Home Improvement Information

Color Help: Many Factors Affect Color Preference


Understanding color psychology helps home makers choose colors for home decorating.

Color affects human beings every day of their lives, even during their very earliest childhood. In fact, studies have shown that babies respond more readily to bright, primary colors than to pastel colors.

The favorite color of most preschool children, up to the age of five, is bright red. Young children, between five and ten years old, show a preference for bright yellow. Adult women generally prefer blue-based colors, whereas men tend to prefer yellow-based tints.

Even education levels and the degree of sophistication seem to affect people's color preferences. In general, highly educated and sophisticated people favor complex colors, while those with less education and lower income favor low intensity, simple colors.

Ethnic Traditions Affect Color Preferences

Our personal history also has a significant influence on our color preferences, and using heritage colors has been proven to make people feel more contented by making them feel more connected to their ancestry.

Colors and Climates

Climate affects color preferences, too, and people respond differently to various colors, depending upon the climatic conditions in which they live. For example, Scandinavians have a preference for light yellows, bright whites, and sky blues, in contrast to their long, dark winter nights. San Franciscans, who live in an area that is often foggy and overcast, generally aren't fond of gray, but gray is a popular color among people in Miami.

Historic Colors

Color preferences have also changed over the course of history. In the mid-1800s, very bright colors were popular, but they were replaced by more subdued tertiary colors such as muddy reds, greens, browns, blues, pinks, and ambers in the 1870s and 1880s. The darkest shades could be found in dining rooms.

Pastel and cream colors came back into fashion in the 1890s, and were popular during the latter part of Queen Victoria's reign. But as fashions changed and furniture began to become more ornate, heavier, and more elaborate, room colors also began to change, becoming richer and darker, although Victorian bedrooms remained light and cheerful.

Color affects human beings in many ways, on both the conscious and subconscious levels, every day of our lives, and a thorough understanding of the effects of color is very important when making interior design decisions for the home.

(c) Copyright 2004, Jeanette J. Fisher. All rights reserved.

Professor Jeanette Fisher, author of Doghouse to Dollhouse for Dollars, Joy to the Home, and other books teaches Real Estate Investing and Interior Design Psychology. For more articles, tips, reports, newsletters, and blog, see http://www.joytothehome.com/


MORE RESOURCES:

Describe the home improvement class you would like to sign up for ...
Chicago Tribune, United States - 15 hours ago
Kitchen remodeling. My sister did her own and saved a lot of money. I'd want to learn how to do some carpentry, some electrical, a little bit of everything. ...


Tips, tricks and questions on home improvement
Biloxi Sun Herald,  USA - 1 hour ago
By ALAN J. HEAVENS Summertime chimney odors: "We have had this problem for years. During hot, humid days, heavier, denser air is drawn down the chimney, ...


Third Belleville home-improvement store will mean stiffer competition
Belleville Intelligencer, Canada - 8 hours ago
Never in the city's history has there been such a concentration of broad-market retail building and home improvement stores -- and all players in the ...


Home improvement retailers climb
Forbes, NY - Jul 23, 2008
AP 07.23.08, 1:21 PM ET Shares of The Home Depot Inc. and Lowe's Cos. climbed Wednesday after an analyst maintained his ratings on the home improvement ...
Home Depot shares up in morning trading Forbes
all 5 news articles


Home-improvement money is available for some Dallas residents 8:30 ...
Dallas Morning News, TX - Jul 23, 2008
By RUDOLPH BUSH / The Dallas Morning News This week, low-income Dallas residents can request applications for forgivable home-improvement loans from the ...


Black & Decker Reports $1.58 Earnings Per Share for Second Quarter ...
FOXBusiness - 2 hours ago
"Sales in the Hardware and Home Improvement segment decreased 5% for the quarter. This represents an improvement versus the first quarter, partly due to ...


THE GOODS ON HOME IMPROVEMENT: Wall adhesive makes for a sticky ...
Lancaster Newspapers, PA - Jul 24, 2008
By ALAN J. HEAVENS / McClatchy Tribune Q. I recently removed wallpaper from plaster and lath walls, and although I thought I removed all the glue and ...


Ace Hardware building boom
Bizjournals.com, NC - 8 hours ago
The retailer-owned home improvement cooperative is entering the greater Memphis area in a move to cover one of the few remaining untapped markets for Ace in ...


Find a Property

Home Improvement Costs More Than It's Worth
Find a Property - Jul 23, 2008
While kitchens and bathrooms are the long-trumpeted selling points of houses, estate agents are warning that in the current climate home improvement won't ...
Home improvements 'not recommended' The Press Association
House Prices: Home improvements are a waste of money Telegraph.co.uk
all 10 news articles


Lowe's lends hands to Birdland area
DesMoinesRegister.com, IA - 13 hours ago
By Melissa Myers • mmyers@dmreg.com • July 25, 2008 About 35 workers from three Lowe's Home Improvement stores volunteered on Sunday to landscape and clean ...

Home-Improvement - Google News

home | site map
© 2006