How using the right colours in your home can help with SAD
With autumn and winter on the way and the days continuing to get shorter with less and less sunlight, seasonal affective disorder (SAD) can creep in.
While not much can do done to control the natural light, two experts have shared how SAD can be lessened with the use of certain colour tones in the home.
Ronseal’s in-house colour expert Chris White and clinical psychologist Dr. Gurpreet Kaur, have shared the room colour tones that can impact your mood the most and the ones to avoid.
This comes as Ronseal recently launched a new interior paint range, One Coat Everywhere which is available in 21 different colours and can easily be applied without a primer on almost any interior surface including walls, ceilings, wood, and metal.
Can colours help to improve your mood?
It is well known that colour impacts mood. For example, lighter colours, such as white or other light shades, can reflect more natural light and create brighter living spaces, which can help to improve general mood.
It’s important to note that our relationship between colour and mood is a little more complex and there is no one rule to fit everyone. Colours have different meanings to us based on individual perceptions, cultural associations, and personal experiences.
The paint colours to use and avoid for SAD
Colour plays an important role in interior spaces, not just about how it looks but also how it makes you feel. When the weather is dark and gloomy outside, you want your interior spaces to feel warm, inviting and comforting to help uplift you.
Use warm colours to avoid SAD
Warm colour shades such as yellows and oranges are great for brightening up a space but they also can help with stress-reduction. Brighter tones like pinks and reds also can have the same effect but should be used more sparingly to avoid overpowering a space
Use natural colours
Natural colours including greens and blues also help with mood-boosting through their associations with being outdoors and among nature. During the colder months, we typically spend less time outdoors, so by using natural colour tones you can help to bring the outdoors inside.
Avoid darker tones
On the reverse of this, darker tones such as blacks and greys have the opposite effect. They can make a space feel smaller and more enclosed which during the dark evenings can be further heightened. Dark blues and purples can also have the same effect as these are frequently associated with sadness and even fear.
Two ways you can inject colour into home interiors
Here are two ways you can inject colour into your home interior.
1) Use colour accents
Using a lot of bright colours can be overwhelming in a space so it can be more beneficial to use them as accents.
Many decorators have the 60-30-10 rule where 60% of the room is taken up by the dominant colour, 30% by the secondary, and 10% by the accent colour. This way you can still have neutral-coloured walls but brighten up the room using furniture items or accessories.
2) Lighting
Daylight can dramatically impact the overall appearance and atmosphere of a room’s environment. Typically, if your room is facing north/south the sun will not shine directly into the space, unlike east/west-facing rooms. For rooms that struggle with daylight make sure to have sufficient levels of interior lighting to brighten up the space.
It’s also recommended to test how a paint colour appears in different light levels by painting a patch sample onto an area of the room and paying attention to how it changes throughout the day in the different levels.
