Color schemes are many. Color schemes evoke a mood or convey an atmosphere. They certainly can and often are responsible for imagined temperatures and/or seasonal sensations. What constitutes a pleasing color scheme? What constitutes pleasing? It all comes down to balance, layering and subsequent interest. It takes a enlightened eye and usually cannot be achieved by accident.
We are nearing completion of a living room that incorporates many design elements. Family heirloom antiques add a vintage touch along with the architectural style of the bungalow home. Contrasting these pieces is a sleek-lined, modern, sofa that we found and reupholstered. And while not driven or influenced by current color trends, we selected a scheme derived from the existing Persian rugs. By extracting the blue and white from the patterns to refresh the interior – a classic, timeless color combination – we blended a wonderful scheme. Finding the common denominator(s) blue and white, we sought to anchor all with this consistent theme. Differing patterns provided additional layering and interest.
Then, just last week while dashing through the DCA terminal for SWA, my eye caught the attention of several magazine covers all featuring blue and white schemes! Always in vogue, but not always featured as the cover story, this coincidental (or not) collection of blue and white photo images was a riot! I was forced to snap a few shots to send to my happy blue and white client.
If I described a new master bath remodel project as all white, I wonder what might come to mind. All whites are not created equal and the variation is startling when you see them in context, adjacent to one another. So here is the easiest example. A fan-deck from Sherwin Williams shows a collection of whites. They “read” very differently from one to the next. Yet taken one at a time – isolated from the rest – each would seem to be just plain white. Notice too how they differ from the white paper upon which they are printed – it is the spacing between the color chips – and even the white fabric upon which they were placed for the photo!
But there is really no such thing as “just plain white.” Once seen next to another, their unique qualities of hue come into play. A yellow white is creamy, while a cool white reads blue. It’s the context that makes the color more legible. Without that they could be assumed and accepted to be merely “white.”
So, in this recent color scheme nearing completion, whites in context show their many colors. At first glance and if asked, one would say “the room is all white.”
Upon closer inspection (photos taken from a different angle seconds apart), that simplicity is replaced by a more complex, heightened level of awareness. This complexity is what adds interest and results in a better finished product than a true monochrome. What was a collection of white materials, in this master bath, is truly revealed as shades of white varying from ever so soft celadon to cream and grey to what might be read as actual “white” white.
Don’t trust your eye when it comes to color. Discover how paint on walls changes all through the day. Artificial light-sources alter the way a color appears. Context with other colors alters the way one perceives color. Color is fun! Colors are fun! When designing interiors, enjoy the process of layering and the varying effects colors have on each other. Simplicity is usually not really simple. That term can be deceptive. Making it look that way is an art. Encourage the enjoyment of discovery.
However, while the wind wildly whips our towering 30 foot plus blue spruce tree and all the other new green growth from tentacles of wisteria vines to our precious peach tree and fragile red buds, we ascend to the kitchen and talk about building a fire.
the weekend of Matthew’s graduation from Stuart to little flowers and birds leftover from samples we commissioned for a donor wall at the Albuquerque Community Foundation by artist Meg Butler to chucks of Mexican Talavera and brilliant colors from other pieces and places the palette and random pattern began to take shape.
The rich maroons transitioning to corals and rosy tones into brilliant golds and even bright yellows were irresistible. It’s similar to a maple tree with its magnificent range of fall colors but with precious little round heart-shaped leaves. 
I created a tablescape using short-cut branches in a pair of squatty square glass vessels flanking a large square hand-blown glass platter. In the center on the platter, I gathered acorn squash which we will be enjoying baked with brown sugar and butter later this week, and added some ornamental gourds for their interesting shapes and colors. 
After scattering some of the leaves around the arrangement on the neutral linen table runner, the result was boldly colorful, organic and spicy scene bursting with autumnal warmth.
So as I pondered this setting this morning, two days later…the leaves on the table were getting crunchy, the branches were dropping leaves and the water in the containers was a bit cloudy…time to clean it up! Since it seems that everyone is already transitioning to Christmas themes, I thought why not do the same?! The alternative of merely cleaning it up and leaving it barren was a bit anticlimactic after enjoying the spectacular beauty of this recent holiday table. So here again nature was calling to venture forth and scour the yard for the next seasonal statement.
a few holly sprigs from the bushes in front and jammed them into the same freshly refilled square glass vases. In the center, the neutral linen runner remained and on the glass platter I kept the acorn squash, traded the gourds for electric green granny smith apples and a couple of pomegranates ( I had bought three last week and had already picked my way through the many juicy morsels of one – leaving two to do the red thing in my centerpiece today).
