A home’s colors are more than just an aesthetic choice. Color plays a massive role in a room's mood, feeling, and function. Colors can make us feel energized, relaxed, or evoke strong emotions. Colors can add dramatic, elegant accents without spending money on luxurious decor or furniture. Colors can even affect energy consumption! Before you choose your home’s color palettes, learn what specific colors can do for the room you’re in.

Room Size

Lighter Hues

Lighter colors, such as white, light gray, or beige, can make a room look larger. Pastels of any color can also do this. If you love dramatic accent walls, you can create a vivid focal point of any color to make the rest of the room look brighter and more expansive.

Darker Hues

Warmer, darker hues make a room look more intimate and close. While accent walls won’t close up your room, they add an elegant flair and a modern appeal to any home. However, if you paint your entire room black or darker hues, you must decorate for an intimate space.

Mood

Neutral

Neutral tones like white, gray, or beige can be blank canvases. They convey simplicity and can draw attention to other focal points in the room, such as colored cabinets, an accent wall, or eccentric furniture.

Green

Greens of any hue tend to be more relaxing. Green is a preferred choice for those who love nature. Darker greens can deepen a room’s emotions, while lighter greens are great for calming. Bedrooms thrive in green.

Blue

A blue room is often a serene room, invoking a similar calming effect as green. Therefore, it is great in bedrooms, especially with lighter tones. Darker tones can add a touch of class, which works great for home offices.

Brown

Brown is an intimate, natural color that works best in intimate spaces like a den, office, or library.

Red

Many people consider red the color of passion, and this can also be applied to interior design. Reds can spark emotion and raise energy levels, making them great for lively areas such as entertainment spaces or kitchens.

Yellow

If you like a bright and cheery color, yellow won’t steer you wrong in moderation. If your space needs a bright flair, choose yellow of any hue; sunrooms or kitchens love yellow.

Orange

Like red, orange is a bold, warm color that encourages energy, passion, and conversation.

Natural Lighting

Lighter colors enhance the effects of natural sunlight through reflection. If you’re a fan of natural light, then light palettes and hues may be your best bet. For those who love color, pastel is a great choice.

White

Most homes feature white walls for a reason. This color is great for reflecting natural light and illuminating a space. That light reflection can keep your home cooler, too. It’s also the most neutral choice if you want to fill the rest of the space with color—a blank canvas.

Beige

Beige walls add a touch of a warmer hue to the traditional white while still providing that natural light reflection. It’s a classic, elegant choice for walls or furniture.

Yellow

For those who love more vivid color, yellow walls can elicit similar natural-light-enhancing effects while keeping a home warm in color.

Gray

Modern homes enjoy gray far more than previous interior designers. A light gray hue can add a touch of drama and elegance to a room while still providing light reflection.

Energy Efficiency

Did you know that color choices can impact a home’s energy efficiency? Many things, including color, can impact a room’s natural temperature.

White 

White walls are the most energy efficient, as they can reflect heat from sunlight to keep the room’s temperature cooler. Additionally, lighter colors reduce the need for artificial lighting, further improving energy efficiency. White even works for a home’s exterior. White roofing can even cool a house from the outside, especially in climates with a lot of sunlight or heat. White roofs are a newer innovation in roofing technology to reduce carbon footprints and keep the home at a cooler temperature. Below are some examples of states that can highly benefit from white roofing.

Florida

Florida, known as the Sunshine State, is close to the equator and has a humid, sweltering climate most of the year. White roofing, metal, PVC, and shingles, is growing in popularity with new constructions here; it also adds to a light, natural curb appeal. Miami, Key West, and other southern cities in Florida benefit the most from these colors.

California

On the opposite side of the country, California’s southern region is home to some of the hottest areas in the world, including Death Valley. Homes near here benefit significantly from white colors inside and outside their homes.

Michigan

Summers have been getting hotter lately, even in midwestern states like Michigan. With these warming temperatures, newer construction homes are more than ever considering white colors, especially for roofing. Despite Grand Rapids' proximity to Lake Michigan, heat and sunlight peak in July and August. Every roofing contractor in Grand Rapids has seen an increase in light-colored and metal roofs for cooling purposes.

Green and Blue

If white or neutral light colors are too dull for you, but you desire the benefits of sunlight reflection, consider walls that get a lot of sunlight to be a pale green or blue. These colors are vibrant enough to add drama and flair while still reflecting heat and light.

Conclusion

A home’s color choices can effect the feeling, function, and even energy efficiency of a space. Tasteful color choices can bring a spark of life to a room or a wave of relaxation. Accent colors can add an elegant, dramatic appearance. Colors can even make a room appear brighter or more intimate. No matter what color you choose, make sure it evokes the right emotions.