Color Preference Based on Children’s Choices for the Interior Spaces of Kindergartens

Most of children experience kindergartens as first social and educational places so that children's behavior could be affected by these places. Therefore, an excellent design of kindergarten could flourish children's ingenuity, creativity, communicative abilities, and so forth. Colors are a key factor in design of kindergartens; hence, they should be utilized effectively in order to have an attractive environment for children. The aim of this study is to find children's favorable colors for painting classrooms, playgrounds, dining rooms and furniture. Moreover, associations between primary colors and shapes are investigated in order to have a better understanding of children's viewpoint on primary colors and shapes. Two hundred children between 4 and 6 years of age participated in this investigation including one hundred boys and one hundred girls. They were randomly selected from eight coeducational kindergartens located in the Isfahan city of Iran. Results delineate that pink is the most favorable color for painting classrooms of kindergartens. It worth noting that pink could be used in the synthesis of other popular color like red and blue among children. In addition, it is better not to use black and brown in kindergartens. On the other hand, the results pertinent to color-shape associations reveal color-shape combinations of yellow-triangle, red-square, and blue-circle. This conclusion shows that color-shape combinations based on children's viewpoint are analogous to Kandinsky's theory. Keywords— Color preference: Colors for interior design