Great topic for a post!

Seattle is my hometown and perhaps that has something to do with my love of painting with warm colors. I absolutely can't stand (hate would not be too strong of a word) decorating with cool colors. If I lived in a warmer climate, like Florida for instance, I'm pretty sure that I would decorate with cool colors.

I read an interesting book called "Home" that had to do with the psycology of home decorating. One myth that the book dispels is that people have physical reactions to clor (such as the color red raising blood pressure). As far as I know there is absolutely no scientific evidence to support that seeing a color does anything to one physiologically speaking. Since I have a red bedroom and often sleep like a baby I can for sure say that the color red doesn't raise my blood pressure:-)

I live in New England, have painted and repainted my home many times in the 11 years we have owned it and never was settled on anything that I had done. Colors were always cool.

I am repainting the downstairs yet again; this time with warm colors. Only about 1/2 done, but what a difference in the feel of the home now. I cannot wait till it is all complete!

BTW, I have a red bedroom as well. I like color, wanted something earthy and romantic - we love our red room and sleep like babies. I think it's not as simple as the color, it's the undertones that make up that color that lend to the feel of the room.

Having been a nurse for many many years, I have a tendency to gravitate to that "Hospital Green" a lot...maybe just cause I feel comfortable around it. In my previous home (of 26 years) I had everything gray (my favorite color). Probably most people found that boring...LOL.

I am really swinging out in my new home (been here 3 years) and using different colors. My living room is a Tiki Lounge and although I wanted a mushroom beige color on the walls, I bought paint via the Internet and my handyman painted the room while I was gone. Well it is a warm gold and I didn't like it at first, but it has grown on me. The furniture in there is a honey colored bamboo and matching woods and that gold paint really shows off the furniture. The mushroom would have washed it out. I am decorating that room with lots of art pieces so there is lots of color...it is my energy room as people tend to whoop it up at the bar and I have plenty of rousing card games at the table. In my dining room, I am seriously thinking about going with some peacock blues. In my kitchen I am going for the diner look, I have pale green counters, white cabinets and will eventually paint a very very pale pink as I am going to be decorating with some pink flamingos...so I think that is on the cool side. I ordered yellow wallpaper with Bird of Paradise flowers on it for my guest bedroom...obviously warm.

Thinking cool and warm is going to be in my plans as I continue to decorate my home. Maybe I should wear a blood pressure cuff and monitor the changes as I move from room to room...LOL.

"If I lived in a warmer climate, like Florida for instance, I'm pretty sure that I would decorate with cool colors."

Bingo, Andrea! I live in Florida and have slowly painted most of my house in a cool color, a lightened version of Silver Sage.

Down here visually life is *VIBRANT*. The light is intense and bright, the colors of nature are vivid-blue sky, green water, even the flora and fauna are multi- and primary-colored. Not to mention much of the year the temperature is definitely on the warm if not hot side. Coming home, I need and appreciate a restful and cool home. It feels like turning down the temperature and stimulus instantly.

That isn't even to mention emotionally cool-my life consists of a spouse and 2 young-adult children living at home, 2 pets, a large group of immediate family that we interact with constantly. Add in a job in which I literally spend all day every day interacting, talking, and advising...and when I come home that calm oasis is soothing to my soul.

In fact I just finished painting my bedroom SS and can feel how it relaxes me every night when I lie calmly reading before bed.

Hmmm, a long paen to cool colors but my point, and I do have one :), is that I completely agree with the quoted article.

Ann,
a cool customer

I buy colors I like without thinking whether they're warm or cool, but now that I know the difference, all my colors are on the warm side. Red is a big color in my house, especially the LR and kitchen.

The kitchen has the ruby red, the LR has a deep red/rust. I love the coziness of it all.

Especially when I close the shutters on a hot summer's day, it makes me think of Winter which is my favorite season. In the winter with a fire going, it's Heaven!

Reds and other jewel tones are versatile, IMO.

I too live in Florida and the color palette of the house is mostly blues and greens. However some of the walls and ceilings are painted in warm neutrals like EK's 'Mushroom' and BM's 'Hillsboro Beige' with accents of blues and greens. I find that I choose the main color depending upon the light conditions and orientation of the room rather than just the fact that we live in a warm, sunny climate.

I decorate a room in both warm and cool colors. I like the contrast and I think it makes the design more interesting.

I think i'm really out in the cold on this one! My wall color is a warm neutral tan in all the rooms, with the only colors of ivory, gold, black thru-out the house.

I don't find it to be warm or cold, but have been told it 'feels cozy' or sophisticated~would leopard prints chairs be considered 'warm'? ;o)

I don't go about decor with warm or cool in mind, more with the space in mind and the related spaces. I lean towards warm, with a deep love of gold, burgundy, copper, etc, but will also toss in a cool colored room if it flows. I am currently thinking about how to do this victorian...and I'll probably do the majority of it in pretty warm colors taking a clue from the original draperies that exist (gold, green and copper) and to compliment the wood (i don't love wood with cool colors). But I think up in the servents quarters I'm going to go ahead and embrace my cool side. The rooms are darker than the rest of the house, and being former attic overlooking gardens and the bay, I think they call for softer cool tones in silvery gray and soft yellows maybe even a lovely soft blue or silvery green (no hospital green or peach LOL YUCK...this is because we were patients verses staff Vamp...I betcha no patient loves hospital green LOL) I just have to make this flow from the gold walls of the hall...it will be a fun challenge, and I'm bringing in a pro so I don't screw it up LOL

I think warm.

I love jewel tones but they don't fit neatly in the 'warm vs. cool' spectrum. Ruby red is warm obviously, but how about a true sapphire blue, or emerald green? Blue and green are classified as 'cool' colors but I think if you go big and vibrant with them, they become warm.

We just finished painting two floors of our three-story rowhouse and we chose: a bright blue living room, an aqua TV room, a red library, a Caribbean blue BR, a dark denim-blue BR, a gold office and a bright green guest room. The whole house feels warm and electric to me, even though blues and greens are technically 'cool' colors.

I most definitely paint with cool colors... But I find they fit my age and my personality. I'm young (early twenties) and teals, violets, and lively greens just speak to me ;) They seem hip and cheerful to me opposed to cold and calming.

My parent's house is decorated in reds and golds and while it looks beautiful, it isn't what I'd want in my home at this stage in my life.

I actually just painted an accent wall teal and to me it livens up the room like no other. I looove it.

I have always loved warm colors. And I am currently 're-doing' my bedroom in warm colors because I have grown tired of the cool colors I have now. I thought it would be calming, but I find it boring and depressing. So, back to warm for me!

I think vistas more than anything and how colors juxtaposed work from a distance. I like there to be harmony and contrast from all angles so neither warm or cool are critical to me.

It's all relative anyway: blues can be warm and yellows can be cool.

In my case it seemed to be location, when we lived in the NE, my colors and those of everyone else I knew or family, were deep warm tones, especially carpet, as everyone tracked in nasty dirt, black dirt, now living in SW FL. 30 yrs. my colors and those of my friends and neighbors, are soft, cool colors (my carpet is white) most of the year it's hot enough outside, we like to keep the inside as cool feeling as possible, and the only dirt which could be tracked in would be sand.

I move more like Alexandria posted when it comes to color and I'm not young. But I am cool in my decorating style.LOL

Our walls are BM Sea Spray which is a creamy goldish beige in LR and DR and BM Natural Beech which is about the same with a little bit of a greenish tint in FR and Kitchen which are open to each other. Accent wall and entry are BM Grenada Villa which is a teal blue. I just love the contemporary POP of color.

I need to get my camera charged up to take some pictures of my LR/DR project. It's been a slower project than I anticipated since I really don't have time to shop right now. But it is making progress.

No doubt here, I love the warm colors. Red is my favorite wardrobe and decorating color.

In our one-and-only living room -- there are high gloss white walls -- BUT dark plum, green and gold fabric on the furniture. In the winter -- an old Heriz-pattern rug is on the floor and a portrait with dark red accents is hung above the mantel.

BUT in the hot summer months -- the portrait is switched with another one of a cool gal in a green dress and the rug (and other accents) are switched out to white ones.

The guest room is painted in dark brown -- and in the summer a white-and-brown toile coverlet lives on the bed. But in the winter -- the bedding is switched to a dark gold patterned comforter. Same idea in the master bedroom (painted in RH Silver Sage) the bedding (and accents) change around with the change in the weather.

Are you sensing that I am a seasonal decorator? Yep. There are both cool and warm accents (in color and textures) around the house -- and each has its own season!

Jan at Rosemary Cottage

Alexandra, I had to laugh when you said you don't like the jewel tones because of your age. When I was in my 20s, those were the colors I found myself decorating with, and I've never changed since! I always thought I was born "old." :) I loved antiques and vintage before I was old enough to know what they were!