Recline into Beds of Color and Flower Power for Spring

Welcome into my 2nd Quarter 2012 Blogger Post. Anxiously awaiting Springtime weather to kick into gear and dreaming about vibrant colors to pop everywhere in nature as well in my clients' homes! April is our High Point Market and there are plenty of new ideas just waiting to be unveiled. Although furniture and lighting introductions are the best style direction indicators, there is nothing like fabric and bedding to show off the new colors and patterns for the renewed Spring season.



VIBRANT COLORS VERSUS PASTELS: WHAT IS TRENDING RIGHT NOW? Vibrant colors are on the rebound, but so are pastels actually. Both color concepts are indicative of new growth, change, optimism and hopes for a renewed economic market as well as a need for gentler times ahead. Our creative right brained designers in all industries respond to their world experience (and guided by their spiritual intuitions), by introducing certain colors, patterns and styles every year. We can only hope that our design elves everywhere (me included), can help to nudge everyone to think and act more positively in every aspect of their lives. We, in fact, have control over nothing really except our own behavoir and thinking aside from the action oriented work we do in our own careers, in our volunteer efforts to better the world, and in our family driven works of better education, support, relationship building, healing and communication.  With that said, what better way is there for an interior designer to help influence all things good, but to continuously offer those colors, products and styles which will lift your spirits visually. Take a moment and look at some of the beautiful color palettes new on the scene shown off by BEDS of Flower color power!


FIRST, ENVISION YOURSELF ON VACATION TO FIND YOUR INSPIRATION COLORS

Envision yourself taking a vacation anywhere; would it be to places that give you these cheerful and also soothing colors and images? Aren't you already thinking about that tropical drink as you recline on a chaise lounge, or perhaps getting a massage at the Spa? So many friends and family members are taking or talking about coastal vacations or mountain retreats. It's age old wisdom. We go to the coast or the islands for the peacefulness and refreshing blue green ocean experience. We kick our shoes off and connect with nature's floor of sand beneath our feet and take walks amidst the sound of waves lapping the shore to seek purity of thought (or at the very least, forget our cares for a brief while). Some go to the mountains for the grand, majestic feel of God's country, breathing in the aromatic scent of pine needles, communing with the oldest rocks and trees alive, and catching an eagle's view of our world below. We remember that we have been placed here in this magnificent creation of a natural world by an out of this world creator, as we breathe in nature's beauty, detail and color. Sorta puts everything back into proper perspective. Maybe that's why I love my job. As a designer, we have the priviledge of working with beautiful elements, creating and/or recommending designs that bring relaxation and comfort into our clients' spaces. Let's talk favorite colors to see how they will affect your senses, since color seems to always be an important starting point.


CHOOSE YOUR FAVORITE COLORS OR VARIATION OF THESE PRIMARY and SECONDARY COLORS AND CREATE YOUR OWN BEDS OF COLOR OR FLOWER POWER!
       

COOL COLOR BEDS of BLUES, GREENS and PURPLES    When most people are asked what their favorite color is, the majority of people will say BLUE. I always said blue myself since my first love lies with the coastal waters of Long Island where I was born, and my current west coast location near San Francisco Bay and the great Pacific Ocean. We all have more than one other strong favorite color though. And sometimes, it turns out, the second one is the one that you use, display, wear, and connect with more on an everyday basis.

• BLUE is the dreamer's  color, the visionary, the thinker, and the true blue trusted friend. My second favorite is GREEN, so I tell everyone my favorite color is BLUE-GREEN, JADE or TURQUOISE.  I realized that most of my favorite "designer" rooms, the colors in my china, fabrics, and even my wardrobe had shades of green, I knew this second favorite color was the quiet unspoken counterpart to my BLUE. 

• GREEN is the universal healing color.  The green color scheme in Resort spas always calms me down. Gazing at green grass fields and mint green painted walls with a hint of blue undertone in the paint creates serenity.   What's of interest is that your two favorite colors may not wind up being the predominant colors in your home. This is due mostly to the architecture and styling of the house, and also the geographical climate within which it is situated. In addition, most of our upholstery and carpeting these days are in solid neutrals from white, ivory and beige to sage, caramel, brown, eggplant and black, so these favorite colors are often the focal point accents.  

• FOCAL POINT COLOR    The addition of your favorite pops of color look great as focal point accents in the rooms; your eyes are drawn into them for inspiration as you would gaze into a crystal ball. If you truly want your lime green or turquoise blue or cherry red to be the predominant upholstery in your room, I understand the contemporary and bold nature of this youthful design. It would be best to break up all that solid color with accent pillows in either very light fabrics or very dark neutral solids for contrast, or wonderful printed floral, paisley or geometric pillows with bold rich patterns of personality.

• VIOLET or PURPLE is the royal color which also denotes spiritual hierachy.  It is the combination of RED and BLUE mixed together.  Leave it to hot blooded warm RED to take the cool visionary and dreamer BLUE hue to an even higher level of spiritualism.  My good friend Diane has always loved PURPLE and she has mixed it with RED in her home decor.  So many variations of purple are appealing - lavender, violet, eggplant, aubergine, purple mauve, black raspberry, blueberry and plum, just to name a few.  Come to think of it, there's a lot of fruit that wears these colors that are also very rich in nutrients for the higher good of our physical bodies.  No mistakes in this universe!   

WARM COLOR BEDS OF REDS, ORANGES and YELLOWS

• RED and Pinks are beloved by many women.  PINK, especially for my clients' young teenagers girls, combined with black and white, or gray in a more contemporary styling are frequent requests. When you hear a friend or client say they love RED, you better know that they are very dynamic people; romantic, feminine, exciting, with lots of energy and self-direction within a warm personality full of good stories and affectionate banter. Don't be surprised if these people aren't also pretty nice looking, like that red sports car you once pined after. I have been lucky to have several women clients who are not afraid of red, and it is the MOST FUN color to decorate with. RED can be added into almost any other color scheme in small amounts to spike up the design, add focal point contrast, and command your adoring attention to the room or photo scene. RED is never boring. I heard a story back in college from a design professor that some clients of hers (wife and husband), had this lovely breakfast room where they had their morning coffee and meal together before work and the wife's complaint was that her husband buried his head in his paper and never talked with her. The wife of course wanted to change this and decided to paint the breakfast room walls RED, to get his attention.  (RED will get your attention, aka fire truck). Apparently, it worked as he began talking with her every morning after that, with an added note from my teacher. After a few months, they became very irritable with each other whenever they were in that room! (Beware of excitable RED in large amounts in a morning room or anywhere).

• ORANGE surprises and delights much like a California Poppy flower does as it peeks up among a field of wild grasses. It is a bit of an enigma to me, as it is last on the list of people's favorite colors in general (how many times have I heard the sentence, "I don't like orange at all"); but yet, ORANGE appeals to the fun or "carnival" side of almost everyone when they encounter it, making people feel enthusiastic, young at heart, and actually hungry! I heard years ago that one of the most popular restaurant chains back then on the west coast used orange as their backdrop wall color and their booth seating, as it drew everybody in quickly to dine (a fun place to be), excited their appetites (ordering even more food), and then ushered them out quickly to free up the tables for the next round of diners (could it be true, people don't really want to be around orange for too long?) When you think of where ORANGE comes from, it is the child of RED and YELLOW (a mix of excitable and happy - how much fun can you handle?) Try spicing it up (actually down) with muted tones of orange.

• YELLOW is the happy color. We are mellow yellow with the buttercreams and progress to golden finch or canary yellow where happiness is taken to a new level with melody and song. However you look at it, yellow is the joyful, carefree and ever positive attitude color. Whoever said, "blondes have more fun" might have been responding to their intrinsic intuitive knowledge of the affect of the color yellow. We all ultimately know how color affects us; we just do not think about it on a daily basis or when it is happening. One of my oldest dearest friends, Dee Dee (you know who you are), absolutely loves the color yellow and had it in her kitchen for years. After I had met and got to know her well, it came as no surprise when later I was invited to her home and saw her yellow walls.  Apologies, no yellow photos posted!

• NEUTRAL BEDS OF WHITE, IVORY, BEIGE, TAUPE, CAMEL, CHOCOLATE AND BLACK are natural choices for elegant backdrops.  We love our neutrals for walls, carpeting, other flooring, and some of our main upholstery pieces. Creating the right color canvas for your room starts with selecting the level of warm or cool color hue that works best for your tastes. I have found that clients who have olive to dark complexions are often comfortable using warm rich colors, even vibrant primary colors on their main or accent walls. Clients who have light to medium skin tones love that look as well; however, they may choose colors that are mid-tone variations of same if all walls are being painted the same in the room.  It's all about the eye's comfort level.

• GOOD DESIGN begins with matching the right color base to the home for that particular client and then introducing their favorite colors for accents in the fabrics, pillows, accessories and artwork. The climate again of the area in which you live as well as the sun exposure in each room will dictate how light or dark a color to select. I have even realized that for many years I would select a color palette for my clients by studying them personally and listening to their style needs. The colors I would choose were well received by them and the projects were a success.    A few years later I had the good fortune of working with this one special client and her husband who were well known in the CA Silicon Valley.    She was a trained and educated color theorist from San Francisco and after I finished their Peninsula home, she offered me a free 3 hour wardrobe color session which I gladly accepted. Sigrun painted my complexion color on canvas to start.  I surprisingly learned more about color than my college education ever gave me. Bottom Line: I learned about the vast number of color gradations available in cool and warm base for every primary and secondary color, and also learned that all those projects I had intuitively chosen colors for, were amazingly quite similar to the wardrobe colors for the skin and hair colors of each of my clients.   Surrounding yourself with colors you live and look best in was the moral of this story. 

 
ENJOY YOUR WORLD. CELEBRATE DESIGN.
 
Pamela

All Bed Ensembles are available through AVALLON DESIGN HOME.  Please email or contact me by phone with your interest, inquiries, or pricing requests.  THANKS. 

Pamela Farnsworth Smith IIDA AVALLON DESIGN
P. O. Box 1623 Lincoln, CA 95648
PH (916) 677.6792
FAX (916) 543.8782
pam@avallondesign.com
www.avallondesign.com
www.enhanceyourdesignviews.blogspot.com (you're here!)

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