What colour should I repaint my home? Ask a psychologist

I knew there would be an argument. The room had gone eerily quiet. “Isn’t it about time,” my partner began, “that we freshened this place up a little?”

There was a long pause as she glanced around the white walls of our kitchen – which, I’ll admit, do have a little bit of paint chipping off them. Then she dropped a glossy magazine on the table – World of Interiors, I think. I was trying not to look.

My partner is passionate about colours and knows the names of all the different shades. I don’t – but I am a psychologist, and that gives me some skin in this colour game too.

Let’s start with those myriad names. Clay pink, muted teal, warm taupe … psychologists have long argued that the extent of your colour vocabulary affects how good you are at colour recognition. My partner spots subtle differences that I never notice. Recently, it’s been all about katsuobushi smoke, halva sesame and black garlic amber.

Colours exert their influence through a combination of evolutionary predispositions, physiological responses, learned associations and broader cultural meanings. Because of this, I’d argue that choosing a new colour scheme is a psychological issue, not just an aesthetic one.

Indeed, a growing body of neuroscientific, behavioural and psychological research shows that colour is not merely a matter of taste. The hues that surround us influence our emotional states, cognitive performance,

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