Following on from Colour Psychology - Part 1 where we looked at how the colour that we use in our interiors can have an impact on how we feel in that room. Here we shall look at how our personalities also play a part in how we react to those colours and how best to use them within our homes.
Colour Psychologist Angela Wright has studied this in great detail and found that colour palettes can be separated into 4 categories that correspond to 4 personality types. That’s not to say that we all neatly fall into only one of these categories but we are likely to have a more dominant one complimented by a subordinate one.
The 4 colour palettes relate to these 4 personality types:
Spring Summer
Autumn Winter
Photo Credit: The Beginners Guide to Colour Psychology
When looking at these colour palettes we are naturally drawn to one of them more than any others, although as mentioned above there will be aspects of another that we will also be drawn to.
By using the colour palettes that we are drawn to within our homes, ensures that your home is truly reflecting your personality and therefore will truly be your happy place. Fighting against it and you will often find that something just won’t feel right about your home, even if you can’t quite put your finger on what that is.
Here is a summary below of the 4 personalities and what interior styles they are most suited to.
Spring
Spring personalities ‘are a light, warm, outgoing person, friendly and caring; you like yellow, and have a deep need for plenty of light in your life.’ (Angela Wright, Colour Psychology)
In terms of home interiors Spring personalities thrive on being surrounded by natural light, and bright colours. Springs prefer a more relaxed interior style, and often like to follow the trends. A must have for Springs are flowers and plants.
Photo Credit: CKC Custom Homes
Summer
Summer personalities ‘are quiet and gentle, rather shy but basically cool, calm and collected. Your favourite colour is blue and you prefer to keep things in proportion.’ (Angela Wright, Colour Psychology)
For home interiors, Summer personalities are happiest in period properties with high ceilings, using classic proportions and delicate fabrics. Summers enjoy a calm and ordered classical style.
Photo Credit: Brent Darby
Autumn
Autumn personalities are very interested in people, and like to question the ‘how’ and ‘why’. You tend to be drawn to green and like your home to reflect the abundance and richness of the natural world. Autumn personalities tend to be great campaigners and always ready to support the underdog.
Autumns do not need to feel space around them, instead preferring cosier surroundings. Using texture in their fabrics such as linen, tweed or raw silk rather than patterns. The emphasis on an Autumn personalities home would be informal in contrast to that of the more formal Summer home. Preferring raw materials such as exposed beams, stripped wooden doors and floors or flagstone flooring.
Photo Credit: Ideal Home
Winter
In direct contrast to Autumn, Winter personalities do need a sense of space and cannot obide clutter. They are self-assured, born leaders who enjoy experimental design.
Winters feel at home in minimalist surroundings, with clear lines and sharp angles. Preferring solid blocks of colour as opposed to patterns, unless it is a crisp stripe or geometric pattern.
Photo Credit: Architectural Digest
Whilst it is important to understand our own personalities and therefore interior needs, it is also important to understand the needs of who we live with too. In all 4 of the personality colour palettes there are colours that overlap. Therefore, when people with different personalities are living together in order to achieve harmony for both, it is best to try and stick to the colours/hues that overlap in most areas. It is also important for each to have a room that truly reflects their own personality. As with most things in life, compromise is key in these situations!
I hope that you have enjoyed this mini-series in Colour Psychology. As mentioned in Part 1, it is a subject that really fascinates me and as I delved deeper into the subject and thought about my own personality and interior design style it gave me a greater understanding of the choices that I have made within my own home and how they have made me feel.
Anna x