The Secret Meaning of Secondary Colors in Your Home

Which color has been scientifically proven to improve mental health?  What color aids in decision making and confidence?  And what does a certain color choice mean about your personality and lifestyle?
 
Carl Jung, a renowned psychiatrist, believed that color choices reflect personality traits.  He encouraged his patients to use color to express some of the deeper parts of their psyche.

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In continuation of The Mood Boosting Benefits of Primary Colors in the Home, this blog expands on my personal FAVORITE colors, the secondary colors of green, orange, and purple.  I offer design solutions to enhance a YOU-Inspired life with personalized color choices at home.

Photo credit: Tim Hill

Green & the Evolution of Color Perception

In the time of our ancient ancestors, color identification was a survival function, a tool for recognizing danger as well as locating food.  Our evolutionary history and need to decipher different colors in nature resulted in our ability to perceive more colors of green than any other colors on the wheel.  Did you know there are thousands of hues of green in our natural environment?
 
Green is the easiest color to be viewed because it lies right at the center of the light spectrum and causes the least stress on the eyes.  
 
The sight of green triggers the parasympathetic nervous system and releases hormones that allow the body to “rest and digest.”  Because of this, humans are hardwired to emotionally and physically respond to green colors with feelings of calm, peace, and safety.  
 
Exposure to green enhances mental health.  A Danish study covering over 900,000 people raised in urban environments showed that, “children who grew up with the lowest levels of green space had up to 55% higher risk of developing a psychiatric disorder.”

The power of green is deeply healing.
It connects us to ourselves, our ancestral
roots, and the environment all around us.

​Green has been shown to affect your ability to remember positive words and experiences.  It makes positive emotions stronger and negative emotions weaker, helping you to have a happier outlook on life.  
 
Green is the color of ingenuity and learning.  If your favorite color is green, you are likely to be intelligent, analytical, conceptual, inventive, logical, and down-to-earth with a love of nature.  
 
Green lovers tend to be stable and well balanced, able to see both sides of a situation.  They are great listeners and can respond to issues with empathy, clarity, and balanced analysis.  They have a voracious appetite for learning and can find inventive solutions to challenging problem.

Designing with Green? Amplify it inside and out.

Inside your home, the color green can be amplified by the use of houseplants that also bring the benefits of biophilia and fractal patterns.  
 
Maximize views of natural greenscapes from strategically placed windows to increase your exposure to the healing benefits of green.
 
Scientists have found that a room with lots of greens can improve learning speed and memory retention.  Use greens in a child’s bedroom, study area, and playroom.
 
Because green is so prominent in nature, it’s the one color that goes with every other color.  Use green as a base color, then add accent colors to express your personality.
 
Green is used to boost creativity and is a great color choice for an office, kitchen, studio, or workshop.
 
Greens are easily layered the way they are in nature.  Use different shades, tints, and hues of greens in areas of the home where you’d like to create more peace, ease, and relaxation.
 
Outside of your home, the happy healing qualities of greens in nature can be amplified by working with a designer who understands how your home interfaces with the environment and can optimize outdoor living spaces while enhancing your views from the inside out.

I want green amplified in my home

Orange’s Ability to Enhance Brain & Mental Activity

Orange is the color of joy and creativity!  It’s the combination of red and yellow and though still a warm color, it does not have the full intensity of red because of yellow’s cheerful influence.
 
Studies have shown that viewing orange increases oxygen supply to the brain and stimulates mental activity.  This aids in decision making, confidence, and understanding.  Orange increases hunger, boosts aspiration, contentment, and assurance in oneself.
 
Orange promotes a sense of wellness, socialization, and a compassionate connection to others.  It’s associated with feelings of happiness, fun, enjoyment, health, freedom, expression, and success.
 
If orange is your favorite color, you are likely warm, energetic, extroverted, and optimistic.  Orange lovers are free spirits, deeply intuitive, creative, and able to follow their ‘gut’ reactions.  They thrive in social settings and are energized by human contact.  They get great satisfaction from helping others and inspire people with their positivity and vitality for life.  As out-of-box thinkers they thrive in challenging situations and are determined to find solutions to any problem. 

Designing with Orange?  Connect your home to self and others.

As a social and compassionate color, orange is great for areas of the home where loved ones gather.  Orange in communal spaces like a great room, dining nook, or rec room enhances connection and communication.  Use orange to facilitate authentic conversations and deep bonds with others.
 
The cheery energy of orange makes it a great color to use in areas of the home that could use a boost of happiness.  Need a smile in your kitchen?  Or a grin in your great room?  Accents of orange can be just the color to provide that pop of pleasure.
 
Orange brings a playful energy to spaces designed for fun and entertainment.  Use orange to inspire the enjoyment of poolside patios, decks, game rooms, theaters, or even a kitchen for a fun-loving chef.
 
Because orange promotes creativity, wellness, and self-assurance, it’s a beneficial color to use in spaces designed to connect to self.  Orange in a study, studio, office, or meditation room allows you to connect to what inspires you most.
 
Design your home to take maximum advantage of the most impactful colors of orange found in nature.  Nothing says happiness, connection, and joy quite like the evolving shades of orange in a sunrise or sunset.  Strategically placed windows and consciously designed outdoor living spaces greatly enhance your ability to reap the many benefits of this twice daily natural wonder.

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Photo credit: Freepik

Purple’s Intuitive Influence on Inspiration

Purple is the color of inspiration, royalty, and opulence.  It’s a statement of independence and innovation.  It communicates wealth, sophistication, wisdom, spirituality, prosperity…and mystery!  
 
This intriguing, whimsical, and powerful color is used to symbolize intuition, fantasy, magic, and knowledge beyond the physical world.
 
People who gravitate towards the use of purple tend to have an intuitive soul, a spiritual connection, and a fancy for the unconventional.  These people are not worried about fitting in.  They know they have the power to create their own happy lives!
 
Purple is the combination of the opposing colors of red and blue.  Because it is the perfect balance between warm and cool colors it’s able to retain the benefits of both.  It both calms and stimulates the body, creating harmony between awareness and peace, allowing you to enter a state that is just right for introspection, insight, and inspiration.
 
It enhances creativity by awakening the senses while calming the chatter of the mind.  Used as a symbol to connect deeper to self, purple is used by many artists to tap into their intuition and allow their authentic self-expression to flow freely.
 
Just like the other colors on the wheel, different tints, shades, and hues of purple relay different feelings and moods.  Light purple creates a light-hearted, peaceful surrounding and aids in relieving tension or creating romantic energies.  Whereas dark purple hues can evoke feelings of gloom, sadness, and frustration.  
 
Lavender represents femininity, beauty, grace, elegance, and has long been associated with refined wealthy women.  Bright, more saturated colors of purple suggest riches and royalty.  

Designing with purple?  Let your intuition lead the way.

Because of the unique symbolism of purple, it’s important to allow your intuition to guide you when using purple in your home.  Allow yourself to disconnect from what you’ve been told and instead check in with the way you FEEL when in the presence of different purples.  
 
If purple is for you, it can be a fantastic color choice for rooms designed to stimulate creativity.  Art studios, crafting spaces, and workshops can all utilize the creative power of purple.  The combination of orange with purple in these spaces can further amplify connection to your creativity.
 
Chefs who want to lose themselves in their craft can use purple in their kitchens and pantries to inspire new combinations of ingredients and flavor profiles.
 
People with a meditation and/or yoga practice can include purple in spaces dedicated to their spirituality to inspire a deeper connection with self and source.
 
Light purple is a good color for a home office, creating a calm, peaceful, yet creative space.
 
And lavender is an excellent choice for the bedroom, bringing about a sensation of gentle beauty and romance.

What about primary colors?

What about black, white, and grey?

Photo credit: Way Home Studio

Be Inspired by Color

Allow your home to be a canvas for self-expression to create the feelings YOU want to feel when in your home.
 
Don’t worry about what colors are trending or what the color of the year is.  If you LOVE a color, it will fit in with your YOU-Inspired home and will inspire joy every time you look at it.

Join us next time for a deeper look at the industry's current Achromatic Love Affair: For Better or for Worse.
 
I intend you color your life with happiness…the most beautiful color of all.
 
Inspired by you,

​Jenny Pippin, CPBD, FAIBD, CGP
Pippin Home Designs

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