The Best Colors for Productivity
and Creativity

Altering your environment is one of the most effective strategies to bring out the best in yourself.

In fact, in a previous blog series I listed environment as the 2nd most essential element of productivity. As it turns out, your environment dramatically affects your creativity as well.

Photo Credit: Nanagyei

I’m not a paid professional graphic designer, artist, or brilliant visionary (though I do get the occasional compliment on this website). Thankfully, you and I don’t have to be naturally gifted to bring a little color to our lives.

Let’s shine some light on your color choices, especially those that improve your ability to get things done with a creative flare.

Choices, Choices, Choices

My wife, Tessa, and I bought our first house a few weeks ago and I have spent a huge amount of time painting (mostly because the previous owners made a few ridiculous choices).

I took this picture of Tessa at Home Depot about a month before we officially bought our house. Talk about daunting! I couldn’t believe the number of choices we had available to us.

The process of choosing just the right colors for each room was nothing short of an Olympic event. Combining personal preferences with “expert” opinions made the job even more challenging than I originally anticipated.

We are officially moving out of our apartment and into the new house this Sunday, so I can’t yet say with certainty that the colors we chose are ideal. But, we did compare quite a few options and the walls are already painted.

So, in order to avoid going insane with perfectionism, I’m considering this a completed project. I will have more pictures up once we move into the house so you can see the finished product with all of our stuff.

*FYI – The colors below are much richer and brighter than they appear in these little pictures.

For our master bedroom we ditched the previously pink walls and went with Behr’s Cream Puff. It’s a great soft color for a bedroom. My wife picked out this color, so my official opinion is that this is the absolute best color ever.

This room is not intended for productivity or creativity and I wouldn’t recommend this color too highly for a home office or work space.

I posted a picture of our kitchen on Facebook and someone said, “O. M. Green!” I couldn’t have said it better myself. Our kitchen is now Behr’s Ocean Boulevard.

It’s a great soft blue shade that will eventually match our off-white cabinets when we get them re-faced. For now, this blue is simply leaps and bounds better than that mess of green.

My home office was a tough choice for me. I wanted to bring life to the room while also creating an environment that encouraged me to be more productive and brilliant. The previous color was a soft shade of green that I didn’t like, so I went with Behr’s Clear Pond.

This color is light blue and has a hint of gray. I feel very at home with this color and it doesn’t bore me like other soft shades do.

My Recommendations

Based on my own experience and a little research, (1) (2) (3), I have listed the best colors for productivity and creativity.

Keep in mind that colors come in groups, meaning that you have to consider the whole palette, or the big picture, before choosing the color of a specific room. Some of the colors I don’t like or didn’t choose could actually work really well in the right context.

For a generalized set of recommendations, these will give you a place to start your colorful journey.

The Best Colors for Productivity and Creativity

• Light Greens and Blues: these are the ideal colors for creativity, innovation, brainstorming, and keeping the mood calm without putting people to sleep. These are the best choices for most creative spaces. I chose shades of light blue for my home office and kitchen.

The Runners Up

1. Browns and Grays: many offices are painted gray, which is neutral, but incredibly boring. I would paint a bedroom brown or gray long before an office. In terms of productivity and creativity, these are decent, but not the best choice.
2. Light Purples: these could work in an office, but I would choose blue or green before I landed on a light purple. Dark purple is ideal for Mardi Gras.
3. Light Reds: as long as you don’t go with a firey red, you can use a light shade to improve detail oriented work and increase passion. This could be great for a quiet or laid back person who wants more energy.
4. Yellows and Oranges: these are great for babies, construction sites, and theme parties, but not great for getting work done without a fight. Yellows and oranges are like reds, they bring out passion. Be sparing on these colors.
5. Pure White: this seems like a great choice, but it’s too intense in large quantities. White is best for trim or edges, but not for a big wall. Stick to shades of tan or gray for larger spaces.
6. Black: this is awesome for accents, but not for a large space because it will look small and uber scary. Keep the mood light and use black sparingly.

Clear Your Calendar — It’s Time to Paint!

Now that you know what colors work best it’s time to schedule time to update your office.

Clear a few days on your calendar and fill up that time with moving furniture, buying supplies, and painting your creative space. It doesn’t have to be complicated. Just pick a color and go. Any color is better than pure white.

Seriously.

Anything.

Next Week

Next week on the blog I will be sharing a modified miracle for irregular schedules.