Any time you enter a room your mind starts decoding it. You get the sense of the space you are in mostly due to what you can see. Colours are critical in interior design; while it seems easy to select flooring colours, it’s worth remembering what you use will have an effect on your perceptions and much more. To get the right impression and be exactly right on colour psychology in your flooring there are a number of things you need to remember.
Lighting
You might find this colour that is so perfect at the decor store only to go awry once applied in the floor of the targeted space. A certain type of colour might also match so well but change considerably while in your room. Most of this is attributed to difference in lighting at the place where the flooring hue is selected and the place the colour is applied. This concept is known as metamerism, and refers to colour shifting if viewed in various types of lights.
Jonathan Sapir, Managing Director of London based wood flooring company Wood and Beyond says ‘Lighting affects a room’s decoration; it enhances the mood and serves strategic tasks like transforming the colour of the floor, walls or an entire room. For instance, a beige floor appears greenish during the day when the sun is high. When the weather turns cloudy, it takes a greyish hue.’
This is generally how the refraction of light happens. We interpret a specific colour according to the reflection of energy from the coloured object, the ability of our eyes and the coloured object not only to reflect but also absorb light. When we see a certain colour lots of moving parts also enter into our view. It is the reason why people argue about a dress, car or any object of colour and that it was this colour and not the other. While decorating a room, take into consideration the way light impacts the flooring colour scheme of your choose.
Natural light considerations
While thinking about flooring colours consider the direction of the natural light. The location of the windows is important. For instance, towards the eastern side the light is intense early in the morning with a yellowish cadence or a little bit warm. The northern side usually brings the strongest natural light across the day, usually neutral light. Natural light from the southern side is usually a bit diffused with a bluish or cool dash about it. The western side usually brings in the room strong light in the evening or late afternoon with a shade of red or orange.
What does this has to do with your floor colour and home decor?
Essentially, warm light has a way of leaving warm colours intense or true while a light that is cool also makes cool colours intense or true. It means as you decorate the floor and the entire room blend orange/red with a western or eastern aspect. The southern aspect perfectly brings out the intensity of green or blue. For a true intensity of a specific colour, warm or cool, stick with a northern aspect.
If the only time you are in the room or space is at night, all these aspects are less important in the choice of the flooring colour scheme to go with.
What about artificial light and flooring colour perspective?
The artificial lighting you choose is also influenced by the cool-warm range. For instance, LED lights can be coloured, warm or cool, for extra choice. Halogens are usually white or neutral and close to direct or natural light while fluorescents are entire sources of cool light with a touch of blue. Neon light fixtures available from www.neonfilter.com can be warm or cool, their artistic purpose means they are more likely to draw attention than standard artificial lights.
Any artificial lighting you decide to go with is capable of dulling or intensifying the flooring colour you choose. Warm lighting will intensify warm colours whereas cool lighting will do the same to cool colours. Neutral colours also come with cool or warm undertones, meaning that a shade of grey on your floor or wall will look much better if there is natural lighting in the room. Grey with a tinge of green will appear gorgeous under natural or warm light.
Flooring colour and finish
While choosing flooring colours think about the room’s decor and the type of finish perfect for the space. Semi gloss, flat and gloss paint finishes, among others, have an impact on how colour changes in specific types of light, particularly glossy finishes. Add depth with some touch of gloss but remember some types of light are intensely reflective, which changes the colour perception.
Light bounces off a glossier colour finish distorting the appearance of the colour. Flat finishes do not bounce a lot of light. Remember richer and brighter colours are chaotic when it comes to balancing light and floor colour while colour shades such as taupe, sage and even khaki change under diverse types of lights with serial impunity.
Colour psychology and choice
Colours in our surroundings have direct effect on the emotions and mood of those around. Flooring colours must be used to blend with the tone of the interior space. The implication of using certain colours and its psychology in interior decor is not a new concept. Psychologists even believe the emotional response of a person towards a specific space is 60% determined by the colours used.
For example, green in flooring is loved for its soothing nature and thus ideal for virtually any interior space. Blue also has a calming effect, provokes a lot of peace in any space and great for those who cherish meditative thinking. While reddish shades have a way of attracting attention and dominating the surroundings, purple will add a touch of authority and royalty.
Space size
Over the years, perception of space has been a concept in interior design that uses colour to make a room appear larger than it is. This concept when used, even in flooring makes rooms user-friendly. Psychologically, this is just the use of colour to visually alter the way people view the flooring space around them. For instance, to make any room appear larger than normal a warm colour can be used in conjunction with slimmer furniture scaled to size and going for wall hangings and mirrors to create depth.
Thanks for reading.