The Psychological Effect That Colour Has In Office Interiors

The psychologically of colour

Here's a question for you – why do you have a preferred colour in mind when you're contemplating redecorating your home interiors? Whether it's the living room, the kitchen, the bathroom...the colour(s) you choose are likely to be amongst your favourites; they sum up your feelings, your personality, they remind you of something, they inspire you and they make you feel safe. They simply make you feel at home.

Here is just a small example of the effects that different colours may have on the psychologically of a person:

• Green. Linked to collaboration, green is often considered as ‘evoking peaceful feelings’, making it ideal to promote ‘healthy thought’. You may have seen McDonald’s change the colour design of their restaurants in recent years from red-and-yellow to using large amounts of green in order to improve their ‘health conscious outlook’ and create a more ‘social cafe feel’ to their outlets (see also Starbucks). Using green is ideal for any business that needs to encourage their employees to think, sharing ideas with their fellows and simply create a friendly atmosphere within the office interiors that will drive everyone forward to produce fantastic work.
  
• Blue. Reflecting the skies outside and the peaceful ebbing of waves upon a beach or rock, blue is a calming colour that is ideal to allow people to collect their thoughts and rearrange them away from a stressful environment. Therefore, blue is a great colour to use within any breakout room or kitchen area.
  
• Red. ‘Red light spells danger’, ever thought why this is the case? Red is an extremely bold colour that presents a striking presence against any background it is set against. Therefore it’s the ideal colour to draw a person’s attention to the message it’s trying to communicate. Red is also linked to feelings of passion, energy, power and motivation; feelings that many offices may want to evoke with their design.
  
• Yellow. Bright and cheerful, is it any surprise that yellow evokes feelings of happiness and warmth? Yellow is great to use in an environment that is intended to raise the mood within the workplace; so any accenting yellow alongside other colours in a breakout or games room will stir up happy and warm thoughts, more likely leading to an upturn in mood and sense of camaraderie.
  
• Purple. The colour purple is seen as a sign of ‘sophistication’; highlighted by its use by the royal family (in fact, Queen Elizabeth I actually forbade anyone but close members of her family to wear it). Its ‘elite status’ stems from its rarity and the cost of the dye that was used to produce it. Thankfully, purple is much easier to produce these days, but its reputation as a ‘regal colour’ still plays heavily on many people’s minds. So if a business is looking to present a high-class image to its employees or any visiting clients, it is the ideal colour to use, especially in meeting and reception rooms.