Colour quotes

THE HOME OFFICE - COLOUR MATTERS

by Sylvia O'Brien

Between radical shifts in the structure of the workplace, and new small businesses emerging, the trend for home offices is growing. Whether it's to simplify life, enhance it, or get the next phase of it rolling, a home office makes a lot of sense.

Aside from the requisite desk, chair and business machines (fax, phone, computer etc.), a simple and cost effective way to define this new office is with the right paint colour of the walls. This announces it's new incarnation loud and clear.

The psychology of colour comes into play for all rooms, but with your new office space, it is extremely important that the wall colour support it's new function For example, a guest bedroom, once painted a calm peach tone may need to be a stimulating yellow to keep its occupant upbeat and exhilarated while they're making those cold calls. A family room, formerly painted burnt orange may now need to be an office with businesslike deep blue walls to aid concentration and keep it's new function top of mind

Most entrepreneurs find that they put in much longer hours and have more stress than they ever had when working for a company. It is imperative that your workspace gives support, benefiting your endeavour

When choosing wall colour for your new home office, consider the following:

Do you like the colour? It should make you feel good.
Is it suitable for the type of work you do?
Does it work well with the colours in the rest of the house?
Does it either blend in or contrast to the other colours.
Does the wall colour compliment the furnishings.
Blue is for concentration, yellow for exhilaration
Red is at the bottom of list for office colour. It raises the heart rate and can become overpowering
Neutral coloured furnishings such as wood metal, black, white or grey provide the most flexibility and allow for bolder wall colour choices to offset their neutrality

The time and consideration you spend to determine the right colour to paint your working environment will pay off many times over in this next phase of your career.

Case study

Marion is in the business of making chocolate. She makes fabulous chocolate truffles and her business is web based Half of the main floor of her home is allotted to chocolate production, but she needed one quiet spot to do her administration and paperwork.

The ideal spot was a separate room at the back with a large window and view to the back yard. The furnishings were all red maple, a warm neutral that lent a comfortable, relaxed feeling to the room. The drapes were a natural coloured linen with a dark navy blue pinstripe pattern. The window was north facing, which is a cool light source. Although Marion loves blue, and we knew it would be good for purposes of concentration, I felt we really needed too find a blue with a bit of warmth to offset the cool north light. The solution was a teal blue mid-tone Benjamin Moore #HC— 148 Jamestown Blue). This worked well because it had some yellow nuances in it, generating warmth and with the red maple, keeping a cozy, quiet mood too the room. It also gave an effective contrast in mood to the kitchen/production area, with butter yellow walls (Benjamin Moore #HC—4hawthorne yellow)...the flurry of activity and essential bright lighting.

After a year of working in this environment, Marion finds she loves her office space, it functions very well for her and she appreciates the feeling of sanctuary this office space has given her.

Business Woman Canada, July/August 2002

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