Things you need to know about colours!

We have a trip in Aarhus on Sunday morning. This is the second largest city in Denmark, only an hour away from Silkeborg. We had a lunch in the city and visited Ikea. We still needed some trivialities for our new home, which I was describing here. As you already know, those string lights on the picture below are perfect to make your evening atmosphere more cosy and pleasant.

We found out, that beside some little thing in our kitchen and bathroom, we also miss more COLOURS in our apartment. Currently we have the majority of things in white and beige, so we hoped to add more playfulness in our home. That's why we decided to visit Ikea, to find something beautiful and colourful.

While I was choosing and thinking about colours for our apartment, I realized that this is a very important decision. Colours influence on people. They have a great impact on individual's emotions, cognition and behaviour. The aesthetics is important, but colours can be also full of information.

Colours have a meaning.

I went through some researches and found out that things aren't so simple. It's hard do define the impact of a specific colour on our lives, because colour meanings and effects are contextual. Here is an example… Red colour has a negative effect in achievement context… It evokes avoidance motivation, because red carries the meaning of danger, specifically the psychological danger of failure. And because of that red colour undermines intellectual performance. All of this happens without conscious intention or awareness. So I can simply tell you that your performance on the test would be worse, if the paper would be coloured red and not green.

Now, picture the relational context, where red colour has a meaning of love, attraction, passion… it has a positive meaning. You can see, that everything is a little bit more complicated. According to all of this, a useful conclusion could be to not have a red pencils, planners or decorations in your office or on your workbench. Those kind of things should be in light blue colour, which promotes concentration and peacefulness.

Red colour actually gives us energy and influences on our physical activity. Perhaps it is suitable for a place, where you exercise.

Green colour is the one that calms us down and helps us to relax. That’s why it is the most appropriate for a place, where you rest and sleep. I and my boyfriend will bring some green in to our house with freshly picked flowers and some flowering plants. The latter I was planning to buy in Ikea, but unfortunately I didn't have luck. I found out that I don’t have any knowledge about the flowers, and beside that I didn’t find a colourful pot, which I imagine. So I went home without greenery, full of hope, that I will soon found a florist’s in Silkeborg. Can you advice me which flowering plant to choose? One that doesn’t need a lot of water or attention, and which is not a cactus.

But remember that green colour is not good for your kitchen. Especially blue-green may be associated with mold and quash one’s appetite. That’s why you don’t need to use it for decoration in your kitchen.

In our living room we have some nice light pink pillows, which make a relaxed environment. They suit really well on our beige couch. Pink colour contains a shade of red, so it affects us physically, but it soothes us and not stimulates. It is a powerful colour, psychologically. It radiates feminism and also represents survival of the species. It brings a feeling of nurture, gentleness and peace.

Do you want to know which colour is psychological neutral? Grey! But you have to be careful, because too much grey colour encourage depression and a lack of energy.

I really hope that those information were beneficial for you. Don’t forget to subscribe, if you haven’t already. On Friday I will talk about productivity.

I wish you a colourful day!

Love

Saša