Interior Design Ideas

Interior Design Ideas for Using Red

July 10, 2026

The first color eliciting a response from an infant, is red. As a noted color preference, it is surpassed only by blue as the stated favorite.

Red excites our brains, awakens our endocrine glands, and while viewing red our blood pressure rises, our pulse rate is increased and we breathe more rapidly. Food can taste better in a red environment, and in a red room we can loose track of time. (Are you thinking of your dining room? or library?)

From birth, men and women inherit a preference for different shades of red and while each gender may learn to accept a larger spectrum as a result of education and diverse cultural experiences, the inborn color preference remains. As children we gravitate to the clear mid range hues but as we grow older, travel more and are exposed to international influences on clothing, advertising , design and architecture we start to appreciate a more complex blending of darker shades of red.

He prefers the yellow based shades:

And she prefers the blue based reds:

These colors are from Benjamin Moore Paints

So now we can take into account the function of the interior space and your age, gender, culture and socioeconomic status to come up with a design solution using the color red. It can be limited to a single piece for a jolt of color,

Red can support a multi colored scheme,

or completely envelop the walls and floor for a saturated effect.

My comments regarding the psychological and physiological effects of the color red come from a course, the Language of Color, sponsored by the Wagner Institute for Color Research. Just for fun, go back to the photos and note if the designer was male or female!

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