Some people are pretty in tune with their color preferences, while others, not so much. Most people tend to stick with common color themes throughout their home, wardrobe and accessories. For example, I know that when I shop I tend to gravitate towards turquoise, pinks, browns, blacks and greens. Take a look around your home and see if you can spot a color trend. What are the colors you gravitate towards in your life? For example I already gave you the colors I gravitate towards, but looking around I see that in one room I use a lime green, a pale pink, a turquoise blue, yellow, white and purple, while in another room I use a conifer green, black, beige, brown and red. In a third room I use a riptide blue, umber brown, black, pale pink and beige. Same colors, different hues. These can help you decide what colors to use in your home, to decorate your next party with, or simply what colors make you happy.
- Exercise 1- Keep track of the color themes you spot in your daily life. There may be more than one. List them in order from most commonly used by you to least. Come up with a fun way to use these colors.
On the flip side there are colors you tend to stay away from. For example, I will never choose to use yellow, red or purple as a decorating choice. I have a few purple things in my closet, but I can count them on one hand and two of them are because it’s my class color. It doesn’t mean that you don’t like the color, you just always prefer other colors over them.
- Exercise 2- Find the colors you tend to shy away from. Figure out if it’s the hue, or the color in any shade. Example, I don’t use bright primary red to decorate with, but you’ll find a dusty red sprinkled throughout my home. Find a hue that you enjoy and then figure out another color you can pair it with. I really like that dusty red and sandy beige. My home has a country feel to it. You can do this through a board on pinterest, in a hobby journal or any other way you can visually put two colors together. This is a great learning exercise.
Sometimes we find ourselves in a color rut. Perhaps people tend to associate you with a specific color. For example, people see something pink and automatically assume that I’ll enjoy it and usually they’re right. However, this can get boring. Maybe you’re tired of seeing the same colors everywhere you turn. You’re ready for a change but you just don’t know where to start.
- Exercise 3- Pick you very favorite color. Easy right? Now go do some research. Get out and find this color in nature, in art, in retail. Keep track of what you often find this color paired with. It may be the same, but it may also be something completely out of your color theme, and even one you never thought of before. Take your camera and snap some pictures of these pairings or note them in a journal. Next go online and look for images with this color in them. When you find it, how much is the color used in the image? Again, what color is it paired with? Note the color themes that you spot that differ from exercise one. You may find a fresh new way to use your favorite color and you may also find that there is another color that invokes the same emotional response.
The most important thing is to have fun with this and discover something about yourself that you may not have known before. Share your experience with us in the comments below.
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