Here's a shout out to our favorite room in the house: The kitchen. And the reason that yellow kitchen is so appealing? Color affects our mood. Yellow = happy. But what about green? Orange? How do we react to other colors in the spectrum?

To that end, I consulted Robin Strangis' excellent Color Idea Book when embarking on an interior renovation last fall. Her primer on what to choose when you're seeking a certain flavor in a room helped me determine my color palette (spoiler alert: I wanted a sense of coziness in an open floor plan so we had CertaPro Painters paint it a deep orange).

Here's how I made my selection.

Keeping in mind that our lifelong experiences, associations and cultural interactions affect how we react to color, here are some universal truths:

Red and orange are known to stimulate the appetite and increase energy.
Green is associated with calm, growth and openness.
Yellow summons sunlight and optimism.
Soft pink is calming.

 Robin's following suggestions will help you pick a palette to deliver the emotional reaction you want:

Blue is calming, but a room with too much blue can make a person look ill.

Deep orange adds excitement, but bright orange can look cheap.

Deep purple imparts loneliness, but soft violet is subduing.

A warm shade of brown encourages closeness, but an earthy brown can be associated with melancholy.

White imparts purity and brightness of spirit, but a blue-white can look sterile.

A highly saturated blue-red can be disturbing in large amounts and possibly increase anger, but a toned-down version of a rosy red can have a calming effect.

Black can be empty and depressing, but can be dramatic if strategically used.

If you're inspired to add a new splash of color to your kitchen, CertaPro Painters can deliver a paint job you'll love — with certainty. Request a free painting estimate from your local CertaPro.