Ashley started the week about color, Lindsey continued with punching up color with lampshades, I’ll complete the week with some color lagniappe; a little something extra.
What are they saying about color? Basically, you don’t have to be intimidated by color, and especially bold colors.
When Rachel Reider and Jamie Harper traded their Boston condo for a 1910 Victorian (visited in the November issue of Better Homes and Gardens) the architectural features were intact but the electrical, plumbing and insulation all had to be updated. That took a big chunk of their decorating budget. The solution? Ingenuity and color were the decorator’s keys. Rachel selected wall colors to accent her furnishings. She didn’t hesitate to match the dining room’s aubergine banquette or the master bedroom’s rich brown tables and rug.
With a young toddler daughter, durability was a consideration in selecting fabrics. “You don’t have to sacrifice style-durable but luxurious fabrics like faux leather and microsuede are kid-friendly in disguise” says Rachel. I would add that a Casart wallcovering is also durable and can be wiped of any little fingerprints of jelly or whatever. In the master bedroom, strong colors of blue/ green accent pillows add the “pop” along with a blue trimmed lime green throw.
Rachel recognizes that “People are nervous about using strong colors on walls, but this rich chocolate brown is warm and cozy to me, perfect for a bedroom.”
In the same issue of Better Homes and Gardens, New York designer Marlaina Teich dispels the trauma of trying to find the right golden yellow. She likes yellows that have subtle red or brown undertones because they are more compatible with other colors. She suggests taking a pillow or anything that will be in the finished room to narrow down your paint selection to the right one. If the paint color doesn’t coordinate with the item, reject the color and select another. Marlaina’s trick for accent walls-use different strengths of the same paint color. Have the paint store mix a 50/50 combination of your golden yellow and white. Paint the full color on the wall opposite the entrance to the room so it draws you in. Use the 50/50 lighter combination on the rest of the walls. Whenever she can, she tries to put a hint of the wall color on the ceiling to make the room feel more complete. But she warns, “The color will look darker on the ceiling , so cut it by 50 %. In a recent blog post about Lucianna Samu’s latest decorating book by Creative Press, Color Saves the Day, Marlaina says, “I am so excited to be included in Lucianna’s book. The truth is that color can transform a space from the everyday to “TA DAA”. Paint, paper, pillows, passementerie! There are many ways to bring color into your home.”
Here’s more color Lagniappe. Elaine Griffin, Better Homes and Gardens contributing editor, asks in her new book, Design Rules: The Professional’s Guide to Do-It-Yourself Home Style, “Are you still living with boring white walls because you can’t find a color to commit to and are secretly terrified of making a mistake? “ She will explain how to go beyond your go-to, favorite color and pick a pleasing color palette that works for you (you’ll never be intimidated by color again)
The final Friday Lagniappe for the day, Laura Guido Clark is a color expert whose expertise reaches beyond textiles and standard consultancy, She knows how people react to certain hues, materials and finishes and advises consumer products companies know how to attract crowds to their designs. If you want to get an idea of how Clark feels about color, just visit her web site. Click on ENTER and suddenly you are an artist drawing a pattern across the surface. It’s immediately interactive and all about surfaces and color. Asked by Pure Contemporary’s Caroline Barry if she found people more willing now to use vibrant colors, she answered, “I do find that people are embracing color more. We’re riding a wave of people wanting to feel optimistic. That’s made people use brighter, more vibrant, cheerful colors in their homes.” As to color trends, “I see gray and yellow coming in. Yellow because of its luminosity. It gives an energetic boost and will replace orange, which was a hot color but is getting played out a little bit. Aside from black and white, the next color a baby sees is yellow, and I think that’s because we’re responding to the positive energy and vibrancy of the color. [Now I didn’t know that about the second color a baby sees, did you?] As for gray, things have gotten so black and white, gray’s emerging as the happy medium.”
– Lorre Lei
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