Professor Stephen Westland asks, "Is the colour of your home making you happy?"
In their white paper, 'Harlequin', Professor Stephen Westland and Research Fellow Soojin Lee explore this question and land on some thought-provoking discoveries.
In Harlequin, Professor Westland and Soojin Lee find that “there is convincing evidence that colour and light can affect our health and wellbeing and nowhere is this more important than in our homes”. Although many people prefer to use white and magnolia – which may also be a result of indecisiveness – the paper’s findings show that using other colours could make a difference to their daily lives.
The paper also finds that we process colour in two different ways: emotionally and physically. Emotional responses to colour tend to be more individualised, varying from person-to-person. Physical responses to colour intensity affect everything from sleep quality to internal body temperature.
Additionally, the paper states that most people and studies focus on the emotional effects of colour rather than the physical, and encourages readers to design their living spaces taking into account the emotional and physical effects of colour so that they can create a happier home.
