color impact

I love color! I know this is far from a secret but it is incredible.
Thought I would tell a favorite story of the impact that color can have.

I walked into a client's home and she gave me a tour through the home. When we got to the master bedroom, I noticed that there was an extra bed in there for the youngest child who was 7 years old. I asked her about that and she said that kid was too scared to sleep in her room, too many nightmares over the twin towers falling on 9-11.
While that was a day none of us will ever forget, it had been several years since it had happened and I found it odd that a child watching it on tv and no relatives involved would be so impacted by it.

We continued the tour and talking about the daughter. Apparently the daughter had a bit of dyslexia and it was hard for her to study. When I saw her room, I knew what the problem was immediately. Mom had wanted to do something wonderful for her, painted her room fun and girly and wanted to create a fun kids room. She had painted wide stripes and thin stripes on the wall in alternating colors, pink and purple. While it did look like a fun little girl's room it was the worst possible thing for this little girl. First of all, because of her dyslexia, the stripes were always shaking. So in her world, the big purple stripes were a constant recreation of the towers falling. No wonder she couldn't get it out of her head.

The dynamic, bright colors created a lot of contrast and energy in the room that made it even harder for her to think straight. Many studies have been done to prove that yellow can actually enhance learning abilities. So I suggested that we select a yellow that would be helpful to her. Mom then mentioned that she had another room that was yellow and that was where the child spent all of her time.

They painted the room, the child's grades improved, the parents got their master bedroom back and life was improved for all.

It's truly amazing what a can of paint and a weekend can do!