Peace of mind. Wouldn’t it be nice to quiet that endless hustle and bustle in your head? Your ceaseless litany of chores, do’s, don’ts, past regrets, etc. building up and up to an kaleidoscope of colors, words, images until finally you just want to yell, “Stop!”. I know the feeling. Everyone does. But what many don’t know is how much your inner and outer lives are interconnected. What happens “in here” affects what happens “out there”, and vice versa. Your emotions and feelings and thoughts all participate in coloring your perceptions of your daily environment. If you’re not careful, your environment might just be bad for your mental and emotional health.

Your house is where you retire at the end of the day, retreating inside your own personal castle; hopefully defending from the monsters at the gate. Of all the rooms in your house, your bedroom is probably the one that you look forward to the most. The bedroom is your sanctuary, the place where you come to rest at the end of a busy day. You don’t want to come home to a bedroom that keeps you tense and awake instead of relaxed and asleep. If the room isn’t arranged, styled or decorated to fit your psychological needs, you might as well sleep in a dungeon. There are many factors that contribute to your psychological health within your bedroom that you may not be aware of. Your ability to handle all the things that happen over the course of a typical day can be severely taxed if you’re not getting the full quality of rest you need.

So how do you achieve a truly restful environment in your bedroom? If you’re not already experiencing that, try redecorating it. Redecorating a bedroom or even redoing it from the bottom up can be a great way to restore a good night’s sleep. The important first step is to take inventory of your bedroom and of yourself. What are the types of activities you normally do in their? You may keep a journal, read a lot of books, watch television, surf the Internet, etc. Take a look around at your bedrooom after you’ve done this and see whether it actually provides the things you want. Chances are it doesn’t. That’s your cue to roll up your sleeves and get to work.

By far the most important step you can take in redecorating your bedroom is to choose a color scheme. Doing this will help you determine a design plan for your entire room. In selecting and arranging your white bedroom furniture set, it’s important to have them all make sense according to an overall scheme. Otherwise the room will look disjointed and awkward, defeating the entire point of redecorating it. Here are some tips to consider when choosing a color scheme, and remember the choice of colors are entirely up to you:

- Mix and match. Use the colors you’ve chosen unequally for a better proportion and balance. This sounds completely wrong, but it’s true. For instance, painting the wall behind your bed a darker hue and the other three walls lighter hues creates a visually interesting space. This is because the darker wall accents the lighter walls and harmonizes them. Another trick to consider is to paint the ceiling a darker or lighter hue and paint the walls all the same hue. In considering accents, keep in mind you want to stick to the same color or colors – don’t paint your walls all different colors unless you have some really good furniture.

- Lighter colors creates a feeling of spaciousness and openness. Painting your walls lighter shades makes the room seem bigger and more friendly and accomodating. If you’re feeling a little closed in, consider this tactic to make you feel a little more welcome in your own room. The reason lighter colors create an open feeling is simple: light colors reflect visible light better than dark colors.

- If you want to create a cozy, warm feeling go with bright colors. If you have a large bedroom with a high ceiling warmer colors will help make your space more human. The bedroom will seem more livable and welcoming.

- If your room has an interesting or unique architecture, think about highlighting the more striking parts with contrasting colors. The junction between the two colors will focus attention on those portions of the architecture. On the other hand, if you want to downplay some awkward features of your room, a neutral palate with the same tonal value will help camouflage those sad features.

Once you’ve painted the room, the next step is furnishing it. I’ll talk to you about that in the next post. Until then, happy decorating!

You already know that red mixed with yellow makes orange or that yellow and purple make white light, but did you know that the scientific term for a mixed color is metamer? Did you also know that the term for two colors that, when mixed, cancel each other out is complement? The science of color is not an area of life many people focus on, unless you’re an interior designer, artist, etc. However, just because you’re not aware of the effects of color doesn’t mean it won’t have an effect on your living experience. Coloring the rooms of your house a certain way can help make your home feel more like a home. To any homeowner, especially someone who enjoys entertaining, paying attention to colors both individual and blended can help you create a class act house.

Colors are the same in the sense that they are all part of the same spectrum. Colors are different in the effects they have on people. Around the world, the same color in two different cultures can have two completely different meanings. For instance, the Chinese think red is a calming color, while Americans tend to associated red with aggressiveness. It’s obvious from the foregoing that all colors are not alike to the individual customer. When children choose their favorite color, they’re not just being cute. They are telling the world what they like and dislike. As adults, we tend to forget our favorite colors that we chose as children. This can be a big mistake, since color can influence our state of mind.

Let’s not forget either that color can also send a strong statement about who you are. The reason that members of the Goth subculture wear almost exclusively black is because they want to reflect their inward state of mind to the outward, external world. It’s tempting to dismiss certain types of dress as a mere fashion statement, but what’s missing is the recognition of the profound influence color and style have beyond fashion. In today’s world of media-saturated existence, color and style, form and fuction play a huge role in how we perceive something. Marketers and advertisers use this understanding all the time. Creating effective advertising largely depends on accurately gauging the ‘mood’ of the markets they are targeting, and that means taking all the factors, including color, into account.

So when you use a certain color for your room, you may be aligning with an entire set of ideas, beliefs, priciples, and assumptions without knowing it. That’s why it’s extremely important to consider color when designing a room. If you ignore color and focus on furniture placement or decoration, you may be accidently shooting yourself in the foot. Not to say that furniture placement and decoration aren’t important, by any means. Color deserves to be considered as an important factor in creating a room for you and your family and friends.

In another post, I’ll talk about what colors have what effects and how to maximize those effects in your home. For now, just remember that color might be playing a bigger role in your life than you may think.