This is Part Two in the Lifestyle Diva Personal Decorating Style Profile Series.  It’s designed to help you discover and explore your Personal Decorating Style. Everyone has one, sometimes we just don’t know what it is!

WHAT’S YOUR PERSONAL DECORATING COLOR PROFILE?

Personal Style refers to how you put yourself, your home and your life together.  It’s how you express your interpretation of the world, through your wardrobe, home décor and your lifestyle. And the next step is exploring your Personal Decorating Color Profile.

And that’s why knowing your personal decorating style profile enables you to live a fabulous life surrounded by the colors, furnishings and the personal items you love.

In the first article in this series, What’s Your Personal Decorating Style Profile? Take the Quiz!, I discussed the various decorating styles.  Then you took the quiz and could start to see what your design preferences are, and what they aren’t.

 

CAN I BE MORE THAN ONE CATEGORY?

Like me, I’ll bet that you actually are a blend of two different styles.  I’m clearly a combination of Traditional/Casual style myself.  What were your quiz results?  Did the results surprise you?  Let me know in the comment section below this post!

Did you print out the Lifestyle Diva Decorating Style Categories PDF for your Personal Decorating Style Profile Binder?  It’s got a full explanation of pictures of all the subcategories like French Country and Bohemian-Chic.

You can use the binder for all your Lifestyle Diva Personal Decorating Style Profile resource printables.  

In order to take you through today’s exercise to discover and explore your Personal Decorating Color Profile, I created the Lifestyle Diva PERSONAL DECORATING COLOR STYLEBOOK.  

Here’s a sampling of some of the pages you’ll use to collect your home design inspiration to help you define your Personal Decorating Color Profile.

 

It’s filled with all the worksheets that you’ll need to help you along this very personal journey.  You’ll gather fabric and paint samples, pictures of rooms that “pull” you with all the colors and various combinations that light your fire.

I’ll tell you how to get your copy at the end of this article.

Now we can start to talk about color.  Let’s find out why it’s so important to have a clear picture of your Personal Decorating Color Profile. Especially before you begin the process of decorating your home.

 

HOW COLOR EFFECTS OUR MOODS – And Why It’s Important In Interior Design

THE POWER OF COLOR – It’s Much More Than A Bucket of Paint

COLOR can make a room much more livable.

Every space in your home is affected by COLOR.

COLOR can accent prized features and can hide areas that are less attractive.

Your emotions can be altered by the choice of COLOR, impacting your moods in response to your surroundings.

COLOR is essential to making a house into a home, even if the color is white!

COLOR is largely responsible for the vibe of a room.  Restful creams, romantic burgundies, or peaceful greens all contribute a strong influence over the area’s vibe and feel.

 

CREDIT: 10growthmindsetcentar.com

COLORS AND THEIR EFFECT ON OUR MOODS

The subtle, although quite significant psychological and physical effects of color is called Color Psychology.  This chart shows the relationship between different colors and the emotions they elicit.

Each human has a personal response to color, with some hues giving a stronger response than others. While it’s true that color can affect our moods, not everyone reacts to each color group in the same way. 

Our color preferences can change over time, but our affinity to same color group will likely remain the same.  My favorite color used to be pale yellow. Now it’s shifted slightly toward the green end of the spectrum, and my new color of preference is celery green. 

You can see on the color wheel above how closely related the two colors actually are.  I didn’t really move too far down the color wheel, did I?

 

PERSONAL COLOR – MOOD ANALYSIS EXERCISE

Inside the Lifestyle Diva PERSONAL DECORATING COLOR STYLEBOOK, you’ll find a Color-Mood Analysis exercise.  It will help you tune into your own responses and mood shifts as you move through each of the color groups.

What will the results tell you?  Once you’ve filled out the Color-Mood Worksheet, you’ll see which color/combinations bring you the most joy.  Whether they excite or relax you, you’ll have a much better understanding of the colors you want to be surrounded by in your home.

 

In the interior design industry, colors are usually selected and described based on their mood. A color’s mood is how it makes a person “feel”.

• PASSIVE COLORS:  Are color hues that create a calming effect and promote mental focus and relaxation. Blues, greens and purples are usually considered passive colors. Generally, passive colors are cool and soft-toned colors. Passive colors are popular choices for bedrooms and can make small spaces seem more spacious. 
• ACTIVE COLORS: Active color hues create a stimulating effect and excite the mind. Reds, yellows and oranges are usually considered active colors. Active colors are often warm and bright toned colors. Vibrant and eye-catching, active colors are popular choices for kitchens, offices and accent walls. 
• NEUTRAL COLORS: These are color hues that do not comfortably fit within one of the primary or secondary color families. Neutral colors include black, white, brown, gray and cream. In interior design, many hues can be used as “neutrals” so long as they are less saturated (i.e. less vibrant) than the accompanying colors. For example, baby pink can act as a neutral when paired with vibrant, rich colors such as emerald, navy blue or scarlet. 

 

A COLOR PRIMER – Let’s See What These Design Terms Actually Mean

While we’re discussing colors as they relate to interior decorating, I thought it would be good to cover a few of the everyday terms that designers use.  

PRIMARY COLORS:  The colors that can be mixed in varying amounts to create all other colors. Red, yellow and blue are primary colors.  

SECONDARY COLORS: The colors obtained by mixing two primary colors. Green, orange and purple are secondary colors. 

HUE:  Is the variety of a color. For example, aqua is a hue of blue. Hue is often used interchangeably with tone, tint or shade to describe the qualities of a color. 

TONE: A hue that is made by adding gray pigment to a primary or secondary colored pigment. In practice, a paint color may be described as a soft or bright tone. Soft tones will have more gray, while bright tones will have less gray and be closer to the pure primary/secondary color. 

TINT: It’s a hue that is produced by adding white pigment to a primary or secondary colored pigment. Paint colors may be described as having a lighter or darker tint. Lighter tints have more white than darker tints. 

SHADE:  A hue that’s made by adding black pigment to a primary or secondary colored pigment. In everyday language, shade and tint are often used interchangeably to describe how light or dark a color appears. 

WARM COLORS: Hues of red, orange and yellow. Warm colors often invoke images of fire and feelings of both coziness and excitement. 

COOL COLORS: Hues of blue, purple, and green. Cool colors often invoke images of water and nature, as well as feelings of calm and relaxation. 

 

YOUR PERSONAL DECORATING COLOR STYLEBOOK – Make It Your Decorating “GO-TO” Resource

Using your Lifestyle Diva Personal Decorating Color Stylebook will give you a valuable resource when you begin the decorating process.

Here’s a few suggestions on getting the most out of your Personal Decorating Color Stylebook:

• Download the Lifestyle Diva Personal Decorating Color Stylebook from the IFAFL Subscriber’s Resource Library 
• Print the Stylebook on white CARD STOCK for best results.  The sturdier paper will allow you to adhere paint sample strips, fabric swatches and pictures without tearing the pages.
• Three-hold punch the pages and place them inside your Personal Decorating Style Profile binder.  I’d suggest using a binder that is at least 2-inches wide to handle the sample pages.
• Print out additional pages as necessary when they get filled with your pictures and samples.

 

NAN’S TIP:  I added several “pocket-pages” to my Lifestyle Diva Personal Decorating Style Profile binder.  They keep brochures and larger samples corralled and neat.  

 

DECORATING YOUR HOME WITH THE LIFESTYLE DIVA SYSTEM

Decorating your home can be fabulously fun when you get rid of your limiting beliefs and develop confidence in your design style and decision-making capabilities.

Once you know what your personal decorating style and color preferences are, it makes decorating your home that much more satisfying and approachable. 

In the next installment of the Lifestyle Diva Personal Decorating Style Profile Series I’ll teach you how to choose the colors for each room in your home.  Then I’ll uncover the LIFESTYLE DIVA COLOR FLOW SYSTEM that will teach you how to pull your color scheme throughout your whole home –  Don’t miss it!

 

PERSONAL DECORATING COLOR STYLEBOOK

Want your copy of the PERSONAL DECORATING COLOR STYLEBOOK, but you’re not on our list yet?  Why not join in on the fun!

Fill out the form below and I’ll send you a copy as a thank you for joining the IFAFL Email Subscriber List.

As a Ingredients For A Fabulous Life Subscriber, you’ll also get instant access to the IFAFL Resource Library and receive our weekly emails.

What are you waiting for?  You don’t want to miss out on anything fabulous, do you? 

There’s always something fabulous happening here at Ingredients For A Fabulous Life, don’t you want to stay in the loop?  

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