September 19, 2022

Choosing the Right Color Floor for your Commercial Space 

When designing commercial interior spaces, the floor is one of the most prominent features to consider. Specifically, the color of your floor can make or break the flow of a room. There are several factors that come into play when selecting the perfect color floor for your space, including the area’s size, its lighting, your industry, your brand, and the tone you want to set for visitors and employees. 

The chosen color palette in a work environment can affect everything from employee productivity to workplace wellbeing and even workers’ moods. The same goes for your visitors and customers. Colors will affect how they see and experience your brand and can even prompt specific behaviors. Here we dive into color psychology and why you should consider flooring aesthetics during your next redesign. 

Color Psychology 

“Colors, like features, follow the changes of the emotions.” – Pablo Picasso 

Color plays a significant role in the way we feel. When we look at colors, they evoke different emotions, often subconsciously reminding us of their origins or other associated memories. For example, blue can make us feel calm, reminding us of a cloudless sky or body of water. Yellow may spark happiness, resembling a warm, sunny day or make us feel instinctually safer as it reminds us of the light of day. Brands seriously consider their options when choosing a logo color. Successful brands are associated closely with their colors. Can you think of Coca-Cola without seeing red? Or yellow for Best Buy? How about Starbucks and its green mermaid? 

In the color spectrum, there are warm colors (red, orange, and yellow) and cool colors (green, blue, and purple.) Warm colors can either evoke feelings of anger or warmth. Cool colors, on the other hand, may give a feeling of calm or sadness, as per the common phrase “feeling blue.” When it comes to your brand, you may choose red to show passion or excitement or blue to show trustworthiness. Businesses with a strong sustainability message often choose green. 

In the past, gender was firmly rooted in certain color schemes and while that is changing, many still see pink as feminine and blue as masculine. But keep in mind that people from around the world experience colors differently from one another. Take red, for example. While in Western cultures it may represent passion or danger, in India it is often associated with purity and is traditionally worn for wedding dresses. In China, red is lucky and happy and is the color of the Chinese New Year. In Eastern Europe it still has associations with Communism. 

So, what does this mean for the design of your commercial space, specifically your choice of floors? 

How Color Choice Matters in Offices 

We’ve covered how colors evoke certain feelings or thoughts. Scientists have found by observing changes in the body and brain that colors influence how we see and respond to our environment. Business offices can use this to their advantage to inspire employees and increase their productivity. 

Color in the Workplace Environment 

Experts in color psychology have found that it is best to decorate a workplace with vibrant, stimulating hues that increase output and spark creativity. These include green and blue, which are common in nature, and can improve efficiency, focus, and can lend an overall sense of well-being.  

Red is an intense color that can be alarming at times, inspiring passion and increasing the heart rate and blood flow. If you are looking to draw urgent attention to a certain feature or room in the office, red, though a bold choice, may be the way to go. 

Yellow can signify energy and freshness. It is believed to trigger innovation and is best used in environments where creative professionals work. In general, neutrals and softer colors are known to create more soothing, comfortable spaces. Off-white hues are appropriate for office spaces and give rooms a glow reminiscent of natural sunlight.  

People get inspiration from the colors around them, so the one you choose to install on your floor can make an incredible difference in how employees feel and behave in the office! Click here for further inspiration for your workplace environment.  

Retail Environment Design 

What’s on sale is the most important aspect of a retail environment. What better way to catch the eyes of a shopper than a complementary floor color, making the items on sale pop? These days, with so much online shopping taking over the retail market, floor color can be used to create an experience in your retail store.  

What will make people want to come to your physical location? A combination of the experience you are offering, supported by attractive and interesting design. Of course, functionality is important too, features like comfort underfoot, sound absorption, easy cleaning, and durability; but you also want a floor that contributes to the image of your brand while making the space inviting.  

In a retail space, your floor color should support your brand and the atmosphere you desire to create for your customers. Check out this blog for further reading on how decorative flooring can help your store compete with online shopping, and visit our retail flooring page for future ideas.  

The Power of Color in Your Restaurant 

Color has a tremendous effect on consumer emotions, especially when it comes to food. Have you ever noticed how many restaurants, especially fast-food chains, incorporate red into their branding and décor? That is because studies show that red can actually stimulate your appetite! 

According to Jennifer Guerin, interior designer and color expert, it is best to avoid grays and blues when designing a restaurant. This is because gray suppresses the appetite and there aren’t many naturally occurring blues in food.  

There are many options to consider when building a dining experience. For example, if your restaurant is organic, vegan, or farm-to-table, you may want to include elements of brown and green to promote the feeling of clean, healthy eating. On the other hand, to give a fun and fresh energy to your Mexican restaurant, a clean white slate with pops of bright colors – pinks, blues, and yellows – can add a perfect touch of color and culture without overstimulating the clientele.  

With so many colors to choose from, always remember to find the balance between high energy and calm in the color scheme of your dining room. Whether you run a small Southern kitchen or an upscale Italian bistro, Liquid Elements has flooring products that can be customized to fit your setting.  

Why the White, Sterile Hospital is a Thing of the Past 

In healthcare settings, color is no less a fundamental design element than any other setting. For many years, healthcare facilities were associated with the color white and its clean, sterile properties. Despite the clean look, the days of the cold, white hospitals are over. Studies conducted show hospital design makes a difference on the patient wellbeing and the speed of their recovery. Comforting color palettes have been widely adopted in hospitals. 

Blue, green and purple can each be calming for patients. They work well in hospital rooms and wellness centers such as spas. But did you know that red is believed to be energizing and is recommended for patients with dementia who need brain stimulus? It is also used for memory care services in senior living homes. Of course, red isn’t recommended for most patients, like those who need rest, because it can cause anxiety and over-stimulation.  

In patient settings, it is equally important to create a sense of balance and contrast with distinct colors and saturations. A room that is predominantly “cool” should be balanced with “warm,” neutral elements like wood or cork. In children’s hospitals, however, bold contrasting colors can provide stimulation, or at least a signal that being playful and energetic is encouraged in the area. 

Sanitation and hygiene are of the utmost importance when choosing a floor for a hospital. Liquid Elements flooring prioritizes this by offering easy-to-clean, seamless floors that don’t trap dirt or bacteria. Liquid Elements has a wide range of color options, including custom colors and design for medical center lobbies and corridors as well as cafeterias and patient rooms. 

Color and Learning Environments 

Students seek out great schools to achieve knowledge that will set them up for the rest of their lives. But as you know, there’s much more that goes into deciding which college to attend. A big deciding factor is that first on-campus visit. We've already seen how colors can affect workers' moods or persuade shoppers toward a certain product, but colors can also affect students' mindsets. Will this be a place I will feel comfortable? A place I will make friends and feel happy? Will it be a good environment in which to study? Does it look old, worn, and out-of-date or modern, on-trend, and state-of-the-art? The right colors can be inviting to students and their parents and once the student is enrolled can make an even bigger impact during their time on campus. 

Research has shown a connection between the physical characteristics of school buildings and educational outcomes of students. For instance, warm, bright colors are recommended for preschool and elementary school classrooms as they are known to complement young students’ extroverted natures. Cooler colors inspire middle school students toward concentration and careful study. 

In higher education, colors can help students and staff in everything from competitive advantage in sports to university branding to simple facility navigation and more.  

Does your trade school or two-year college run a culinary program? Consider a white-black-red color palette for your flooring and walls, which tends to be popular in restaurant kitchens. Psychologically, this color scheme has been known to boost energy levels and can encourage culinary students. 

Ever notice how the individual wings of some trade schools have different colors? Many trade schools opt for color-coding sections of their facilities to help with easy navigation through hallways. Strategic color placement in your floor and wall accents can help students and staff distinguish learning environments from one another. 

Universities can also incorporate color palettes in their facility designs. University colors can be incorporated into flooring and wall designs to encourage school pride, while soothing hues in libraries and lecture areas can boost concentration for those taking in important information.  

Want to intimidate an opposing sports rival? Consider using red in your flooring design for corridors leading into the university sports complex. Matching branding colors from your college’s hues to your dining areas and campus interiors can really help build a sense of consistency and comfort for students during their downtime.  

Whichever colors you end up choosing for your learning environment, be sure to pick them with care and purpose. A thoughtfully coordinated color scheme can help your students, staff and guests improve their learning, navigation and even a unified sense of identity.   

Liquid Elements can help you show off your pride by matching flooring with your school colors to make for a better student experience. With custom colors available and superior slip resistance, acoustic design, and easy cleaning, you can impress your campus or school’s visitors with a seamless, artistic Liquid Elements floor.  

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How Liquid Elements Can Help 

Liquid Elements Artfully Poured Floors offer unique standard colors as well as custom colors to meet design requests or to support company brand and identity guidelines. Our vast range of products, from Capture to Smooth, can be customized with virtually any color or color combination to complete the look and feel of your space. For a true work of art for your floor, ask us about our handcrafted Artist Series. Regardless of color, you can be sure that all our epoxy and urethane flooring is guaranteed to last. Visit Liquid Elements on the web to learn more. 

How Stonhard Can Help 

Liquid Elements is a brand of Stonhard. Stonhard also provides a wide array of standard colors to choose from for commercial and industrial environments. With exclusive color palettes, tailored blends, and customized logos for your floor, Stonhard has both unmatched design and performance. Try our Color Visualizer, a digital color tool that lets you design and blend colors for a virtual flooring experience. Visit Stonhard on the web to learn more.