Stay Cool with Paint, Part III

In Stay Cool with Paint, Part I, we learned about the physics of keeping cool with paint. In Stay Cool with Paint, Part II, we looked at the chemistry of keeping cool with paint. In Part III, we'll examine the psychology of keeping cool with paint.

Painting the outside of your home white, especially when you use paint containing titanium dioxide or other heat reflective materials such as ceramic insulative particles, actually reduces the temperature of your home. You can measure the difference with a thermometer.

Painting the interior of your home in a particular colour won't make the temperature of the room change. The difference is all about reflecting the sun's light and heat, and the sun doesn't generally reach the paint on your interior walls.

But the colour choice inside your home or office does have psychological effects. A red or orange room, using the fiery colours of the peppers in the picture above, feels warmer than a cool colour like ice blue.

The colours on the right hand side of the colour wheel are cool colours. They make people feel cooler than the colours on the left hand side. Choosing aqua, blue, or green will make you feel cool and refreshed, while yellow, orange, and red feel warm and cozy.

In summer, it's smart to choose cool colours. If you don't care to repaint every season, you can choose either warm or cool colours or neutrals like biscuit and white, and then change your soft furnishings and decorative objects to create the warmth or the cool you're after.

For example, if you have a room with bright yellow walls, you can cool it down for the summer by adding blue and green decorative elements. Paint your room aqua right now to get a cool feeling for the summer, and warm it up with red come winter.