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:

Online Home Improvement Resource Heads West
24-7PressRelease.com (press release) - 4 hours ago
Online contractor referral service and home improvement resource BizziBid is pushing hard to offer all of it's services to the entire California market. ...


Police calls: Home improvement place missing 4 ladders
Mansfield News Journal, OH - 5 minutes ago
Jackpot Spin and Win, 381 Ashland Ave. -- An employee reported someone broke out a glass door and stole $400 Thursday. Promotional Products Co., 250 Wayne ...


Two Local Home Improvement Giants Merge; Homeowners Benefit
MarketWatch - Aug 28, 2008
NEWARK, Del., Aug 28, 2008 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- What happens when two well-known, trusted exterior remodeling companies join forces? ...


Boston Globe

Lowe’s opening new home improvement store at Alamo Ranch
Bizjournals.com, NC - Aug 21, 2008
Inc. is set to open the home improvement retailer’s newest store in San Antonio. Mooresville, NC-based Lowe’s (NYSE: LOW) will open its new store at Alamo ...
Rebuilding at Home Improvement Stores? Motley Fool
Home improvement won't improve quickly MarketWatch
Home improvement retailers fall with Home Depot Forbes
Xinhua - CNNMoney.com
all 707 news articles


Housing Related: Home Improvement Magazines Disappear [Housing ...
Seeking Alpha, NY - Aug 28, 2008
Shaw Group Makes Deal. “Construction firm The Shaw Group Inc. (SGR) will build a Lake Charles manufacturing plant and create 1400 jobs as part of a state ...


Simple Home Improvement Money Savers
SavingAdvice.com, WA - Aug 28, 2008
My home improvement project list never seems to get any shorter. Unfortunately, my budget doesn’t get any bigger. I’ve had to be pretty creative and really ...


Lowe’s Home Improvement outlet proposed for Albany
Daily Journal of Commerce, Oregon - Aug 28, 2008
BY DJC STAFF Portland architecture firm Baysinger Partners Architecture has proposed a design for a new Lowe’s Home Improvement outlet in Albany. ...


Construction Lots Bldg. Sells for $3.6M
CoStar Group, MD - 2 hours ago
Construction Lots Home Improvement Warehouse fully occupies the property. Jaime Medress and Steve Gonzalez of Marcus & Millichap-Phoenix represented the ...


Examiner.com

Denver Home Improvement Examiner
Examiner.com - Aug 27, 2008
With the housing market in a slump you may want to reconsider moving to a larger home or even taking on a large remodel or addition. ...


Home-Improvement - Google News

home | site map
© 2006