Living in color
I’ve been fortunate enough to have spent the last five days on a yoga retreat in Todos Santos, Mexico. The warm sun, the calming interiors combined with bursts of agricultural brightness of corals, greens, and turquoise. While I love being surrounded by the energy of the vivacious colors, I can’t say I would choose to be surrounded by them in my home.
When decorating a space, pick a handful of colors to work with. That way, your space remains cohesive without seeming overwhelmingly chaortic. We will get further into playing with color in a later post, but for now, reader be known, more often than not, the colors you want to look at in your home are often different colors then you wear and different then ones you feel. Personally, I have colors I feel, colors I wear, and colors I want to be surrounded by.
Let me give an example: my living space is very neutral with cream as the main color with accents of taupe-sage and gray. While I wear a lot of creams and whites because I love the simplicity, I look god awful in taupe and have maybe one gray sweater. I love the feeling these colors give in a home, especially one with large windows to allow for taking in the external color pallet, but there is a place for them and that is not my wardrobe.
On the contrary, if having a “spirit color” was a thing (maybe it is). I think mine would be something close to Pantone “Living Coral.” A perky hue of orangey red, I love the aesthetic paired with gold. As I’m writing this post, I’m surrounded by coral accessories: my water bottle, my swimsuit, the tassle on my tote. Do I want to be surrounded in a room of coral? Absolutely not. Actually, my first studio in Chicago was filled with bright pieces because I thought it would be a fun way to give a small space a colorful look… never to be done again. Just because you like the feeling of a color, may not mean it’s the best color to decorate with.
If you have a blank canvas, consider what colors give you joy, energy, happiness, serenity, nostalgia, etc. and which of these captures the way you want your home to feel. What inspires your color pallet? Is it the orangey blue and purple hues of the Rockies? The black and white lines of the city? Do these colors comfort you? Bring you energy? My childhood bedroom was a very happy yellow because at the age of 14, I wanted my room to feel like sunshine. As an adult, I’m not looking for that imposing brightness in a space. Instead, I prefer a white canvas with natural materials and soft colors to create a feeling of lightness and air.
Ask yourself what your color story is. What do you like to look at? What do you like to feel? Start pulling those colors together then add secondary, and tertiary colors to balance it out.
