Colorful Home Office Decor: Walls, Accents and Pops

The easiest way to add color to a home office is to pick one wall behind or beside your desk, paint it a color you like looking at, and keep everything else fairly calm. Then add two or three small pops (a rug, a lamp, a pinboard) that repeat that color or its neighbors.

It's very common to feel unsure about color in a workspace, since it has to help you focus and still feel like you. The ideas below start with the biggest move and work down to accessories.

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Does color in a home office actually affect you?

Color is one of the cheapest ways to change how a room feels, and there is some research behind it. In a study led by Isabella S Bower at Deakin University, the authors reported that "blue coloring of the built environment increases autonomic range and is associated with modulations of brain activity linked to emotional processing." That tells us color registers in the body, not that one shade will make you more productive.

So treat color as a mood tool and choose what you enjoy sitting in for hours. If a shade makes you tense on day three, repaint it. Test a large sample on the wall and look at it in morning and evening light before committing.

How do you choose a bold wall color for a home office?

Pick the wall you see most: the one behind your desk if you're on video calls, or the one facing you if you want something to rest your eyes on. A statement wall in a home office works best when it is a single surface, with the other walls in a quieter shade.

• Deep blues and greens feel enclosed and calm, and suit people who want a focused, library-like room.
• Warm pinks, terracotta and mustard feel energetic, which suits creative work.
• Purple sits in between, and looks best with wood and warm lighting.

Matte paint hides wall flaws and cuts glare from screens. Save semi-gloss for cabinets and trim, where wipe-clean matters (especially if a dog's tail brushes the lower shelves).

Can you paint cabinets and shelves instead of walls?

Yes, and it's a good option for renters or anyone who doesn't want a whole wall in color. A painted bookcase or filing cabinet gives you a block of color you can take with you. Built-in shelving painted a deeper shade than the wall also makes books and objects stand out.

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Small colorful home office ideas

In a small room or a corner of a bedroom, color should be concentrated, not spread thin. A few options:

• Paint the wall behind the desk and keep the ceiling and side walls light so the room doesn't close in.
• Use a colorful desk lamp, mug or pen holder as your accent, and leave surfaces otherwise clear.
• Hang a poster wall in a grid above the desk. Matching frames in one color keep a mix of prints from looking messy, and a consistent gap of about 2 inches between frames reads as deliberate.
• Choose a rug with pattern to define the work zone in an open room.

If your desk doubles as a dining or craft table, our fold-out desk ideas show how to keep the color and clear the surface at the end of the day.

Keep a neutral base and add color pops

If a colored wall feels like too much, keep the walls, desk and chair in white, gray, wood or black, and bring color in through things you can swap. Rugs, curtains, cushions, art and a task lamp are all easy to change when your taste does.

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As an architect, I'd limit the palette to one main color and one supporting color, plus your neutrals. Repeating each of them at least twice in different parts of the room (say, a yellow lamp and a yellow book spine row) makes the scheme look planned.

Mix color with texture, pattern and metal

Flat color can look thin. Texture gives it depth: a woven rug, linen curtains, a velvet chair, a wood desk. Pattern works the same way, as long as you vary its scale. A large geometric rug looks good with small-print cushions, and a neutral background lets both breathe.

Metal finishes count as color too. Brushed brass or gold hardware warms up navy, green and charcoal walls, and a matte finish shows fewer fingerprints than polished. If you like the pairing, see our ideas for black and gold design.

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Light the color properly

Lighting changes paint more than most people expect. Warm bulbs (about 2700-3000K) make reds, yellows and pinks richer, while cooler bulbs make blues and grays crisper. Put a task lamp on the side opposite your writing hand to limit shadows, and add a second, softer light so the colored wall isn't left in the dark.

A brick or textured wall also picks up color differently; our brick wall ideas cover painting and leaving it raw.

Set up the desk before you style it

Color won't help if the chair and screen are wrong. According to OSHA's computer workstation guidance, the top of the monitor should sit at or just below eye level. OSHA also notes that elbows stay in close to the body and are bent between 90 and 120 degrees at the keyboard.

Get that layout right first, then place your colored wall, art and accessories around it. A bold wall directly behind your monitor can also add glare, so keep the screen angled away from windows and bright paint.

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For a bolder, moodier take on color at home, see gothic bedroom ideas for dark paint techniques that translate well to an office.

Frequently asked questions