Design Inspiration: India's Holi Festival

In India, there is an entire celebration of color called the Holi Festival, and it takes places this Wednesday. People gather around the town for two days for bonfires and revelry. On the second day, participants douse each other with colored powders called gulal and wet colors (usually a mixture of gulal and water). The results are breathtakingly beautiful.

This beautiful festival makes us want to celebrate color as well. Here at Ahrens Designs, we LOVE color. It is obviously very important in the design process, but more than that, it makes us feel alive.

Color is an extremely powerful tool in designing anything, as color can have an impact on you psychologically. Companies consider the psychology of color in their logo design and branding all the time.

As an interiors example, most people don't use blue in a kitchen, because your subconscious sees blue as unappetizing because no foods are naturally blue (blueberries are actually purple). Conversely, if you'd like to suppress your appetite (maybe you're on a diet, or would like to consume smaller portions), some psychologists suggest adding blue to the kitchen or dining room or eating off of blue dinnerware

But rules are made to be broken. Blue in kitchens and red in bedrooms (red tends to increase your heart rate, making it difficult to relax and sleep) are popping up all over the place.

Some of our favorite ideas involving color are the most unexpected, like the pops of pink in this living room

or the green under the tub in this black-and-white bathroom.

We love the idea of unexpected color in the doorway

or in your drawers or cabinets.

Another fun idea is to brighten up a small step in your home by painting the front

or instead of trying to hide an eyesore like a radiator, painting it a bright color so it becomes a focal point.

So what do you think? What are some of your favorite ways to add color to your home? These are just a few of ours, but we could go on and on about our love affair with color.