I love color. But like all things I love, I tend to over-do it sometimes. Our last home had some lovely colors…like nine of them. Each color was perfect for its space, but as a palette for a home it seemed more than a little jarring. With this house, I am determined to choose a palette that gives that balance. My first gut instinct about color in this house was to coordinate with the natural elements that come into the house from the outside, the warm wood, the green of the trees that fill the views through the windows. When they say listen to your instincts, they mean it. Lesson learned for me.
As my Orla Kiely bible book suggested, I started collecting images I was attracted to. Her patterns, for sure. Warm and whimsical and often natural with stems and flowers. But I also found myself attracted to certain austere colors in more modern homes…cool grays and whites. Don’t forget the bathroom debacle when I tried out the cooler grays. That ended up okay after a repaint of greener grays but I became a little color gun shy in the process.
I think the problem with the original bathroom choices came down to lighting. I have never lived in a home with this much natural light, floor to ceiling windows and more skylights than I can count on two hands. That kind of light seems to change everything. And I mean everything. For some reason, every cool color in this house ends up with a lavender-ish hue. Don’t get me wrong, I like lavender (the scent) but I really don’t want a Grape Ape kind of house, you know?
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So this time, I am being careful. Very very careful. I am attracted to orange. I think it’s cheerful and friendly and very mid-century, especially of the burnt variety. I started with that as my punch of color and decided to build my gray-ish neutrals around that. Orla put together oranges and grays in her canisters that I love, why can’t I?
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