Shades, Hues, Moods, and Meanings

With how much I love color, I couldn't let my last post go on all alone. When I found this specific article, I had to include it for its fun and informative nature. With each color coordinating with a specific meaning, each color instills within us a certain feeling. Knowing these meanings can only improve a designer's ability to choose the perfect color to create the perfect room. This fantastic article and many others can be found at: http://www.hgtv.com/decorating/color-meanings/pictures/index.html?ic1=obnetwork.

Color Meanings
By: Mark McCauley, ASID

Learn how color affects your mood and how to maximize its impact in your home.

GREEN: Associated with life itself, the color green represents newness (and naivete) and birth. As with the trees of the forest, green is photosynthesis, the act of turning light into life. Green also has a whimsical, fun nature and is seen as talkative and stimulating to conversation.

ORANGE: Orange is warming and uplifting, as in the softer energy found in the last rays of sunset. It relates to our entire lifecycle as the color of fall, symbolic of the end of life. Orange, as clay, has a primitive side as well.

BLUE: When associated with liquid, blue represents the soft lapping of waves or the running of a clear mountain stream. As the air we breathe, blue is fresh and vital, reminding us of the clarity of a sunlit day under azure skies.

WHITE: White is "up in the air," as in marching clouds. It has associations of an upward "heavenly" motion and is pure as the driven snow, innocent in its ultimate nature. White represents cleanliness and the absence of pain and is as inviting as a pure white cotton sheet on which to lay our troubles and our bodies.

BLACK: Black is the forever color--forever night, forever faithful, forever formal. It's a color that can inspire fear through its association with nothingness and earth but can also feel calming due to its solid, orderly and define appeal. Nothing wishy-washy here.

PURPLE: Purple brings to mind royalty and ancient civilization. It's the color of the muse, soothsayers and prophets. It is clairvoyant and psychic, headstrong and powerful. Yet it is also the color of sorrow and passion intertwined, as in the Christian sense, with death and resurrection.

YELLOW: Yellow is associated with "higher powers," greater than we mere humans. For the Egyptians, the sun god Ra ruled; for the ancient Greeks, Apollo's chariot blazed across the skies. Yellow is the sun, as any child can tell you; it relates to intellectualism, random thought, and innocent happiness.

RED: Red reigns! The color that calls on powerful emotions, either love or hate, red is the arbiter of our deepest feelings. It's the dynamic motion of flame and the color of the blood that courses through our veins. It's all of the things that mean so much to life itself. Full of ego and "inner" flames, red is the life force.

GOLD: There is an old world reverence and true depth of emotion about the color gold. With gold, we inherently think of wealth, luxury and desire, yet it also relates to satisfaction and intimacy. Gold is the finest we have to offer and often represents our highest achievements.

PINK: Depending on its strength, pink can make us feel young and joyfully alive or gentle and calm. It's innocent and playful and is often associated with the feminine side of our natures. Pink also represents garishness and a devil-may-care attitude in its hotter intensities.

Jonathan Adler

GRAY: Gray can feel warm or cool or no temperature at all. It represents "the rock," therefore solidity and support. Gray is nondescript , just gray and nameless. Gray is trying to fit in but not bring attention to itself. The color of the wallflower, gray is also the color of wisdom and longevity.

TURQUOISE: This high-powered blue isn't as restful as its near neighbors on the color wheel. Turquoise is vibrant and spirited enough to represent a kinesthetic, athletic tension, while reminding us of the opulence of the Topaki Palace and ancient intrigues and mysticism.

BEIGE: The great balancing act of neutral beige allows the other colors to come out and play. Beige is the arbitrator, joining disparate ideas together and forming new unions. It is the color of noncolor, the sameness of the desert lulling us to sleep through its unchallenging nature.

BROWN: Brown is the Protector, the "Mother Earth" to us all. Security and contentment are found in brown. It's the cozy color, enveloping us in strength and allowing for rest and recovery. Brown shelters us from the storms of life.