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Color schemes are limitless. The permutations are endless. Color is exciting and fun. It is personal. Colors evoke feelings, memories, emotions and are key to a comfortable interior.

How often have you been asked or pondered on your own…”What is your favorite color?” Some people hesitate to answer, while others blurt-out readily with their fav. But what color you choose to wear versus what you enjoy in your interior surroundings and how much might be quite different.

Several weeks ago, I launched a weekly post on our PATRICIAN DESIGN Facebook page called “Color Schemes.” The idea is to inspire design ideas by pairing artwork with designer fabrics. When planning an interior there is always a focal point complimented and surrounded by supporting elements. Whether a key painting will command the space or an expansive window with a view will direct the focus to a scene of outside colors and textures – that key element will greatly influence a successful interior color scheme.

Annette Donald creates colorful cubes in her creative take on our beloved chile ristras. A serrano chile oil painting, on canvas, by Federico Leon de la Vega is quite representational. Paired here with Romo and Ralph Lauren fabrics, Sherwin Williams paints…fresh and festive!

Here is the example of a November Scheme and you can scroll back each Monday for the past few months to enjoy a variety of the Color Schemes! https://www.facebook.com/PatricianDesignABQ/photos/a.243005986618/10157154423221619/

We embrace the The Nature of November with its unique colors and textures. As the air becomes chilly and the leaves fade…warm, soft colors bring us indoors. Featured here an elegant fused glass ribbon wall piece by Lisa Checnoff.

There are four primary considerations that I discuss with my clients when determining which colors to choose, emphasize, avoid, use as accents and where. To establish these selections, we evaluate personal preferences, contextual implications, seasonal influences and even trends.

PERSONAL: In planning an interior, I always want to know what colors make our clients happy, comfortable, stimulated, vexed or relaxed. These personal insights reveal important information for selecting types of materials too.

By examining what might be one’s favorite color, the discussion will navigate the distinctions, if any, regarding preferences for clothes versus interior furnishings. Interestingly, they are not always the same – although, by mere comfort and familiarity, they often are. Simply asking about a favorite color is not enough.

Brilliant golden yellows and blues – splash color! Featured here are fabulous photo-realistic acrylic paintings by Sheri Mays paired with amazing fabrics of the same exciting palette.

CONTEXT: The context of the interior might dictate or at least steer the direction of the design. The luxury of having multiple personal environments offers the opportunity to have different color pleasures exercised in different places. The ski condo might be woodsy and textural with browns, greys, stone and wood punctuated with a pop of color versus the seaside retreat with its crisp whites and cool blues and greens punctuated with pastels or bold contrasts. Therefore, the location of an interior might direct the desired color palette.

Inspired by this spa-aqua pottery bowl by Penny Roberts and the custom glass tile mosaic we recently combined to face a newly remodeled kitchen wall – the cool seaside/spa feel balanced with ambers and warm dots of color – pink, fuchsia, orange and golden yellow. Durable brushed cotton solids come in myriad colors and are perfect for pillows or upholstery.

SEASONAL: This one is tricky because it plays on the perceived climate outside – even if the interior is maintained at a constant temperature. It takes a concerted effort to plan a color scheme – including textures and finishes in anticipation of changing seasons and relative temperatures. I previously mentioned that a window with a view might be the focal point of a room…imagine the effect the changing seasons might have on the selection of interior colors and textures versus a consistent tropical scene, for example?

Perhaps you love purple – ever pair it with golden yellow? Here, functional, fantasy pottery designed and crafted with the most precise attention to detail by Jen DePaolo inspires our boldly brilliant scheme.

TRENDS: Inasmuch as I avoid being steered by trends, it is impossible and not advisable – in design – to avoid them. Clients are influenced by them and bring that would-be preference to the table. It is essential to continue to have “colors-of-the-year” and other market-driven colors change to stimulate the economy with buying and selling, replacement and updating. It’s our socio/economic norm. It also serves as an encouragement to re-fresh. But to limit that influence, in favor of long-term personal pleasures, is best. The pressure of this marketing color influence contributes to our being a disposable culture. Not time here for a lecture on such things – but rather to instill an appreciation for and confidence in personal selections an decisions – in this case, color.

Patinaed pearls and stunning glasswork by Margaret Hidalgo Vanderheyden inspire the soft, greyed lavenders and blues of this cool scheme.

An interesting and on-going test for evaluating a successful interior is when designing in one season – it has to work in all others. For example, when I meet with clients in the heat of July with lush foliage and color, warm temperatures and long days, that same interior has to succeed when it is frigid outside, barren, and with darker, shorter days. What might the challenges be in creating a successful scheme and what might be the solutions to make it work?

Having noted all of this and knowing the different reactions people have to color, isn’t it interesting when an interior is so successful that it appeals to many, if not the majority, of those who experience it? This is more applicable to commercial or public spaces – from doctors’ offices to hotels. However, the challenge and success is in knowing the many things to be considered and implementing a balance of them throughout all aspects of the interior.

Anne Marie Werner-Smith’s brilliantly glazed pottery here with Margaret Hidalgo-Vanderheyden’s lovely fused glass crosses along with coral and dyed stone necklace and woven table runner from Chiapas reflect the changing colors of fall leaves…

Appreciating color is a gift to designers. It truly is an imperative to appreciate all colors and have the sensitivity to discern the nuances between various values and the effects of selections and combinations from the infinite choices.

I hope this has given you ideas and inspiration to move forward with YOUR color schemes! Sign-up for our weekly email of Color Schemes with classic blue and white and stunning neutral greys coming!! And follow the posts on Facebook every Monday.

When is the seed planted for a child who might just pursue a career in the arts, architecture or related design fields? How did the aptitude and interest first present itself? When are varied interests honed into a focused passion? If you’re reading this as a “creative,” do you remember the earliest exercises flexing your creativity?

As an budding interior designer, I always enjoyed changing my room and futzing around the house arranging accessories and still-life groupings. Color was always important as were patterns and textures. Balance seemed intuitive too. I loved visiting art galleries and I became aware that I noticed and possessed an appreciation for art in its many forms, styles and media. I derived great joy from recognizing beauty, potential and the creative process. It followed to the out-of-doors too as I loved the gardens, layers of trees and made truly organic “forts” in the log pile nestled in the fallen oak and tulip poplar leaves of my childhood.

I also practiced landscape design – trimming English ivy meticulously from underneath so as not to whack off the front edges. I created exotic fern gardens by finding indigenous ferns in the woods and bringing them into the less wild pockets of our wooded backyard – arranging and placing them just right. Spider plants procreated their dangling off-spring that I trimmed and rooted in multiple clay pots lining our patio wall waiting to mature over the summer and be presented as gifts to admiring plant lovers.

Upon returning from a lively Padres and Cardinals baseball game last night, we were greeted by a spot-lit city and pompous parallel parade. Our boldly preciously precocious 7 year granddaughter

had created a magical world with all manner of pets, creatures, super heroes and trinkets adorning the architecture and riding in the parade of colorful vehicles.

The lighting was particularly effective as it cast shadows and illuminated the many elements and characters that animated the scene. This is the perfect temptation for rival siblings to destroy. One sweeping sword or outstretched arm would send this amazing project to rubble. Tonight however there was no such rivalry resulting in destruction. Rather it was protected and revered until we arrived home for the presentation.

“You like my city, don’t you?” was the confident query – set-forth with an affirmative assumption – regardless of the questioning format, of the comment she delivered. Yes the city and parallel parade was quite exceptional. So much so that it inspired thoughtful observation and examination including this writing today.

As I knelt down and captured various angles of the structures, towers, tiers, columns, pediments and facades with my trusty phone, I realized that this took a tremendous amount of material. The raw wooden building blocks were nostalgically familiar – the very same blocks, triangles, square and round columns, bricks and cubes with which I had built towering structures as a child. Creativity can certainly be spawned with limited resources and often results in remarkably ingenious results, but as looked around this particular scene, I discovered baskets, bins, boxes and piles of things. Things with which to create a limitless fantasy world.

These, paired with her wonderful imagination, were the tools of this creative child who had a treasure trove of parts and pieces, characters and vehicles providing countless components waiting for the imagination to assemble into this and other amazing scenes. Singing while she works, it is evident that this child is over-flowing with artistic expression.

The fantastic architecture and design we admire today was spawned by creative minds using existing tools or inventing new elements to create and ultimately construct seemingly unimaginable buildings around the world. Yet they were imagined and they became realities from fantastic dreams and ideas, bravery and determination. A creative will that was once a seed of enthusiastic inspiration.

Happy Mother’s Day to all, with a particular emphasis on mine for all of her creativity and encouragement though the years, of my many phases of artistic exploration, appreciation and expression.

The Seeds Which Result in Enthusiastic Inspiration.

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