How to combine colors when furnishing your home

Colors hold many secrets which, once learned, can be useful for an infinite number of purposes. Among these, the creation of a house that, thanks to the colors of the walls, furnishings, objects and textiles, can stimulate and support the good mood of its inhabitants, helping them in their daily functions. Colors psychologists and silent assistants? More or less yes. This is confirmed by the two authors of Living the colors (edited by Vallardi), Silvia Botti and Massimo Caiazzo. In the book, the two experts reveal the language and properties of colors, allowing us to discover the effect they have on us. We interviewed them to learn how to use chromotherapy in home interior design.

Colors, how do you explain the effect they have on us?
“We humans are not given the opportunity to remain indifferent to colors. Our reaction is total: physiological and psychological, it affects us at the conscious and subconscious level. When faced with a color, we have an immediate reaction which, as the German psychologist Ulrich Beer explained, is both instinctive and emotional. As soon as we perceive a color, we feel sympathy or antipathy, pleasure or annoyance within us, without mediation ».

Is knowing this also important for color choices when decorating your home?
«When designing an environment, color should never be considered an element like any other. It is always contextual: it depends on natural light, on the type of surface on which it is located, on the space it occupies, on the function it will have and on many other factors that cannot be quantified with precision. To choose a color it is important to analyze the context. Since it accompanies the functions we carry out day after day, in the home it is first of all necessary to distinguish the places where daytime activities take place from those where we rest ».

What rules does the chromatic division between day and night areas follow?
«In the first case, warmer colors are recommended, in the second colder. But be careful, because what we really have to deal with is the chromatic climate, that is the set of relationships that are established between colors, light and all the elements present in a given environment. It is the chromatic climate that is decisive for the well-being of people ».

Can you give us some practical examples to better understand and move from theory to practice?
«Let’s start with the kitchen. Here it is essential to have good lighting, as well as to keep away from too dark colors that attenuate the brightness of the environment. Also no to the colors that can interfere with the concept of food, see the acid shades of green. The combination of white and blue is a timeless classic for the kitchen area, not surprisingly found in vintage crockery, from the ancient Chinese technique for porcelain to Delft ceramics ».

In the living room, instead?
«Even in the living room we do not recommend excessively dark shades, because they tend to restrict the rooms. Better to avoid too bright colors, because they make us waste a lot of mental energy by catalyzing our attention. Great care must be devoted to light, both natural and artificial. In choosing the colors that will characterize the environment – dominant, sub-dominant and accent (that is the main color, the second for presence and details) – it is important that there are not only warm or only cold colors. We should create an environment suitable for every season and every moment of the day, balancing warm and cold tones as much as possible ».

In the bathroom, an increasingly central space in our homes?
«The functions that take place in the bathroom, above all the care of the body, require a light adapted to the complexion. No to dark greens, which have unpleasant reflections on our complexion. It is also better to avoid too mushy colors or yellows for the same reason. The chromatic contrast between the bathroom fixtures and the floors wins. Welcome is the association of ideas with water, so green light blue tones: they always work and create harmony. The use of so-called olfactory colors, such as iris and light periwinkle, is interesting, as they suggest the idea of ​​perfume ».

We come to the temple of rest, the bedroom.
«It may seem superfluous to remember, but the areas where you rest must have a chromatic climate suitable for relaxation (attention: this changes if the room is also a place of study or work). In general, it is good to avoid too cold and dark colors, because the bedroom also welcomes us when we wake up. The presence of the bed that can be transformed into a key element to create chromatic harmony. Given its large size, the bedspread can be used as an accent, balancing the colors of the walls, ceiling or wardrobes ».