Color as a design tool has the power to make rooms in your home or office feel calm, comfortable, or cheerful. Regardless of the size of a room, the color you choose can make it feel more spacious or intimate. To achieve this, aim to choose stress reducing colors when deciding on a paint color for your space.
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Calming Colors + Calming Design
Color choice can tie a room together and finish off a look. The design and orientation of a room will greatly impact your mood and feeling. In addition to choosing a calming color scheme, take steps to ensure that your space creates the desired effect.
There are seven colors in a standard rainbow. However, there are thousands of shades in between that can affect us in different ways. Are you thinking of giving your home a fresh look? Do you want to give your office an update? Narrowing down a mood or feeling for a room will lead you to the perfect color scheme.
Large, heavy, or dark furniture can make a space look small and crowded. Even a larger space with too many elements can lead to stress, anxiety, and feelings of claustrophobia. Depending on which room you’d like to make more calm, consider how the colors you choose will work with your current design.
Given color’s psychological value, consider that colors can influence emotions from peace to anger. The goal is to create a calming, serene environment. Continue reading for seven stress reducing colors that will maintain a calm and relaxing atmosphere.
Common Stress Reducing Colors
For those who are looking for a neutral stress reducing color scheme, here are some colors that will make you feel calm without drawing too much attention.
Neutral color psychology suggests that colors that appear in nature have a natural, calming effect. When choosing what color to paint a bedroom or living room space, consider these:
- Olive green
- Tan
- Soft gray
A relaxing color scheme of earthy tones can be used for living rooms and bedrooms to create a peaceful, relaxing mood. Olive green, tan, and wood elements should be incorporated into a room to recreate the calming effects of a spa.
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Olive Green
Green is the color of nature and is associated with spring, relaxation, and well-being. It is reminiscent of the environment, growth, and financial prosperity.
Olive green brings a calming, peaceful mood to a room that is perfect for living rooms and guest rooms. If your living room is one of your main sections for family gatherings or entertaining guests, green will bring freshness and harmony to this room.
When a guest is staying in your home, you’d like them to be comfortable and relaxed. Olive green is a calming color for the walls that will help them settle in and make them feel comfortable.
Tan
Tan is a soft shade that creates a feeling of warmth and coziness. This stress reducing color has an undertone that is associated with the fall holidays and the harvest. Even in a dimly lit room, tan mimics the warm glow of a candlelight.
Tan is one of many earth tones that creates a relaxing and inviting environment for a living room. Pair this color with rustic, wood elements to create a natural, comforting space to enjoy.
Soft Gray
Soft gray is just a few shades darker than white. Painting a room white, while it may seem clean, can create feelings of emptiness, loneliness, and seem cold. Tinting your white with a gray will create a stress reducing color that can warm up the walls and create a more comfortable feeling.
In the right shade, gray can be considered a more mature blue. Gray is a calming, nurturing, and soothing color that will reduce and stress and anxiety in a bedroom.
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Creative Stress Reducing Colors
If you’re willing to step out of your comfort zone, here are some creative stress reducing colors that will add a pop of color to your living space:
- Light yellow
- Pink
- Lavender
Light Yellow
Yellow is lively, energetic, happy, and almost always associated with summer. It’s also associated with lemons, cleanliness, and freshness. However, the wrong shade of yellow can signal business, sickness, and even trigger headaches.
Pale yellows that resemble custards or lemonade are calming colors that perfect for rooms that could use a little brightness. These shades of yellow will make a room appear more spacious.
Pink
Pink is a softer tone of red that is associated with youth, friendship, and love. It is a stress reducing color that is light, soothing, and pleasing to the eye. Pink can lighten up a room and will do best in a space with windows.
The deeper the color of red, the more stressful color it is. Per color psychology, a small space painted a deep red can make it seem smaller and contribute towards feelings of claustrophobia and stress. Pink is the perfect alternative if you want a redish color that has a more soothing effect.
Lavender
Purple in general is associated with royalty, luxury, extravagance, and wealth. It’s also associated with mystery, magic, and elegance. But if you go with a darker purple in a room, regardless of size, it will incite feelings of stress, frustration, and gloom.
Lavender, however, has the stability of blue and the energy of red. That’s why it’s commonly associated with aromatherapy, massages, healing, and yoga. To recreate the tranquil feelings in a room, consider using a mix of the neutral stress reducing colors mentioned above with lavender elements.
Lavender creates a calming aura but can also be considered a chilly color. A relaxing color scheme that incorporates warmer tones through carpets and bedding will contribute to a relaxing atmosphere.
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What is the Most Stress Reducing Color?
Don’t get caught up on the saying “I’m feeling blue”. Blue is one of the most stress reducing colors because it is associated with the ocean and the sky–two seemingly infinite and boundless elements of nature. It is associated with depth, faith, and tranquility.
Pale blue is like the color of the sky, associated with the clouds and airiness. A crisp pale blue is a clean, calming color that can be used for bedrooms and bathrooms. This neutral color will make any space calm and restful.
Color psychology states that shades of blue are considered stressful colors in relation to food. Despite blue’s ability to form a relaxing color scheme, refrain from painting dining rooms and kitchens any shade of blue as it’s the most un-appetizing color to the brain.
Give Your Home a Relaxing Makeover With Fresh Colors
Color can greatly affect mood. Your home should be made to feel like a safe, comforting, and inviting space. To create a calm and relaxing atmosphere, incorporate one or a combination of these stress reducing colors.
Image Sources:
- https://www.houzz.com/photos/5297591/Manhasset-NY-Townhouse-transitional-living-room-new-york
- https://www.houzz.com/photos/1005498/Mesa-Residence-contemporary-bedroom-santa-barbara
- https://www.houzz.com/photos/3892646/Modern-Classic-Interiors-traditional-living-room-new-york
- https://www.houzz.com/photos/333071/Parkwood-Road-Residence-Kitchen-transitional-kitchen-minneapolis
- https://www.houzz.com/photos/15044339/1960s-House-beach-style-living-room-kent
- https://www.houzz.com/photos/42007104/Transitional-Bedroom-transitional-bedroom-toronto
- https://www.houzz.com/photos/2722798/Newport-beach-style-bedroom-new-york
