Imagine one day deciding to paint your front door pink and then finding it’s landed you in hot water with your neigbours and local council?

That’s exactly what happened to a woman in Edinburgh Scotland who has faced a lengthy battle over the colour of her front door and has now won permission to keep her latest choice of pink.

She lives in a conservation area and there were a lot of complaints by neighbours about her bright pink front door.  The complaints were sent to the local council who ordered her to change it to a different colour.

She chose a green which the neighbours also complained about.

She then changed it to a very light pink (or what some might call a white tinted with pink). And guess what, her neighbours complained again. 

Finally, she’s received approval from the council to stick with her latest pink.

What makes me smile about this story is thinking back to all the conversations I’ve had over the years where people have said to me that colour has no impact on them. It creates no response. They don’t feel anything when they see colour. That colour isn’t emotive.

Yes, she is in a conversation area, but it’s interesting to see how colour can be so divisive.

That’s because from a colour psychology perspective we have an emotional reaction and a physiological reaction to colour whether we are conscious of it or not.

And on the theme of pink, right now we’ve got pink mania with the release of the Barbie movie worldwide. It’s definitely the colour of the moment.

And why I was invited back on New Zealand Radio to chat about her pink front door as well as:

• why some people find the colour pink offensive
• why some colours seem to be more divisive than others
• what does psychology say about colours
• and how colour can change our mood.

You can listen to the interview here, which was meant to go for 10 minutes but as the radio host was enjoying it so much, after 15 minutes he realised he had gone way over time with a  “I’ve got to go. We could talk colour all night!” That’s a great interview when the radio host loses track of time.

I’d love to know what’s the colour of your front door and why you picked it? Any ‘offensive’ door colours in your neighbourhood?

Wishing you a colourful day,
Karenx

New Zealand Radio interview: listen here.

Reference article: read here.

Image via Photo by Pawel Czerwinski on Unsplash. Please note this is just a picture of a pink door. To see the pink door that was finally approved click here.