“The chief function of color should be to serve expression.” -Henri Matisse
Take a moment and look at the room around you. Observe the furniture that fills the room. Observe the colors of the furniture and walls. What colors fill the room?
Now take a moment to observe your current mental state. What emotions and thoughts fill your mind? Are you calm and happy, or anxious and agitated?
These are common questions asked and tested by those who study color psychology. Color psychology looks at how certain colors, saturations, and hues determine human mood and behavior.
Particular colors and hues have been shown to elicit particular attitudes. For instance, yellows and orange evoke a vibrant, cheerful mood, while blues and greens are peaceful, tranquil, and calming. Colors can also make a room seem larger or smaller.
As a real estate agent, consider how to leverage color psychology into staging your next listing. Keep in mind how your prospective home owner feels in each room.
How can you best make your potential buyer feel “at-home”? To start, consider which rooms are “active” versus “passive”. For active, conservation-filled rooms, such as a dining room, kitchen, or living room, consider using vibrant colors. Orange is a great example of this, as it fills a room with warm energy. Citrus tones are also known to make a room look larger. As Frank Sinatra once said, “Orange is the happiest color”.
Red hues have are beneficial in staging the kitchen and dining room, as studies have found it to also induce appetite. Red has also been shown to stimulate the mind in task-oriented projects- such as in preparing a meal from a cookbook recipe.
Consider using blues in an office setting, as blue inspires productivity and creativity. Lastly, considering using greens in bedrooms, as it kindles serenity.
For more tips from the pros, check out the advantages of home staging.
