Choosing the "Right" Colors

From Pure Contemporary, Caroline Kooshoian has written an article Choosing the Right Colors for Your Home and Yourself
that is an excellent start to the use of color in your home.

The article is for those "do it yourselfers" or DIYs. So why is Landfair Furniture, which caters to the design trade, featuring such an article?

First of all, every time you turn around there is a show or article about design.

Target is democratizing design, women’s magazines break from runways to run issues dedicated solely to interior fashions, and clichés of paint brush wielding, HGTV watching moms have replaced the soap opera viewing, bonbon eating set of the 1980s.

One of the new popular shows on HGTV features Candice Olson who may be the new "Martha Stewart".

Caroline says

The country is in the throes of a collective lust for design. And while we don’t all want to actually do it ourselves, we do want our homes to reflect ourselves. We want people to walk in and have a sense of who we are and what we’re about. And the easiest way to impart these ideas is the one we seem to have the biggest problem with: color. (emphasis added)

Designers need to know what the public is seeing and learning. It helps a designer connect with a client faster. A good interior designer can communicate more effectively with an educated client and if there are misconceptions, knowing about those, can help the designer more fully educate a client.

The article also offers some new tools that are available.

Trends get in the way of what we know we like, and trying to fit colors in with existing furniture, cabinetry, floors or wood work makes it all worse.

Pittsburgh Paints launched the Voice of Color “Color Sense Game”. One of the things it does is create an individual color identity based on that person’s psychological and behavioral make-up. Maybe the "orange" we see featured, does not fit well with your psychological profile. That is information that is a great time saver when using an interior designer, that of blending what you like with what you have.

For me, one of the most interesting parts of the article tells us that "Colors Lie"!

In most relationships, lying is right up there with cheating, not so in a love affair with color. Use the lies colors tell to cover up architectural oddities or highlight gorgeous attractions.

Caroline has some very nice illustrations of ways to paint a room to alter the appearence of a room. This part can help a client see in black and white the effect of various paint jobs on a room.

One last thing, if you are an interior designer and love to use contemporary furniture, Pure Contempory is looking for designers to answer design question from its readers. What a great way to market yourself!

Bev & Mike
Landfair Furniture + Design Gallery