• Discover the healing effects of color.
• Find out how to match color to your mood.

When choosing color for our homes, it's not unusual for some of us to spend days or weeks searching for just the right shade. Not surprising, perhaps, but definitely interesting--especially when you consider the fact that the color doesn't really exist.

What we think of as color is actually reflected light that reaches our retinas through vibratory wavelengths. Our brains then interpret the waves as colors.

Color, therefore, is really a sensation. But considering our dynamic, even sometimes emotional relationship to color, “being conscious of how you apply it in your environment makes all the sense in the world,” says color consultant Debra Wade of Creative Interiors in Eugene, OR.

Such consciousness forms the basis of chromatherapy, a branch of holistic healing that uses color to achieve optimal health. Research has shown that certain colors have measurable psychological and physiological effects on people. For example, warm colors such as red and orange usually act as stimulants and have been shown to elevate heart rates, induce perspiration and arouse feelings of excitement, says Phoenix-based wellness expert Terra Wellington.

Color my world

Studies also have shown that people attach symbolic significance to certain colors. Lighting designer Doreen Le May Madden cites surveys conducted by the International Association of Color Consultants suggesting that most individuals, regardless of their culture, associate red with love.

For most Americans, personal preference is the sole factor when choosing colors for the home, says Le May Madden of Lux Lighting Design in Belmont, MA. However, she and other designers are noticing a growing interest in chromatherapy among their clients.

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Incorporating chromatherapy into your home can be as fundamental as choosing paint and fabric colors that correspond with particular emotional states. Cool colors, such as green, blue and indigo are thought to be calming, while red, orange and other warm colors are said to have energizing effects.

If your aim is to promote well-being, Le May Madden recommends using nature as a guide. She believes that our emotional responses to certain colors stem from our experiences in the natural world. What we typically think of as “spa colors” (blues and greens, for example) rightfully belong to the tranquil and restorative settings of the outdoors — lush meadows, cool mountain streams, the sun-warmed sea, the expansive sky.

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It's all up to hue

It’s important to recognize your own unique emotional reactions to color. A one-size-fits-all approach to chromatherapy ignores the fact that “the direct link between certain colors and specific psychological or physiological results is tenuous at best,” says Professor Mark D. Fairchild, director of the Munsell Color Science Laboratory at Rochester Institute of Technology in NY.

Because each individual’s unique tastes, emotional associations and past experiences with certain colors play a part in his or her reactions, he add, “a color that relaxes me might enrage you."

Over the past decade, advances in technology have broadened chromatherapy’s applications. One airline provides calming displays of color on its chair-back TV screens in an effort to relax harried passengers. Residential swimming pools, designed around the concept of chromatherapy, feature colored fiber optics that can be festive or therapeutic.

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Bathing in a rainbow

In another innovative use of chromatherapy, Kohler integrates colored lights in several models of its whirlpool baths, including the luxurious sok® overflowing bath. An ultra-deep reservoir allows you to completely immerse yourself as thousands of champagne-like bubbles caress your body. Water continuously trickles over the sides of the basin for a soothing visual and aural sensation.

This multisensory experience relaxes you mentally and physically, making you more receptive, perhaps, to the bath’s chromatherapy features. With the touch of a button, you can bathe yourself in eight colors — the full spectrum of light — for an experience that’s both relaxing and invigorating. Four LED ports, positioned within the tub’s inner walls, sequentially transmit the colors; or, you can select the one color that best fits your mood.

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Light adds dimensionality to color, which intensifies its impact. When you infuse color with light, “you can walk through it, you can immerse yourself in it, you can feel as though you’re in a room that’s saturated with it — and those can be very profound experiences,” Le May Madden says.

Some experts believe that embracing the concept could be the key to success with chromatherapy. “Surrounding yourself in a color that relaxes you would certainly be a good thing,” Fairchild says, “but the degree to which this would be effective or helpful depends on the person’s predisposition to the idea.”