How Do I Use Color in Office Design?

A workplace in home is tricky — you need dedicated space, a feeling of separation from the rest of the household and its own rhythms, cozy furniture and usable layout. In addition, you will need to focus on the colors in the space. Your company cubicle design may or may not have increased productivity, but you’re in control now. The colors you pick can de-stress, energize, soothe, inspire confidence, improve creativity, or just make you feel great once you pull up a seat and get to work daily.

Too Cool

Immersing yourself in character is one certain way to balance life’s stresses and restore balance. Greens and blues in an office may have a similar effect. Mint walls, white trim and a sisal carpet are crisp, new and light-filled. Lagoon or Maya blue accent wall behind the desk and bookcase, tempered with white on trim and window walls, are energetic but calming — the intense, welcoming blue will not put you to sleep the way baby or powder blue may. The judicious use of this shade isn’t stimulating enough to be distracting. To get more nature in a neutral office without a paint, add a lush green plant or some vibrant area rug in lime, white and cerulean, or move with denim or green on the desk chair upholstery.

Hot Deals

Colours that command an intense emotional reaction can define the mood in your office. Should you operate at high intensity levels and need the space to support that daily drive, look to the warm end of this warm-shade spectrum. Red is explosive — unless you’ve got nerves of steel, then you probably wish to limit it to accents. Red venetian blinds at a white office, red oriental rug in a neutral office or a red lampshade in your glass background could keep you primed for action. Sunflower yellow is a productivity booster. Yellow is great for focus, but it does grab focus; too much yellow may leave you high-strung and restless. Softer yellow walls or armless bright yellow leather “customer” seats are a strong compromise. Orange can be fantastic when it is a tobacco leather desk chair, a rust accent wall or a file cabinet. But moderation in all things is your motto when your colour preferences are equatorial.

Subtle but Sophisticated

Neutrals let you change your colour accents to fit your mood, the season or the customer project du jour. An all-white office begs for an overload of creative imagination. A linen and toast office smooths out the rough borders of this day and is anything but bland with the added textures of a seagrass mat ground covering or camel berber carpet, and wood slat blinds or unbleached linen drapes. Gray contains an entire paintbox of colours. Charcoal is tough enough for your hard-driving negotiations; pewter requires the middle ground — perhaps not too solemn yet still deep; ghost-gray has more gravitas than pure white but lightens up a shadowed alcove or daylight-deprived room. Punctuate the low-key neutrals with touches of ebony or dark chocolate at a leather desk chair or enameled bookcase, a lemon-colored ceramic lamp base, a mainly coral framed poster on the wall. Cork-tile bulletin boards and bamboo floors work with each impartial.

Plum Perfect

It is your office, so select what makes you happy. If this happens to be purple, good for you. Shades of purple, from darkest aubergine to barely-there lilac, mix the cool and warm colour spectrums and may evoke different reactions — from calm to imaginative to deep. Use more or deeper intense purples as accents, and consider them for the dominant color in carpets. Paler lavenders and grayish-purples work with strong blues, violets and royals purples — the deeper hues are acceptable for formal drapes or seating upholstery. Should you crave lighting without white-on-white, a whisper of wall paint in pinkish blush or faded lilac relieves the austerity without being too assertive. Test any wall shade with a huge swatch under all potential lighting conditions to be sure you can live with it.

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