Color Story: Cold Light

utterly restrained: white on white with a little punch of color and pattern

Thinking about Lulu D's "glam eclectic" bedroom on How to Make it in America got me thinking about restrained color palettes. Given my tastes, you wouldn't think such a topic crosses my mind too often. But I actually find simple color schemes quite refreshing. I just don't want to live in them. But in my memory are some of those hazy, likely inaccurate, images of places from early childhood that informs my sensibilities to this day. I call it "Cold Light" after that Yeah Yeah Yeahs song. 

In the late '70s one of my aunts lived in the historic district of my hometown - that's the Corn Hill district in Rochester, NY. She rented one of the Victorian houses that sets that neighborhood apart from the rest of the city. Now here's where it gets hazy - it's not clear whether my memory is from that location or from an actual regular apartment. But my aunt is ironing something while wearing a long dressing gown (probably true, that was so her). There are white curtains billowing around from an open balcony door (unclear, around this point I lived in an apartment with a balcony). That's about it. A place with no furnishings except maybe a mattress on the floor, with a white sheet, and flowing white fabric. And for some reason I think the breeze was cold.

get me a sweater: a room that reads as ice cold

A few things lately have reminded me of that memory, aesthetically. Mostly they are in low lighting, very shadowy spaces. But the light is cold like say, winter daylight in Paris.  Beautiful, slightly gray - and stone cold - filtering down through some rather relentless cloud coverage.