Some colors soothe us and some stimulate us. We use color to change a house into a home and reflect individual mood and style.

Warm colors advance and cool colors recede
Based on the temperature of color, there are warm colors (such as red, orange and yellow), cool colors (like violet and blue) and neutral colors (e.g. green). In addition to promoting a feeling of warmth in a room, warm colors seem to advance space and are used to make walls appear closer. Cool colors tend to enlarge the space in a room by making the walls appear further away.

In addition to temperature of color, light also plays a role. For example, a bold green or blue can advance space or make a room seem smaller while a subtle red or pale yellow can create a sense of greater space.

Each warm color has a cool color as its complement, e.g. red has green as complement. Color complements are those colors are directly opposite each other on the color wheel. Complementary colors intensify each other and create contrast in a room to liven up the space.