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One of the major problems I’ve always had when working from my home office was just staring at the generic off white walls. Working from home can be a pretty isolating space made worse by dreary decor that seems to sap the life and focus out of your 9-5. Luckily I managed to overcome this by changing up the color of my home office boosting my productivity.
A subtle shade of blue is the best option to boost productivity when working from home. Painting your room blue will help you to keep focused on repetitive tasks and can help you get more done per hour. Look for a shade of sky or pastel blue with a green hue for best results
So why is blue the best colour for productivity in a home office? Are there other colors that you should consider? And are there some colors that you should never paint your office with that can ruin your productivity? Keep reading to find out more
Now it’s worth mentioning that this post has a lot of information and so if you’re curious about the best equipment needed to work remotely simply go to my resource page here.
What is the best color for productivity?
Let’s paint a picture, you work in sales and you’ve recently found yourself working from home full time. Your role is repetitive and you find yourself calling up the same contacts day after day staring into a screen and white wall that give you nothing back.
Well for me, I don’t have to imagine this bleak scenario, as it was my life a few years back.
Whether you work from home or an office, you need an environment that keeps you focused and productive and I’ve worked in too many offices where you are just staring at white walls to figure out that a little bit of color makes all the difference in the world.
Blue or more specifically blue with a green hue like cyan, teal, sky blue or azure are the best colours to decorate a home office with.
So why is blue the best color for a home office?
Blue specifically has a few major benefits over other colors that I’ve put into a table below:
| Benefit | Why is this good for remote working |
| Improves your productivity over other colors | Easily the biggest benefit for us remote workers. A scientific study by the University of Texas found that employees who work from a blue room were far more productive then those who worked in a red or white room. This is important as a lot of the time us remote workers have the stigma of being unproductive and so what better way to nip this in the bud than doubling down on your productivity. |
| It can slow breathing and lower blood pressure | Remote workers and those of us who work from home are also incredibly stressed a lot of the time. It’s not unusual for us to work longer hours at home then our office based counterparts so painting your room a color like blue that will force you to slow down and stay calm will only be beneficial for your wellbeing |
| It shows dependability and trustworthiness | Dependability and trustworthiness are both essential things remote workers often have to prove either to their managers or to their colleagues who are still office based. Showing them that you are very much a part of a team despite being somewhere else can help you progress your career further and the color blue can held do this even on a subconscious level |
| Men and women like it | This is great if you work in a sales role or have a lot of meetings with different types of meetings. It’s always good to stay on the neutral side of things and by choosing a color that everyone likes should give you more control over the conversations you may have with others getting your point across. |
Are there any downsides to painting your office blue?
Blue can sometimes lead to feelings of sadness and isolation, especially in darker hugs. Isolation in particular can be an issue us remote workers face; it can also be a hard color to match with when compared to neutral colors like white or black.
Like anything with an upside painting your office blue does have a few downsides however the benefits listed above far outway any of the potential drawback above
Is painting your home office blue a good idea?
I know what you’re thinking, a blue office, heck even a light blue office is a little bit loud for a home office right?
Whilst the majority of people do have a neutral color for their home office ( usually white, beige or even the dreaded grey) having an office with a bit of color like blue can make the difference in struggling with the world of remote work to become more productive than you ever had.
90% of people are scared to take the leap when it comes to investing in themselves and I don’t know about you but I would want to do whatever it takes to ensure that I’m the best worker I can be.
With COVID likely meaning a lot of you reading this are now working from home, don’t you want to do everything in your power to improve your productivity avoiding any room for getting fired?
Whilst blue alone can definitely be a tough pill to swallow it’s worth mentioning that I would never recommend changing your office to entirely one color, instead using colors which compliment each other
Can you use multiple colors in your office to boost productivity?
Using multiple colors In your home office will also boost your productivity. Ideally Orange and blue are the best colors for this as both have been shown to boost productivity in studies. Using other colors will have different benefits. For example using orange and green will ensure you will stay productive but also think deeply about problems.
What other colors should you use alongside blue in your home office?
Too much of any one color will look bad no matter the color so what are some colors that compliment blue?
The best choice in my opinion would be an orange or rust color. This is because they sit opposite each other in the color wheel and compliment each other well.
Look at any movie posters for any major movie in the past ten years and you will start to see why so many of them use the same color palette to make them looking more visually appealing
Consider investing in orange lighting if you have blue paint or vice versa to get the most out of your room. That being said I would still recommend a traditional white black or grey desk (or standing desk at that) which will easily go with any room.
What do the different colours represent?
So now we know scientifically speaking the best color for a home office is what do the different colors traditionally represent to people?
Blue
Blue is the focus of mental clarity, it usually shows intelligence and focus and is the ideal color for anyone who needs to be efficient or whose role requires a lot of mental strain.
Roles blue is good for
So if you work from a home office it would be good to paint your office blue if your role is quite repetitive or requires you to do a high volume of activity. This would in include things like:
- Sales
- Programming
- Data analysis
- Accounting and finance
Red
Red is the color of excitement, strength and courage and sometimes danger and anger.
It’s a great color to use if you have a busy home office environment with lots of people but can cause things like anxiety and stress if used wrong can even lower productivity although that being said other studies from the university of British columbia found an increase in productivity amongst employees who worked in a red room.
Roles red is good for?
Red is great for those of you who do personal training or physical roles in your home office this can include things like:
- Personal training
- Construction
- Engineering
- Any role which requires a physical focus that you can do from home
Green
Green represents calmness and being close to nature, it’s part of the reason why so many people use plants to help them relax when they work in something like an apartment block or have no access to a park.
Roles green is good for?
Green is a fantastic color for helping calm people down so great for anyone involved in close to high stress environments like:
- Therapists
- Social workers
- Charity workers
- Customer services
Yellow
Yellow is one of the most uplifting colors out there with it being used mainly for energy and is a fantastic color to use for creativity and memory according to Dr. White Color affects the system.
That being said yellow is one of the most divisive colors out there so I would definitely use it alongside another color to get the full impact of it. Some people have even been known to lose their temper according to some studies when in a yellow room
Roles yellow is good for?
- Artists
- Filmmakers
- Singers
- Writers
- Marketing
- Any arts
Orange
Orange like blue, imparts the feeling of activity and productivity hence why these two colors go well together.
That being said it’s very much a love it or hate it color so defiantly worth using as an accent color or for framing your main color.
Roles orange is good for?
So when working from home any roles that have a high amount of daily activity would be good if you decide to go for an orange:
- Sales
- Data analysis
- Accounting
- Entrepreneurship
Purple
Purple has been associated for both deep thinkers and royalties for centuries and so is the perfect color to use for those in educational establishments or those who need to think critically to achieve any outcomes
Roles purple is good for?
- Teachers
- Students
- Lecturers
Pink
The color pink is associated with femininity, beauty, love, romance and charm. And is a great color for making people feel relaxed and at home.
Roles pink is good for?
Pink is a create color for the fashion and beauty niches so if you work from home with the following roles I would suggest pink:
- Beautician
- Childminder
White
White is associated with cleanliness but also reminds people of hospitals and has a clinical finish. I would avoid painting a home office white for most roles unless you work in the medical sector
Roles white is good for?
- Dentistry
- Home doctor practice
- Any medical parameters
Black
Painting an office black can be great to have a clean prestigious look to your office.
The only downside is that this usually only works when you have a feature wall that is black whilst having some other colors to help balance out the rest of the room.
Offices that have successfully managed to paint their rooms back usually do so because they have a room large enough to balance the color out with.
Roles black is good for?
- Directors
- CEOs
- Leadership teams
Which colors should you use to boost productivity?
The best colors to use to boost productivity in your home office should be blue and orange. Both blue and orange help you to stay focused and have been linked through studies to boost productivity.
I would keep a light coloured blue as the main theme for your home office so would recommend painting your wall with those and then use the organe to accent the color.
So using things like rust desktops for your standing desk or investing in an office chair with orange highlights.
This is because too much orange can turn a lot of people off so you want to use it as a way to compliment your main color.
For the blue, as mentioned earlier, you want to go for something in a lighter hue such as teal or sky blue.
What if you don’t like orange or blue?
So if the thoughts of orange or blue make you throw up a little other colors that would be great to help productivity in your home office would be:
- Purple
- Green
- Red
Whilst they might be a little bit off the cuff compared to what most people would be comfortable with, as discussed earlier, each of these colors have their own benefits.
Now if you were to push me and I had to choose one color I would go for the green which works especially well if you have something like a home office garden pod bringing the outside indoors.
So what colors should you use together with purple, green and red?
Once again use the color wheel to get an idea of which colors compliment each other.
It’s also worth stating that you want your office to be both visually appealing as well as keeping you focused so be sure to add other colors in your home office like blacks and whites to make sure your office is both visually stimulating and keeps you focused.
It’s worth noting that at the end of the day, you want a color that will work for you, you know your office more than anyone and understand what colors you like so whilst these other colors will work for you, you want to make sure you do what feels right.
Which colors should you avoid if you want to be productive?
Grey as a color is both psychologically neutral and lacks energy meaning it can leave you feeling deflated and can sap your energy. Heavy uses of grey have even been linked with poor mental health and depression.
Using hints of grey is perfectly fine so long as you offset them with other colors to limit their impact. The worst thing you can do is to fill your home office with grey so try to use some of the options outlined in this post.
Which colors work well together in an office together for productivity?
We touched upon this earlier but using the color wheel we can find the following colors tend to work well together
- Blue and orange
- Black and white
- Navy and teal
- Black and orange
- Blue yellow and green
- Navy and orange
All of these have variations including colors that improve productivity and as always, you can use other colors alongside these to break these up and make your office work for you.
Why does the color of your office matter?
The color of your office matters as it will have a direct correlation with how productive you are, especially when working from home. As you are spending 8+ hours per day working from your home office it is ideal if you make it as comfortable and as enjoyable as possible. Color can have a direct correlation on this with colors having different impacts on end users.
Why is productivity important when working from home?
Whilst remote workers are more productive than their office based counterparts ( often working 16.9 days more per year on average) there perception of remote workers is still that of them lying in bed, working the bare minimums and relaxing on work time.
As such it’s important to show both management and your office based colleagues that you are focused and worker as hard as or even harder then they are when you work from home.
How does color impact your productivity?
Angela Wright is an expert in color productivity having worked for large multinationals such as shell and motorola.
She has also written the book (quite literally you can check it out here) on the links between colors and how they impact people.
Whilst colors impact people on an individual basis but there are hard scientific factors that affect people – one key point being productivity.
Because colors travel in different wavelengths when they enter our eyes when they enter our retina, ( the thin layer in the back of your eye) they are converted into electrical impulses when they enter you hypothalamus – the part of our brain responsible for hormones and our activity.
As you can see if color enters the part of our brain that regulates things like hormones and activity, they have a direct impact on your day to day – including things like productivity.
How does color saturation affect productivity?
According to Angela, the more stimulating the color is, the higher the impact it will have on productivity.
For example if you have two blues the blue that is deeper and brighter will results in more productivity than a blue that was faint that you could not see, hopefully the image below will help demonstrate this:
The four staple colors also have been found in studies to impact, mind, emotions body and balance so if you use a mix of these it will likely change your impact in different way so using a mix of both can go a long way.
What do the studies about color in an office say?
So you’ve heard my thoughts on the best colors for a home office for productivity but it’s important to note the various studies that back this up but also offer some alternatives, let’s explore these together:
University of Texas study
Easily the most comprehensive study on the links between colors and productivity is a study by the University of Texas which found that people who worked from a blue/green office were far more productive than those who worked in either a white or red colored office.
Bosch et al
A study by Bosh found that the color of white in offices or not reminded people of a sterile clinical feeling.
Keith Jacobs and Frank Hustmyer
In there 1974 study Jacobs and Hustmyer found that the color blue was linked with feelings of loyalty, stability and tranquility – all valuable skills remote workers require
Are there alternatives to redecorating your room for productivity?
So if you’re worried about ruining your walls with a bright new color or you live in an apartment and so can’t really decorate your office as you would like one of the best options would be LED mood lights.
These work very well when pressed up against white walls and often come with a variety of color options allowing you to set the right hue for your office.
My recommendations can be found on my recommended gear page, rest assured that I’ve had a lot of bad experiences with light so understand what the right ones are for you.
Best color for a home office in an apartment?
Whilst blue and orange would be my go to colors for any home office. if you live in an apartment with a home office I would add hues of green in there in order to give you the feeling of nature and greenery which you might not get living in an apartment complex.
The easiest way to do this would be to add some plants which you can find out more information on here.
Finally a lot of people reading my blog want to know what products I recommend for a home office/remote working. You can find out my recommendations here and learn how I make money whilst working remotely on the side here.
The content on this on this site has been written by Fehed Nicass who has over a decades worth of experience in sales and has worked remotely for the past 2 years.