I use 3 basic colors everywhere. Gold, green, and red. My reds are muted but warm, my greens are browned into bronze or sage or moss, and my golds go from a warm browned gold to a soft cornsilk. These shades attract me like a moth to a flame. They warm rooms and look good in clothing. An occasional shot of lime or kiwi is fun. The addition of a russet or terra cotta can be unexpected and upbeat. Even a jolt of a bluey green is a nice perk in small doses.......a vase or plate. But my favorite shades relax, energize, calm and excite, just depending on the exact shade, depth, and usage. And when you go with 3 basics, most any chair can move to any room. Pillows can go on the bed or the couch or a chair. Rugs can move from room to room.

Red

Here's what I've heard:
yellow is warm but can promote anxiety
orange is warm but can make you restless
red is warm and triggers appetite (hence red dining rooms and kitchens
blue is cool and promotes relaxation
I'm not sure what brown and green promote but brown is a warm color and green is cool.

I love color! My favorite combination has always been blues, limey green and yellow and we've used that throughout our entire house. Our office is a little over the top and my DD affectionately calls it the Easter room, but it has a beautiful glow when the sun shines in and my DH & I love it.

It's still a work in progress but here's a pic:
{{!gwi}}

Red.....you could have been channeling me in that post...I won't even bother replying...I'll just say "Ditto red" heh heh

I'm ducking as I say this, because I'm guessing rotten tomatoes are going to get thrown my way: but I actually like boring old white walls paired with rich furniture/accent colors. Maybe it's b/c my house is dim, or because we have yet to take down these godawful white popcorn ceilings and I'm loath to go with color until we do. But I also like the purity and simplicity of the white. And I like being able to switch out colors (in furniture, appliances, accessories, art) without having to take the walls into consideration.

That said, I am still looking for/fantasizing about the perfect wall color for my MBR, and I dearly wish I could somehow transfer the color mother-of-pearl to paint: deep cream/lightlightlight brown, a hint of grey, a hint of gold, lots of shimmer.

I'm going to redo some bathrooms soon, and I'm guessing I'll go for a deep blue-grey, almost a greyed teal/peacock color, in both. Love deep, complicated blues! And the accent colors and art in my LR/DR are all Redbazel red: a velvety crimson.

My house is done in golds, creams, and brick reds - my favorite color combo, I guess.

But the color that really sings to me is bright yellow green, like the top color in lukkiirish's office, only brighter. Right now, I've got swatches of Behr's cabbage green all over my bedroom - the one room in the house that it might be possible to paint a crazy color that doesn't go with the rest of the open-floor-plan house. I've been going back and forth for about a week as to whether the color is wonderful (it is) or just too screaming-neon (it very well might be). I'm not sure whether to follow my heart or step back and do something a little more toned down. But that's the color that cheers me up the most, especially when paired with hot pink and bright orange (which, BTW, looks like it will be a hot trendy colorway this year given the bedding selection I saw in target yesterday).

I also like yellow and rossy/raspberry pink. I wish I had a little cottage somewhere in the south where I could paint crazy bright colors to my heart's content....somehow, I just don't think I could get away with that in a Pennsylvania farmhouse in the middle of mennonite country, LOL!

I love a soft butter yellow and cream on the walls. I like those two colors with a bright pop of deep red or green , sometimes even a little baby blue with them because its a really fresh color.

I'm another bright green lover! I always feel energized and happy in those rooms. In the new house I used SW Hearts of Palm & Sassy Green in the "working" rooms of the house...laundry, kitchen & breakfast area, and the sunroom/computer rooms.

I'm with Walkin -- loving the complex blues and blue-grays, teal. Love bluey reds too (not orangey). Blues make me think water, which is calming, but make me want to play and smile.

I definitely use different colors in different rooms

My living room doesn't exactly promote sleep, but it definitely makes me happy.

When we purchased this home, I stood in each room and made a list of words describing how I wanted to feel in that room. I picked my colors using that list. (Granted, I had NO existing furnishings to worry about!)

I have a ...
golden-yellow laundry room
red-orange kitchen (I wanted a yellow kitchen but that color clashed with the oak cabinets!)
orange dining room
blue-gray study
green den
brown powder room (I didn't repaint this room.)
raffia beige foyer and stairwell (I originally wanted a happy, welcome-to-our home, yellow foyer, but this the only space with high, hard-to-reach ceilings. I took pity on DH and used beige. I love this shade of beige b/c it looks like a well-washed, much-loved piece of linen.)

and that's just the downstairs.

I love color. I wish I could change my room colors every season like I change my clothes! Our walls are only 8-feet and DH is a good painter so he told me to do whatever I wanted. Life is too short to not use what you love. Sometimes I think I might repaint the den to beige. Sometimes I wish I'd gone with apricot for the laundry room and kitchen. Oh well, maybe next time! I'll let DH rest his painting arm for a few years!

Nin