El Residente
38 Design Wise by Shelagh Duncan
Can Paint Really Make You Happier?
W
e all know that we are a better person when we’re calm and happy. Being happy these days, however, can be a challenge, to say the least.
The COVID-19 pandemic is having a significant emotional and psychological effect on people from all walks of life and in every affected country. The effects on the most exposed groups, like health workers, can even lead to post-traumatic stress disorder, as well as severe anxiety, depression, and other symptoms of distress. Social distancing and isolation have affected us all, and we feel stress and anxiety in one way or another, sometimes making us feel powerless and with things being out-of-control.
Maybe it’s time to say “enough” and to try and control our micro-environment – our homes. Our homes should be a refuge, not a jail, so why not turn our homes into feel-good spaces?
We can do wonders with a simple, mood-altering coat of paint. “Color is influential in relation to how a room feels, therefore it can easily affect our mood and behavior,” says Dulux color expert Andrea Lucena-Orr. “As soon as you enter a room that’s bright or has a certain positive essence, you can’t help but feel uplifted and reinvigorated.” Research by The Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health in Melbourne scientifically proves that different colors on walls can strongly influence a range of emotions. They can make us feel relaxed and calm, or cheerful and excited, while the wrong color scheme can make us bored, sad, tense, and even irritated.
Color, of course is a fundamental building block of interior design, but beyond imagining how colors will look together and work in your home, it’s important to consider how they make you feel. Color psychology is the theory that colors can affect how you feel, think and act. For example, deep red hues are
