We spend a lot of time worrying about colour. I know I do. I\u2019ve worked with colour for more than 25 years, and I can still spend far too long moving a paint sample from one wall to another, looking at it in the morning and then again when the lights are on.<\/p>\n But the more I\u2019ve worked with sensory design, the less interested I\u2019ve become in asking what colour looks good. I\u2019m much more interested in asking: how does this colour make the room feel?<\/p>\n I ask this at the beginning of most projects now. How does the room need to feel? What are we going to use it for? Who is going to spend time in it, and what do they need from it?<\/p>\n Once you start there, you look at colour slightly differently.<\/p>\n Think about a bedroom. We generally want it to help us wind down and sleep, so it makes sense that the colour shouldn\u2019t be fighting for our attention when we\u2019re trying to switch off.<\/p>\n A workspace has a different job. We might want to feel alert and able to focus, but that doesn\u2019t mean the room needs to be bright or stimulating. Personally, I find too much visual information distracting, so I tend to use colour more quietly.<\/p>\n Then there are the rooms where we spend time together. Kitchens, dining rooms and living spaces might need to feel warmer and more sociable.<\/p>\n No single colour will magically make you feel calm, focused, or happy. We\u2019re all different, and our responses to colour are different too.<\/p>\n This is where I think we need to move away from some of the usual rules around colour psychology. Red doesn\u2019t automatically make everyone feel one way and blue another.<\/p>\n You have to notice your own response.<\/p>\n This is one of the biggest things I\u2019ve learnt from working with colour.<\/p>\n You can fall in love with a paint colour on a tiny card and then put it on your wall and wonder what on earth happened.<\/p>\n Light plays a huge role. A colour can look completely different in a north-facing room compared with a sunny south-facing space. Then switch the lamps on in the evening, and it changes again.<\/p>\n Everything else in the room matters too. The flooring, curtains, furniture, artwork, pattern and even what\u2019s happening outside the window all become part of what we see.<\/p>\n If you\u2019ve already got a patterned rug, lots of artwork, open shelving and plenty of objects on display, adding a very strong wall colour could be one sensory layer too many.<\/p>\n That doesn\u2019t mean getting rid of everything or painting your house beige. Far from it.<\/p>\n It\u2019s about balance.<\/p>\n I\u2019m naturally drawn to lower-saturation colours. By that, I mean colours with some of the intensity taken out of them.<\/p>\n I find them easier to live with because they give you colour without shouting.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/thesensoryhome.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/GrahamBrown_TSH_05.26_0095_LRC1-791x1024-jpg.webp){kind=spacer}
<\/picture><\/noscript><\/figure>\nStart with what you need from the room<\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/thesensoryhome.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/GrahamBrown_0056_LRC-794x1024-jpg.webp)
<\/picture><\/noscript><\/figure>\nColour never sits on its own<\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/thesensoryhome.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/GrahamBrown_0258_LRC-794x1024-jpg.webp)
<\/picture><\/noscript><\/figure>\nWhy I tend to use softer colours<\/h2>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/thesensoryhome.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/GrahamBrown_0096_LRC-794x1024-jpg.webp)
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