Color Story: Copper's Moment to Shine

moroccan trellis patterned pillar candle holder in from h&m

As decorative metals go, hammered bronze is my favorite. It's darker, earthier and mixes well with browns. Brighter metals like gold and silver are less to my taste. But copper is having a nice moment lately. It's turning up on items that are usually dominated by gold and silver. And it's really striking...

Color Story: Celiosa in Bloom

a closeup of celiosa plants with burgundy leaves

For about a dozen years now, I've been enjoying the cerise variety of this flower in pots and plots along my street. Downtown Brooklyn is pretty competitive about gardening and it's hard not to appreciate the efforts every summer. Of all the varieties on display, I get the biggest thrill from the Celiosa. It's eye-searing shade of deepest, deepest cerise is transfixing! One year I thought they'd been skipped, but the plants only came up late. Whew! 

So a few weeks ago I was strolling around upstate and found these potted in downtown Rochester (State Street, to be exact). There was not only cerise, but also orange, yellow and pink! Too much beauty to ignore...

Color Story: Mad About Amethyst

john robshaw's lodhi shower curtain

If you know like I know, the deep midwinter can be a real bummer. Short days and low daylight are as a cloud descending, plunging me into a long stretch of hibernation and neglect. Hard to get anything done when you're bundled up in bed. Not this year! I resolved to fight it, fight it, fight it! Certain colors are particularly helpful in this effort, colors like Amethyst (or Lavendar, or Orchid...).

And this season, everybody's got some...

Color Story: Rustic Glamour

from nz house & garden, august 2010 - photo: jane ussher

Here's one for my "Someday" file: a simple room that is both down-to-earth and elegant. Black walls temper the airy room and plentiful sunshine making the space cozy and intimate. The aged credenza and bare wooden tabletop bring an earthy, rustic sensibility rather like a traditional farmhouse or outdoor dining. Then the details kick it up a notch combining low-key gold luster, simple glass, porcelain and silver into a simple gleaming focal point. And those Tanzanian portraits anchor the restrained color scheme. Despite my allegiance to bright colors, this room seems like the perfect restful space to end the day and focus on the personal. 

Someday...

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. 

Color Story: Vibrant Luxury

photo: john huba for town & country

Layers of sophistication. That's what this room has, floor to ceiling. African mudcloth, wool drapes, woven throws, silk pillows, velvet seating, handcarved and weathered wooden furnishings and glossy surfaces. Hardwood floors laid in a chevron pattern.

And then there's the color...

Color Story: Sparkle & Fade

bandidas starring salma hayek and penelope cruz

I don't know anything about this movie, but it seems to be a comic romp set in the Old West. I stumbled across this screencap a year ago and found the colors striking. I'm guessing these saloon gal/showgirl costumes aren't entirely accurate. The combination of teal, orange/hot pink ombre, and so much hot pink seems a bit out of place. But it also makes for an arresting image. The glitzy masks and skeleton top hats. And behind all the brights you have the earth toned wall painted in traditional patterns on weathered wood. 

It just kind of works. 

Color Story: Sultry Romance

catharine malandrino gown, femina magazine [photo: armit sharma]

This is the feeling of the season as the days sort of tease back and forth between hot and cool. Rich, flowing silk in a deep mango shade wrapped in cool shades of lilac, rose, and fuschia with swipes of teal and black. Imagine the fabric is so fine that cool air can reach your skin all over. 

No need to worry about your crevices sweating furiously all evening. :sigh:

Color Story: Mad Men's "The Other Woman"

the widest chasm in the world

I was arrested by this image when it hit the screen last Sunday night: the men in their dark suits on one side and on the other the lone woman in vivid color. We all know what ol' Joan was asked to do for the firm. And worse, we know that none of the partners truly tried to stop Pete Campbell from pressuring her. If any of them were truly her friend - or even a decent man - he would have called her into the meeting and had an open discussion that mostly consisted of confirming who said what and explicitly shutting down Pete's pimp game on the spot. And then they'd have made him look her in the eye and apologize. 

But they didn't.

Good Pitch: Sepia Dreams

this ad is like a waking daydream

Today is just one of those days that feels dipped in sepia. Hazy sunshine and cool humidity carried on strong soft winds. Walking home this evening, the air felt like cool silk on the skin and I was really longing for my customary scarf to wrap up in. On the train ride over the bridge, I was looking down on Pier17 and thinking of all the yuppies at the Happy Hour luau. Good weather, good music, good smells and the heady sense that something even better might come out of it. My ideal world is like a waking dream, functioning something like a breezy '80s song full of longing and anticipation for the possibilities always ahead of you, just within reach.

I wish the whole summer could be like today.

Color Story: Cool Brights

amazing uniforms at an indian spa

Over the years, I've designed a lot of PowerPoint presentations. When I first started doing them at work I gravitated toward blue backgrounds. Teal, navy, turquoise, lavendar. Always blue-based backgrounds. I could literally feel the relief in my retinas or irises or something. The colors not only enhance and offset the images being displayed, they invite the viewer to keep looking. Once, someone showed me one done in reds and oranges that actually hurt my eyes to look at. That's one thing that's so great about bold color. You can have blazing, eye-searing bolds. Or you can have vibrant, eye-soothing bolds. Neutrals are not the opposite of brights. Brights are the opposite of brights. 

Color Story: Chic, Sleek & Saturated

Here's an ad that fairly blows my mind. The image is arresting: simple, spare and yet full of so much movement. The colors are complimentary: yellows to reds to purples. Everything - from upper right down and across - is round and flowing: the hairstyle, the ruffled color, the lines of the dress, the legs, the variations in the wall stain, until the eye arrives at the bottom left corner with the spike of the stilletto and the flower petals. 

And the richness of the colors is offset by the paleness of the model's skin and the depth of the shadow behind her.

Color Story: Natural Harmony

Just a little image that represents my sensibility when it comes to color. This image went into my Style Tray because the harmonious combination of color and objects. The whole scene is simply perfect: blue smoke, deep green trees and pink blossoms above a rich floor of light brown soil and dark fluid wood. Then there's the player dressed in natural dyes of purples and fig, holding her black and red instrument. The pipa should be striking with it's bold colors against all those natural shades, but somehow the red/black draws attention to it subtly. The music is the focus without the pipa being jarring. 

screencap from the movie "the forbidden kingdom"

Color Story: Four-Part Fave

We're all familiar with the perennial summer combo of hot pink, bright orange, turquoise and acid green. It's a combo that never gets old, and the permutations are always exciting. So, even though I'm not at all ready for spring yet, it is pretty nice seeing the new retail offerings in this colorway. 

anthropologie's delightfully feminine ranunculus swirl shade

Color Story: Sometimes...Gray is the Way

source: pottery barn (alessandra floral)

By-and-large, I'm not too interested in gray. It's aesthetic qualities are undeniable. Gray can set off other colors to perfection. It can set a variety of moods, depending on the shade. But I'm never drawn to it personally. Everything in my home fits together. Not matches, but everything just works. My aunt noted that every color in my apartment could be found in my favorite winter hat. 

But sometimes gray just nails it. It's the perfect thing to allow a lively pattern to play forth without overwhelming the eye. I tend to really like palampour floral prints, and there are some grays out there right now using gray + palampour to make pretty, soothing, cozy bedding:

Color Story: This One Time, In Paris...

When I got back to my office after the holidays, I found some old photos had fallen off the wall. Once I had them taped up again, they took me back to the Christmas Eve in Paris when I first saw the Printemps store buildings all decked out for the season. They change them every year, of course. But man were these gorgeous, full of my favorite colors instead of traditional red-white-and-green. And goodness knows there's plenty of color inside, all year round.

Bonne Annee!

Color Story: Ice Pink & Mocha Revisited

The sight of the new House Beautiful cover both thrilled me and threw me for a loop. On one hand, it sizzles (as do all their covers, am I right?). The earthy tones jibe so well from the salmon pink title and throw pillows, to the cool brown wallpaper and that wonderful pink painting. On the other hand, this cover took me back about ten years to when I first started thinking about decorating my apartment properly. 

After visiting for the first time, a friend suggested my little studio was juvenile and in need of a full upgrade. Her plans were too much for me at the time, but that discussion did pique my interest. I started looking at design magazines and considering furnishings. For a few months it looked like some lovely Oriental silk bolsters from ABC Home store were going to be the inspiration. (If you're a New Yorker, you know that quite often they carry very affordable items and have great sales.) The shiny cool shades I deemed "ice pink" and "mocha."

Since that color scheme was never put in place, who's to say if it would have been right for me? But man was it pretty in my imagination. And now House Beautiful not only brings it back, but breaks it down! 

Source: House Beautiful