passion, temper, danger
and excitement. It's great in kitchens to get one's
appetite going.

Not everyone can live in a red room, but I think I might be
ok in this one. The black really helps anchor the room. I
can just imagine it at night with candle light to reflect off of
the red walls.

I don't think I could live in an orange room. It sounds
funny since I seem to be able to tolerate red rooms but
there's something about this color that unsettles me when
there is too much of it. I love it as an accent color though.

The Language of Color

I truly believe that color affects many areas
of our lives. I find it fascinating how it can
change our moods and make us feel differently.
I found some books that are really neat on color
and color therapy. The Language of Color has a
simple 14 question test in it that evaluates our
individual color peferences SICA (Self-Image
Color Analysis). Each of us have colors that we
are drawn to and everyone is different in how they
feel about different colors. This book explores that.

Color Therapy at Home

This book focuses on color in the home.
Rockport Publishers publishes this book
and they are one of my favorite publishers.



Color Healing Home:
Improve your Well Being and Your
Home Using Color Therapy

The book is exactly reflected in it's title
of how color can be used to improve your
home and your well being.



Life in Color: The Visual Therapy to the
Perfect Palette for Fashion, Beauty and You!

This book focuses more on color and fashion.
How you can choose the right colors for yourself
as there are definitely colors that make us look
dowdy and washed out while other colors that simply
make our skin glow. Someone once said that to me
when I was wearing a particular shade of blue. Funny
enough, I do not wear much blue but it made me think
more about why I don't wear more blue.

How does color play into your life? Do you feel different
when you were one color versus another? Does the color
of a room affect your moods?

Photos from Domino, Maire Claire, Trine Thorsen,
New York Spaces Magazine, and Design Ties blog.

A big thank you to Terri Sapienza at the
Washington Post for featuring this post!