[0:00]So, hands up any of you that have painted a room, taking a step backwards and gone, "Ugh." Today, we're talking about one of the most fundamental, one of the most basic, but also one of the easiest ways of transforming any room, even one like that. We're talking about color, and in this program, I want you to get to grips with it. I want you to understand it, and I want you to think beyond Magnolia, because there's more to color than meets the eye.
[0:53]The wonderful, yet complicated thing about color is that it affects every aspect of our lives, even our bodies. Because you can be feeling a little off-color. You can be in the pink. You can be having a black mood. You can be seeing red. And of course, you can go as white as a sheet.
[1:19]The reason colors are so important to us is that our visual senses are so highly developed. Each of our eyes contains around 37 million light-sensitive receptors. The white light we see is made up of different wavelengths, and each wavelength is a different color from violet, the shortest wavelength, to red, which is the longest. Each of these colors is received and recognized in a different pathway of the brain, but more of that a bit later. At a basic level, the colors in light affect our hormones, our health, our mood. Even science describes color as sensation. Hence the fact that specific colors have a big impact, and our take on color is highly personal. You have your preferences, I certainly have mine, and the decision as to which colors we love and which colors we loathe will almost certainly be made before we reach puberty.
[2:22]I don't like brown because it's dull. I don't like yellow because it's too bright. I don't like blue because it's cold. I don't like red because it's the color of blood. I don't like green 'cause it reminds me of grass. I like all colors. Apart from Magnolia.
[2:47]Color preferences seem to start very early in life. In fact, most studies show that children like red, orange and yellow, up to the age of five. And either at the age of five, which coincides with the their change of teeth or at a later stage, at the age of 13 or 14, they they seem to start preferring the sort of blues and greens. Interesting. So long before we've picked up one of these, it seems we've already decided what colors we like and what colors we don't. But however strong that compulsion to paint every room in the house your own favorite, but rather scary shade of golden primrose. Imagine here, golden primrose. Remember, there are things you need to consider first. So, let's get practical and get out to our guinea pig project house, where we can demonstrate some of the issues you should think about when choosing colors for your home.
[4:13]Welcome to a typical Victorian dining room that's fallen on decorative hard times. Okay, if you don't own one, then phone a friend who does. Because what this room needs more than anything is color. Okay, as I said earlier, color is a purely personal choice, and before you start shouting purple at me, I will point out that yes, I am a purple fan, but no, I've only ever used it four times on television. What this room needs more than anything is a bit of color loving. It needs a wrap-around warm, cuddly color palette to really bring it to life.
[5:05]This room is just such a missed opportunity. It's a bit like seeing a beautiful supermodel with the most fantastic bone structure who's had a makeup done by Damien Hurst. It's just all over the place and completely and utterly doesn't work. In fact, the color scheme in here is like drowning in muesli, and I'm oatmeal phobic. And but even muesli's got sultanas in it, so at least there's something a bit fruity. I want to take this room, and I want to shake it, and I want to make it over, and I want to make it beautiful. I want to make it fulfill its true potential.
[5:46]Stop right there, stop right there. This program is about getting back to basics, so let's get basic. Number one, get to know your room. Now, the biggest effect on color and the biggest effect on your room comes from light and sunlight in particular. We only actually understand color from the amount of light that it absorbs or bounces back. In fact, if I painted this room one color, and I painted the kitchen next door the identical color, they would look completely different. Color changes depending on whether you face north, south, east, or west. In fact, it even changes throughout the day. At dawn, it'll be pink, midday, it'll be blue. Evening, it's going to be purply red. If you don't believe me, watch this. This mimics evening light. Let's see the effect. And this light simulates daylight. See what I mean? This room is northwest, which means that the sun sets over there, it will have a tendency to be cold and rather chilly. Seeming so it needs lovely wrap-around warm colors, and it also faces onto this. Grass. Green, isn't it? And that's going to affect the color of the light in the room, which is something that people often forget. But it's well worth thinking about. If we painted this room a sunny yellow, the light bouncing back from the grass could give it an acid tinge. Not what we're after at all. And now that we've come over all practical, one other thing to keep in mind is the type of paint you use can be radically affected by light. Gloss reflects, Matt absorbs. See what I mean? Anyway, back to light.
[7:27]And light has a major effect on color, and if you're looking for rules, the way your room faces is a big consideration. East and north-facing rooms get less sunlight, so they tend to be darker and colder. South and west-facing rooms get more sunlight. Geography, where you live, also plays a part. Calming blues might look great in Cornwall, but will end up looking depressingly dull in Aberdeen. So, as a rule of thumb, find out where the light in your room comes from and where it goes. Most people find that north or east-facing rooms with their chilly aspect, need bright, warm color palettes. Whereas south or west-facing rooms are warm enough in their own right to take cooler colors.
[9:19]As for bedrooms, want a good night's sleep, think before slapping on manic yellow, orange, or red. Strong colors are sometimes best confined to rooms that get less use, such as hallways, or where you want a more intimate feel, like our project dining room. This room is an evening room, and it can take colors that come forward to meet you and give you a bit of a cuddle. In fact, I think most of us notice that strong colors like yellows and reds actually have a physical impact on the way that we feel about a space. If you want proof, we've scientifically recreated well-documented research, putting people in identical rooms, painted or lit in red and blue. And the effects are interesting. People in the blue room consistently turned the heating up 2°, even though both rooms were the same temperature. I felt like when I went into the red, I felt I felt really warm, really comfortable. And the blue just made me feel quite cold and I wanted to get out of it, felt quite uneasy actually. In the red room, brainwave activity of people increased, as did arrhythm, heightened variation in heart rate and even sweating. Blue, in contrast, led to higher alpha and delta waves, brainwaves associated with relaxation. It's called chromodynamics. Wow. Yeah, I preferred blue. It was a a lot calmer and almost sort of quite serene and felt quite relaxed with that. Compared to the red, which was um quite hard on the eyes, and very quite intense. Well, we do know that some colors are more arousing than others. For example, red and yellow appear to be more arousing than blue and green. In other words, we tend to be more excited if we are exposed to long wavelengths, which is the reds and yellows, as opposed to short wavelengths, which is the blues and greens. It does sound very scientific, but it's common sense. In a bedroom where you want to relax, you don't necessarily want strong vibrant colors like reds or yellows. And by the same token here in a kitchen, strong colors like that will make you heat up. Think of the kind of colors they use in restaurants.
[11:43]As a rule, fast food restaurants use colder light over the tables, shiny hard surfaces and a repeated use of bright primary colors like orange, yellow, and red, as our camera show.
[11:58]Although these colors are initially inviting and actually make us feel hungry, that's not all they do.
[12:07]These colors do attract people to come into their space to have their fast food they want to eat. But it's also maybe have another effect. It may sort of speed up their the eating habits of people so that actually leave the spaces faster than they would have done otherwise.
[12:39]So, now we know color can make us feel hot and cold. It can arouse our brains and chill us out. Surely it's time to go shopping. Years ago, when paints were made from ground-up natural pigments like these, there was a pretty limited choice. I mean, the ancient Britains had wode, and not much else. Whilst the Romans stuck to red, white, and gold.
[13:08]Today, color is a multi-quality squillion-pound industry. We get through 186 million liters of paint a year, probably enough to paint the surface of the moon, if you could be bothered. But although there are more than 2,000 colors to choose from, we're not exactly a nation of risk-takers when it comes to choice.
[13:32]Despite the phenomenal quantities involved, we're still depressingly conservative about what ends up on the wall. Although, we can let our hair down a little bit as far as tester pots go. Chocolate chip cookie, anybody? Or what about a bit of baboon bum blue, or maybe some yam yellow? In fact, if you want to know the nation's top 10 favorite paint colors, watch on. Hmm, wonder what's going to be number one?
[14:02]At number 10, it's natural Hessian, a kind of cream. At number nine, it's Arena, which is another kind of cream. At number eight, it's Ivory. Guess what? It's another kind of cream. At number seven, it's natural terracotta, which makes a change. At number six, it's Egyptian cotton, a cream again. Coming in at number five, it's Honey Gold, our first yellow. Welcome. At number four, it's Lazy Lilac. Hmm, nice. And at number three, it's Happy Violet. Wow, brightest color yet. Comparatively. And number two, it's Sunbeam, the second yellow to light up those gray days, and topping the chart as the nation's fave, at number one, unbelievably, it's Magnolia. Another kind of cream. So I see absolutely no reason why you lot shouldn't be a bit more courageous about color. I know you want to, but I know you're scared. Now, there are three things that can help, very straightforward. Number one, when you make the decision on which color you want to try out, don't do that thing of taking the tin home, taking the lid off, looking at it, and being sick. What you see in the tin is not what you're going to get on the wall. Okay? Number two, rather than doing little tiny dibs and dabs of color all over the wall, go for a big block so you can really see what it looks like. I actually like to do it in a corner, so that you're going to see it in light and in shade. And then number three, with your tester patch, make sure that you give it at least two coats so that whatever's on the wall is not going to come through and affect the way that the color looks. Be brave. You know you want to. You see, all you need is a bit of silky encouragement and some confidence. So, here you go. Here's the room. We know which way it faces, where the light comes from, and what it's used for. The choice for this room is warm. I want to make the room feel intimate. Now, I could go for some strong, bold, contrasting colors, but what do I mean by contrasting? To help, this is a color wheel. The wheel is made up of contrasting or opposite colors, red and yellow on the warm side, blue and green on the cool side. Red and green are opposites or contrasts, blue and yellow also are opposites, but they're all linked in the brain. Proof? I am going to fill the screen with red, and I want you to really, really focus on the red, okay? You ready? Go. Now, look, look, look, look hard, and then close your eyes. Now, unless you're colorblind, at the moment, your little retina should be a wash with green. Okay, you can look again. That is because colors share similar pathways into the brain. And the same kind of thing happens if you focus on yellow, you then get an aftersight of blue. This whole red, green brain pathway thingy isn't just an interesting trivial pursuit question. But it has implications for us hunter-gatherers. The jeans for the red and green sensitive photopigments are on the X chromosome. Men only have one X chromosome, and women have two X chromosomes. So if there is a gene change on one X chromosome, then a man is color deficient. And 8% of men have some sort of red green color deficiency. For a woman to be color deficient, she has to have an abnormality of the same gene on both of her X chromosomes. So the prevalence in women is slightly less than .5%, 1 in 200 or 1 in 250. Calling all blokes, is that why women get to choose the paint colors then on the grounds that we're rubbish at it? Shame. Okay, so red is the opposite of green, blue is the opposite of yellow, and orange is the opposite of purple. But what happens when you stick them in a room together? Imagine a yellow room with a blue sofa. Do opposites attract? No. What happens is the blue becomes much more intense because it's next to the yellow. The yellow becomes so much more intense because it's next to the blue. That's great if you're going for vibrancy, but if you're going for peace, forget it. I mean, look at this.
[18:28]How orange does that look? And it looks that orange because you're seeing it behind a purple wall. So if contrast isn't your thing, let's go for harmony. Time to talk color families, and back to the color wheel. Colors that live next to each other on the color wheel are called families. They share similar characteristics. Take yellow and blue, mix them together and you have green. So as your turquoise, sky, aqua, emerald, lime, olive, and lemon are all in the same family. The same would be true of yellow, orange, and red, or red, purple, and blue. Each color also has tone. Now, stick with me here. It's not magic, it's quite straightforward. See color in black and white. Look at the tonality, i.e., the darkness or the lightness. If you're trying to put different colors from the same family together, provided they are as dark as each other or as light as each other, they will unfailingly work. And what happens when you simplify things even further, and you just get tonal?
[19:47]Instead of the complications of decorating with different contrasting colors, why not just pick one color? Tonal decorating, using different shades of the same color. Say reds, pinks, or as here, beiges. Might mean that you end up with a bit of a sludgy suit with very, very little definition to it. So texture becomes terribly important. Otherwise, how will you tell what's a sofa and what's a coffee table?
[20:54]The use of color can actually help with the proportions of the room. This room has beautiful proportions, lovely high ceiling, but if it was more squat, what I'd do would be to take the wall color up onto the cornice or the coving. Literally steal a couple of inches from the ceiling, which will make the wall feel taller. In this instance, I'm actually going to paint the ceiling and the cornice the same color, and then the wall from there down. Extravagant, but worth it.
[21:25]Obviously, when I say I'm going to paint it, I mean he is. Anyway, what I'm doing is using color to affect the architectural space. Here, it will bring the ceiling down, part of my plot to make the evening room feel cozier. But there are other techniques, or optical illusions. If you're in the extraordinarily lucky position of having a room too large, like this one, you can use strong, bold colors that advance, appearing to bring the ceiling and the walls inwards. And then there's color blocking, drawing attention to an architectural feature with a strong or different color and a neutral border. Now, that sounds hugely designery, but when you think about it, most of you are doing that at home already. Look at this rug. It's eye-catching, it's a vibrant color, forcing your eye into the middle of the floor. The neutral flooring around it blurs, it disappears, making the room feel bigger. So what happens if you apply this kind of principle to a wall? Well, it's the same as the rug really. Blocks of strong color advance, allowing the neutral colors around to recede, stretching the room away into the distance.
[22:42]Using receding colors like green and blue has a history. NASA used gray, blue, and Skylab to make it feel more spacious. And the last governor of Alcatraz, that great design guru, painted the cells pale green as a way of relaxing his guests, which brings us neatly to how color can affect mood. Now, you see what I mean by that is that color not only affects a room, it affects the way that you feel when you go into the room. Probably something to do with brainwaves and wavelengths. But what I'm saying is that color and mood are linked.
[24:40]The word zeitgeist is is very important. This means that colors and fashions and trends very much reflect the spirit of of our time. Um for example, in the early 70s, we had the three-day week. We had the winter of discontent, and the whole of our market switched over to very natural colors. Um in 1979, Maggie Thatcher came into power, and there was immediately a spirit of optimism. And we had colors like bright jewel colors in our palettes and deep rich colors that were very powerful.
[25:44]Since nine eleven, the American color palettes have gone quite subdued. Um blues and greens and aquas. These colors are much cooler, they're peace-loving, blue is a peace-loving color, and I think given the circumstances we're in at the moment, it's not a surprise that the palettes are going towards the blue green end of the spectrum. Anyway, let's get back to our evening dining room, the one if you remember, we were going to wrap in warm and cuddly colors. I love it when a plan comes together.
[27:03]So, having got rid of all those boring shades of bogey. Look at this. A gorgeous, fruity, warm evening space, which is specifically calculated to rebalance the green light that gets bounced into the room from the grass. And it also goes to show that as long as you stick within your color family, there's no end to it. I mean, I could go on and on and on, more aubergine, pomegranate, ruby, amethyst, all of the shades from the warm half of the color palette.
[28:01]So, which color best suits your personality? Are you a warm or a cool color person? Take the color challenge on our website. www.bbc.co.uk/homes. In our next program, let there be light. Well, I suppose someone had to say it. And look at the influence of light on our rooms and how we can use it to our best advantage. And that's at the same time, 7:30 next Monday, here on BBC2.
