How Paint Colors Can Actually Change Your Life
A small paint color change can make a huge difference in your space.
BuzzFeed Staff
BuzzFeed Staff
Since she was 3 years old, color psychic and medium Linda Lauren has had a special relationship with colors.
"I was walking around at 3 years old telling people the colors coming out of their mouths, and whether they were sad, happy, sick, successful," she told BuzzFeed Life. "Colors always gave me feelings."
Now, as a professional color and energy consultant, Lauren has transformed this gift into a career. We asked her to tell us which paint colors could be used to bring positive energy to every room of the house.
For a couple's bedroom, you want harmony and romance.
"You want to focus on your purples and pinks, or lighter like orchid," Lauren says. "What this does is creates harmony and intuitive love. So you would be embracing romance from the standpoint of love and how you are intuiting the person. It’s a fabulous way to approach relationships in the bedroom (literally and metaphorically)."
Try these purples:
Victoriana | Benjamin Moore 1263
Whirlpool / Benjamin Moore 1436
Paisley Pink / Benjamin Moore 1261
New Age / Benjamin Moore 1444
For a family room or living room, you want a sense of community and laughter.
"Family spaces speak better in peaches and beiges. These colors will create the awareness of laughter and a sense of family and community, so you’re embracing the whole group in the house," Lauren says.
For accents, she says you can also do ivory or light blue, but she urges caution when using pure whites: "You want rooms separated with lines, colors that will move into the arena of change. With ivories you’ll be defining the rooms, creating borders and boundaries."
Try these:
Strong White / Farrow & Ball 2001 or Vapor / Benjamin Moore AF-35
Borrowed Light / Farrow & Ball 235 or Green Tint / Benjamin Moore 2139-60
Ringwold Ground / Farrow & Ball 208 or Amelia Blush / Benjamin Moore 085
Dimity / Farrow & Ball 2008 or French Macaroon / Benjamin Moore CSP-335
In a kitchen, you want to encourage health and growth.
Lauren says greens are good on cabinets and counters but not on walls, and she suggests mauves, light blues, and aquas as accents. "You don’t want to keep much white except for appliances, which are best in silver, white, and other neutrals," she says. White is a static color, while blues and greens are harmonious and foster growth.
Our favorites in this palette are:
Parma Grey / Farrow & Ball 27 or Windy Sky / Benjamin Moore 1639
Brinjal / Farrow & Ball 222 or Caponata / Benjamin Moore AF-650
Breakfast Room Green / Farrow & Ball 81 or Lehigh Greent / Benjamin Moore HC-131
Plummett / Farrow & Ball 272 or Pewter / Benjamin Moore 2121-30
Yellows and greens in a child's room foster healthy emotional growth.
"You want the child to grow emotionally, but you don’t want them to focus on emotions in a way that makes them volatile," Lauren says. She suggests yellows and greens and to stay away from colors like red that spark strong excitement but also strong anger.
Our favorite yellows and greens are:
Calla Lily / Benjamin Moore 283
Riverdale Green / Benjamin Moore 415
Sage Tint / Benjamin Moore 458
Malachy Green / Benjamin Moore 419
In a home office, greens and grays foster creative and financial prosperity.
"Whenever you want colors for money and success, that’s the green family," Lauren says. "That helps you to embrace growth — both financial and personal. It's all positive because it’s all building."
Our favorites for the office are:
Purbeck Stone / Farrow & Ball 275 or Vapor Trails / Benjamin Moore 1556
Cornforth White / Farrow & Ball 228 or Going to the Chapel / Benjamin Moore 1527
Olive / Farrow & Ball 13 or Mountain Lane / Benjamin Moore or Mountain Lane / Benjamin Moore 488
Chappell Green / Farrow & Ball 83 or Summer's Day / Benjmain Moore CSP-780
In a single person's bedroom, blues and greens provide calmness.
"Blue gives you an aspect of communication," Lauren told BuzzFeed Life. "And what you’re communicating to yourself is a calm, allowing yourself to feel very serene and at one with your own energy. You can also incorporate shades of green, or different patterns that are greens and blue. That speaks to healing and the heart chakra. This is encouraging, and it means they are not going to be single for long, but while they are single they are in a good place. They’ll feel good about themselves."
Our favorite blues and greens are:
Cooking Apple Green / Farrow & Ball 32 or Apple Blossom / Benjamin Moore 479
Green Ground / Farrow & Ball 206 or Limesickle / Benjamin Moore 2145-50
Parma Gray / Farrow & Ball 27 or Windy Sky / Benjamin Moore 1639
Lulworth Blue / Farrow & Ball 89 or Wedgewood Gray / Benjamin Moore HC-146
In a space shared with roommates, tans and browns allow for reason and communication.
Variations on brown or gray in a light hue are best, Lauren says, and not white or black. "It allows people to reason. They’re not seeing things in black and white they’re seeing things in detail."
Our favorites in this palette are:
Dove Tale / Farrow & Ball 267 or Mt. Rushmore Rock / Benjamin Moore AC-39
Charleston Gray / Farrow & Ball 243 or Beigewood / Benjamin Moore 1007
Purbeck Stone / Farrow & Ball 275 or Vapor Trails / Benjamin Moore 1556
Mole's Breath / Farrow & Ball 276 or Stone / Benjamin Moore 2112-40
Overall, the colors in your home should speak in harmony to each other.
Bright colors can be great if they're making a statement — yellow speaks to laughter, red to excitement — but they should always be balanced with other elements. "Just like the American flag," Lauren says. "Red, white, and blue actually work together because blue means communication, red means moving forward, and white is clarity, in this context. If everyone paid attention to what the flag represented in colors we’d probably have a better state of the union."