What your color choices say about you.

What does it mean when you choose to paint your walls pink? Why are you so attracted to purple? Find out below (If you want to explore color and its impact on emotion and expression, learn about the Dreaming in Color Luman Deck.)

RED
Red denotes assertiveness, dominance, power, attention, sexual energy, robust health, determination, passion, persistence, excitement, strength, aggression. Red increases enthusiasm, energy, engenders confidence, protects us from fear and anxiety.
Did you know? Red light is used to treat migraines; in China, it is associated with good luck and good fortune. Since blood is red, it is considered to be a symbol of life.

“I love red so much; I almost want to paint everything red.” - Alexander Calder

PINK
Pink denotes romance, lightheartedness, happiness, good health, serenity, friendliness, compassion, faithfulness, femininity, calmness. Pink is sensual without the aggression of red.
Did you know? Pink’s calming qualities make it a very easy color to live with; in fact, a documented experiment with prisons painting the walls pink in the 1970s proved successful in the calming of the inmates.

“Pink is just mauve trying to be purple.” -James M. Whistler

ORANGE
Fruits of the earth, congeniality, happiness, socializing, courage, success, enthusiasm, boldness, adventure, friendship, warmth, informality, welcoming, movement, energy.
Did you know? In  marketing, orange is used for packaging because it has a “freshness” appeal. Orange is often found in cafeterias and fast food restaurants because it has been proven to generate higher sales.

“There is no blue without yellow and without orange.” - Vincent Van Gogh

BROWN
Informality, solidity, authenticity, order, reliability, approachability, relaxation, stability, wholesomeness, earthiness,  masculinity.
Did you know? Chocolate brown and robin’s egg blue are a very popular Feng Shui color combination. Too, men are more likely to choose brown as their “favorite color”.

“God has a brown voice, as soft and full as beer.” -Anne Sexton

YELLOW
Alertness, joy, optimism, confidence, stimulation, enthusiasm, playfulness, cheer, communicativeness, expression, intelligence, intellectual power, the sun.
Did you know? Yellow is an appropriate color for a room used for studying because it has a stimulating effect on the mind. Its intensity is also good for stairs and corridors that don’t receive natural light. Although yellow has become symbolic for caution or, semantically, cowardice, it is a joyous color that promotes freedom, inhibition and intellectual curiosity.  It enhances concentration, but can be unsettling if either overused or used in over-saturated tones.

“Yellow is capable of charming God.” -Vincent Van Gogh

GREEN
Nature, balance, freshness, relaxing, soothing, renewal, fertility, earth, compassion, prosperity, prestige, growth, abundance, money, vitality, harmony, efficiency.
Did you know? Leonardo DaVinci declared that green was the color to represent water. In addition, green is most people’s second favorite color, second only to blue.

“Absolute green is the most restful color, lacking any undertone of joy, grief, or passion. On exhausted men this restfulness has a beneficial effect, but after a time it becomes tedious.” -Wassily Kandinsky

AQUA
Soothing, crisp, dynamic, active, imagination, clairvoyance, creative adaptability.
Did you know? Many consider aqua to be the definitive color symbol of the art deco movement.

TURQUOISE
Refreshment, idealism, control, compassion, clarity, peace, sophistication, retro, cool, imaginative, innovation, youth; name is based on the stone.
Did you know? In holistic medicine, turquoise’s calming effect on patients is used to treat panic attacks. Similarly, hospitals use turquoise on the walls for a calming effect. Like aqua, turquoise is prevalent in art deco. Too much turquoise promotes aloofness.

“The tones of gray, pale turquoise and pink will prevail.” -Christian Dior

BLUE
To love and be loved, high regard, knowledge, authority, trust, serious, responsibility, peace, social status, caring, health, intuition, caring, happiness, calmness, honesty, loyalty, integrity.
Did you know? Fashion consultants recommend wearing blue to job interviews because it symbolizes loyalty. People are more productive in blue rooms. Studies show weightlifters are able to handle heavier weights in blue gyms. The majority of people are likely to say blue is their favorite color.

“Blue color is everlastingly appointed by the Deity to be a source of delight.” -John Ruskin

PURPLE
Spiritual advancement, sacredness, eccentricity, wealth, creativity unleashed, passion, higher consciousness, vision, regal, power, respect, dignity, luxury, mystery, royalty.
Did you know? Only the most expensive dyes were used to make the color purple, which is one reason it is associated with wealth and power. Synonymous with royalty, purple is often preferred by artists, spiritualists and deeply creative people. Purple is the ultimate bridge between warm and cold, as it is comprised of red and blue, two opposite primary colors–making it the “ideal” color, the blending of Yin and Yang of the spectrum.

“I think it pisses God off if you walk by the color purple in a field somewhere and don’t notice it.” - Alice Walker

LAVENDER
Romantic, imaginative, elegance, fantasy, gentility, grace, preciousness, nostalgia, romance, some of the characteristics of purple but without the mystery or level of passion.
Did you know? The complementary color for lavender is olive. Lavender is considered the color of intellectual thought as opposed to action.

“Add a drop of lavender to milk, leave town with an orange, and pretend you’re laughing at it.” -Bill Bailey

MAGENTA
Outrageous, healing,  imaginative, innovative, daring, anti-conventional, anti-authority.
Did you know? At the expressive level, used in artistry, where magenta is less aggressive and more spiritual than red, it is more realistic than purple. It is volatile, optimistic, and affectionate, creating a feeling of satisfaction and  self-respect, while being imaginative and innovative as well. Ivory, black, warm gray and ivory work particularly well with magenta.

“I’m like, hey girl, magenta! and she’s like, oh, you mean purple! and she goes off on her purple thing, and I’m like, no – I want magenta!” -John Mayer

GOLD
Illumination, wisdom, prestige, expensive , good health, optimism, personal power, success, worldly riches.
Did you know? In Elizabethan times, permission to wear the color gold was decreed by law.

“The color of gold is gold. That’s why it’s called gold.” -Unknown

SILVER
Prestige, richness, scientific, distinguished, earthiness, abundance, the awakening of the cosmic mind.
Did you know? Silver is the best-selling car color in North America. Dorothy’s ruby slippers in “The Wizard of Oz” were originally silver (as per Baum’s book) until Louis Meyer decided a ruby red would be better.

BLACK
Elegance, power, protection, control, authority, dignity, sophistication, seduction, mystery, solitude, nobility, elegance, that which is hidden.
Did you know? Black is the absence of all color and light. Black is known to provide freedom from distraction. Because black color brings the feng shui energy of grounding and stability, its best use indoors should be not much higher than the eye level. Black is one of the boldest, most powerful colors; and the most intense against a white background.  Because of this, designers and advertisers often use just black and white for greater effect, despite all the other colors available.

“I’ve been forty years discovering that the queen of all colors is black.” - Pierre-Auguste Renoir

GRAY
Brainy, class, efficiency, sophisticated, confidence.
Did you know? Completely colorblind people can only see black, white and shades of gray. Gray is known to blend well with almost every color, but is especially lovely with aqua, purple, pink, red.

“The color of truth is gray.” -Andre Gide

WHITE
Virtue, fertility, cleanliness, status, prosperity, innocence, peace, silence, wholeness.
Did you know? In the West, white is the color for weddings. In the East, white is the color of mourning and funerals. Unlike black, which is the total absence of color, white contains every color in the spectrum.

“White is not a mere absence of color; it is a shining and affirmative thing, as fierce as red, as definite as black. God paints in many colors; but He never paints so gorgeously, I had almost said so gaudily, as when He paints in white.” -G.K. Chesterton