Celebrating Color

What do you need for color? Well the simple response is – three things.

1. a source of light
2. Something for the light to bounce off of
3. A set of eyeballs to view it. 

Now everyone with a set of eyeballs has a viewpoint on color. The words connected with color have been given a lot of significance. Someone can be “green with envy” . You wouldn't say someone was puce with envy, just doesn't work the same. Or they say someone is “ yellow” meaning a coward – again doesn't work to say someone is taupe. There's also the idea of emotional states connected to color – like red is supposed to lead to impulse buying , blues and greens are calming , yellow is cheery, black is what you wear to a funeral, etc. So lots of significance placed on colors. There are “color experts” and every year a number of different paint and color associations issue a “color of the year”. The color wheel is supposed to be a tool to find complementary colors, which many people rely on to come up with the "right" color.

Here's the deal . Color is cool - lots of civilizations knew this and have used lots of bright colors. There is no pass or fail when it comes to color, it's a matter of viewpoint. Yes, some colors go better with others, but I can put a color on a wall, three people look at it, and one will love it, one will hate it and one doesn't care either way. It's all viewpoint and feel and what makes you happy. If you put colors in a space and it makes you feel the way you intended when you go in there, then to hell with anyone else's viewpoint. And if you are stuck with white or off-white walls, you can always offset it with other colorful features like art or furnishings. etc. No sense living in a hospital. Colors are life, colors are fun.

Here's an example. In this home, we did a number of different finishes, each very different, but we found a way to make them work together. My clients were an affluent Italian family in North California, about 40 miles south of Napa with many vineyards nearby. They had a large home with high walls- essentially an open canvas. Northern California loves all things Italian, both modern and past, and these clients were no exception as evidenced in their art, furnishings etc.

So each space needed a unique and special feel based on its use, while conveying an overall feel to the house. You can't do some kind of old world look in one room, and have a large open hallways with modern drywall texture painted in an off white – it cheapens the effect.

First, the hallways. Since a number of the rooms opened on to the hallway , and they had a lot of artwork displayed , we decided to go with a deeper richer material that would make the art pop, and wouldn't clash with the different room finishes. So we settled on a charred olive plaster, which we infused with some gold mica. The final finish, while dark, was smooth and iridescent. 

In the sitting room, it was decided to go with something that looked like an Italian villa. We basically replicated the color and finish from a picture of a villa in Italy which plays well with the furnishings.

For the formal dining room we decided on a deep red base overlayed with a textured gold paste-like material which created almost a foil effect. This was so popular, we carried it into the hall powder room.

The last major area was the family room, which was good sized and attached to the kitchen. Funny thing with these large homes, they are all laid out such that there are sitting rooms and great rooms which are impressive and essentially for guests, while a large back section of the house is devoted to the large family room and kitchen where they spent most of the time. In this family room, they had large windows opening on to the back yard, so it received a lot of natural light. Since this was an active space, separate from the rest of the house, the owners wanted a bright cheery color. We created a yellow ochre venetian plaster with a coat of wax for shine and protection, which made this space very alive and happy.

So while these were all very different looks, very different colors, and each room had a different intent, we were able to pull them all together. Suffice it to say the clients were very happy with the result.

Ciao,
Kevin