Color. Fashion and trends. Pantone’s annual pick and announcement – this year, based upon observation of the field of design scenes namely Airbnb and Apple, really? I find that amusing. Described by Pantone as “an animated life-affirming shade of orange, with golden undertones.” If orange had golden undertones, it would be more yellow-orange – a golden orange – NOT the pinky-orange suggested by their swatch of Living Coral and myriad examples that are being set forth. However, a few months ago I noticed and saved (because I liked the colors), a Smith’s Food Store envelope featuring peaches that illustrated the cozy combination of the rosy-orange coral tones with the golden yellows – a perfect pairing.
This pinky coral – a hot, but smooth, orange-ish color – has been one of my favorites for years! In 2004 I referenced it as “lipstick” that wonderful color between red, orange and pink! A hard-to-find lipstick shade sought by many!!! It melds fabulously with citrus colors and is cooled and contrasted by blues. A wall of colors depicts this perfectly.
We painted the wall, took a photo of it and emailed it to Federico Leon de la Vega in Mexico to commission him to do this grapefruit painting with its luscious, pink center and coral shades, wrapped in a yellow peel and surrounded by cool, bold, brushstrokes of whites and brilliant blues.
A few years later we devoted an entire project to the fresh, citrus, color tangerine – which because of my personal preference leaned toward the coral shade of orange rather than the pure, natural tangerine. But art is about taking liberties and when developing an orange accented color scheme, all versions are allowed. Right?
This project was punctuated with orange tones from tangerine (for which it was named), and deep warm coral-pink shades. The hue and its many vibrant values!
However, to photo these nuances of color is tough. I walked around the Tangerine project a couple of days ago. It has stood the test of time by beating trends by a few years and not adopting any particular design elements that would have given it away today.
Look at how much nature played a part in the staging of these coral infused scenes!
My advice is to pick the colors that you like – the colors that make you feel
good. Once determined, develop design based upon when to use that/those colors
and when to contrast them or perhaps neutralize them.
Coral is bold and warm. It can read hot and energized –
although is softer than red and less harsh than orange.
Nature is abundant with coral – not just the living sea
coral – but flowers and the rare fabulous accent fur of Vietnamese monkey the
red-shanked douc!
Vietnam’s red-shanked douc- brilliant coral accents in his coat!
The thought of warm saltwater and fresh sea air at this time
of year is tantalizing. Living coral
doesn’t just say – coral, (of which there are many colors) it evokes that shade that we snap to when
mentioned. Hot, soft pinky coral – a color of seduction. It is featured in
jewelry and art renderings, architecture and interiors.
My advice is to pick the colors that you like – the colors that make you feel good. Once determined, develop design based upon when, where and how to use that/those colors and when to contrast them or perhaps neutralize them.
A little whimsy to celebrate this bold exciting color of the year!!!
Have fun with color – any color- all colors! Welcome Pantone’s Living Coral, into the conversation and design elements, for this New Year!!!
Designing with a purpose is always the way to begin a
project. But it is particularly valuable as a tool to start the New Year off
fresh! What I mean by purpose is that your interiors should reflect the purpose
that they serve for you and your family. By establishing a purpose for your
spaces, you will achieve happiness.
Sounds simple, but happiness is proved by what brings you
joy, peace and a smile to your face. To achieve this, you will need to evaluate
your lifestyle, routines and the rooms in which you perform certain functions.
Upon entering your home, do you feel satisfied? Does arriving home make you feel happy? Is it your safe and comfy retreat from the outside world? Do you like the smell? Yes it matters. Like a realtor telling a home seller to boil some cinnamon sticks on the stove to create the scent of spices in the chilly months or fragrant floral bouquets in the spring and summer…all of the senses come into play when you are staging an interior. And to enhance the design of your own home – you are staging for yourself! If your home smells musty or stale, consider the sources and do a little fabric refreshing, open windows, check for grease in the kitchen…purge the unpleasant odors.
So how do you start your day? Is your room light or dark and how adjustable is it to modify as needed? Is the floor upon which you first set your feet in the morning warm or cool, rough or soft? How do these elements make you feel? How do you want to feel? Consider all of your senses. Consider the purpose of the space and what you want it to do for you. As you evaluate these small details, ask yourself “Do I want to make changes in any of these existing conditions? It’s usually fairly easy to do and if you just take one piece at a time, you will find that the improvements are very effective.
Is your bedroom restful? Are your feel happy when they hit the floor? Examine the sensory details to get started designing with a purpose.
If you enjoy cooking, see how your kitchen functions and how it looks to you as a workplace. Do you have things handy? Is what you use most often easily accessible? Evaluate and rearrange if needed. Re-organize your kitchen.
Some cooks like everything concealed, while some like having certain of their equipment out and ready. Make it suit your purpose.
When you entertain, how do you like to do it? Is your style casual or more formal? Where do people gather and how many at a given time? You can “zone” your entertaining so that some are gathered in established seating areas while others might pull up a stool and watch you cook. Consider the flow of your gatherings. Consider the purpose. I find that I am up and down a lot and therefore I opt for a little upholstered ottoman that I can scoot under the glass top coffee table when not in use. Benches, ottomans, even floor pillows can be great supplemental seating for overflow and these pieces are lower and visually less crowded than pulling chairs in from adjacent rooms.
With regard to seating, do you have pets, kids? Are you hard on your upholstery? This might determine what fabrics you select, if you are considering new pieces or re-upholstery of existing pieces, in your home.
I write often about color. There are so many paint choices that is impossible not to find the right color combinations for your spaces. Consider the purpose. Remember that different rooms can have different color schemes, if that serves your purpose. If you want a space to be restful, select soothing colors and if your want to express a more vibrant spirited feeling, choose colors that are more bright, bold and intense. Consider the purpose of the space and its color scheme regarding how you want it to make you feel.
It all boils down to observing your rooms and their details, letting go of things that no longer serve a purpose. If they do not function well or make you smile – let go. Rearrange your things. This is a neat trick to re-purposing your possessions and giving rooms a new look. Move things from one room to another or just within the same room. You will feel refreshed merely by making these simple changes.
As is true with all good New Year’s resolutions…don’t put
off tomorrow, what you can do today! So get started and see how you can make
your home the place where you gain strength and rejuvenation, achieve happiness
and surround yourself with the things that bring you joy.
The return of the pods with a twist! Those gorgeously twisted mahogany colored Locust pods that fall every autumn and beg to be re-purposed, if not for their procreating seeds, as table dressings!!! Yes, I have embraced their raw, organic beauty for quite some time. Look back to my introduction to these handsome hulls and the first fabulous table-scape that resulted. https://patriciandesign.com/resourceful-creative-festive-fun/
The original autumnal centerpiece using the Locust pods a couple of years ago…
There have been many bouquets since. Then yesterday, as I walked my 10,000 step trek around a nearby park, I pondered the theme for this Christmas blog and another pod piece came to mind. One lone Locust tree there in the park had produced a blanket of pods that have been weathering these last couple of months – fortunately, not weathered too badly. I gathered 2 dozen of them and marched home with a purpose! Fists full and looking a bit curious, I passed several strollers wondering about my two unusual bouquets.
My idea was to tweak them from their natural autumnal brown
to a gilded glory!
Spray painting on brown craft paper – both sides – instant transformation!
Yes, gilding the lily of lovely rich, natural pods to become wildly twisted golden spires flanking the traditional poinsettia of our Christmas table.
Building the scene as I go…
Last minute gold glass balls ringing the red poinsettia centerpiece,
Spruce sprigs from the yard.
a pair of silver reindeer, silver snowflake napkin rings, blue spruce cuttings from the backyard, scattered votive holders, crystal and china for the touch of formality and we’re ready for our silver and gold, red and green, festive feast!
Mexican pewter chargers, with fine gold trimmed Limoge china, Grand Baroque sterling and aluminum snowflake napkin rings – mixes metals to the max!
There are presents to wrap as Christmas approaches, but here is another kind of wrapping up – from completing projects to taking inventory – the end of the year is busy and everyone is anxious to get things wrapped up!!
Parties are scheduled and scenes are set.
Lovely party last night! Thank you Anne and Ken!!!
Company is coming and the final kitchen drawer was just finished, walls are painted, custom iron rods were just installed, the tree is up and all is decked for Christmas. The draperies are being finished and should be installed before the big day! Will they be finished before the guests arrive?
The new store is open! (Watch for more on this soon!) The front window is in festive mode with a Christmas tree and mannequins sporting the newest fashions. The last minute details are installed on the magnificent wrap desk, the POS (Point of Sale – not to be confused with what they might be calling it during the glitch) computer cash register system is on the fritz and hours of remote consultation puts everyone on edge.
The custom designed and crafted tables are finished – although we missed the Thanksgiving deadline – a ski trip that weekend made that a forgivable situation. Delivery to Boulder dodging snow storms was a success and the tables exceeded expectations!
Two entirely different tables custom designed and fabricated, delivered and installed!
Other projects proceed as chair cushions are being finished, cabinet pulls are on order, the rug pad is due any day, the construction drawings for the commercial kitchen are underway, the solar shades are in and working nicely on the designated remotes, the walls need to be patched and painted – hopefully this week, the landscape plans are being priced, the sign package for the exterior of the building are also being priced and the plumbing fixtures aren’t here and might not be in time, the counter tops are still to be fabricated, the plumbing needs to arrive and be installed…and those last few items are for my own house!
If anyone thinks that the designers’ projects go more smoothly or finish on time and go off without a hitch – think again. Murphy’s Law isn’t prejudiced. My own indecision, delivery of the wrong sinks, budget modifications and time delays related to design details being painstakingly executed all contributed to my project not being cleared up before Christmas. Through no fault of my wonderful contractors, so many other things are in play. Designing projects is like conducting orchestras – well, to the extent that there are many players who must perform when expected without flaws – and that is not the nature of most projects. Unlike an orchestra performing a piece, having practiced for hours, days, months, years…projects are never identical and practice cannot make perfect. The variables are many and the permutations and possibilities for glitches seem endless! Perhaps it’s more like juggling rather than conducting!!!
So as we wrap-up the year and hope that everyone’s projects are providing comfort, enhanced function, fun and even profitability, we thank all of our clients and contractors who participate in the process. We are thankful for each of you – our clients and we are equally thankful for all those artists and craftspeople on our team who make our dreams come true.
Designing is like cooking – I guess cooking is a form of design. Yes, it certainly is. Whether it is graphic design, fashion design, architecture, musical composition, poetry, landscape or interior design – artists of all media – the art of creating, designing, composing, it is all about the right ingredients in the right amount to balance the scene. Proportion.
Even though I will be focusing on interior design, the”scene” could be the sheet music, the canvas, the poet’s screen or paper…the “scene” is the window that frames/encompasses the finished product. To compare these artistic endeavors, to the art of cooking, is so obvious to me.
Everyone must cook something. Whether it is merely heating up beanie weenies, with a sliced dill pickle tossed in, chased with a gin on the rocks, it is a composition that must result in a tasty scene – for someone. Having said that, we must also note that “beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” The more successful compositions appeal to a greater number of aficionados.
To cook, one must combine the right ingredients, in the right proportions, to combine to result in the best finished product. When I design, as with cooking, it is often “create as you go”…it is important to add an element and taste…re-think…evaluate…
Assembling ingredients and considering the balance of them in the finished product.
At a glance, the significant distinctions between cooking and interior design is that in cooking, the finished product might be gorgeous, but taste terrible. Interior design is all visual – on the surface…or so you might think…until you evaluate function. A beautiful cake needs to taste as good as it looks. An interior must function as well as it looks. Both are dependent on the subliminal factors that result in a truly successful finish product.
Successful is also in the eye of the beholder…25+ years ago my mother and I went shopping for a leather sofa. She, at 5′ 3″, was a bit on the “vertically challenged” side of the ergonomic spectrum. Therefore, actually sitting in the contenders was important so that her feet comfortably rested on the floor and her back against the back – no propping up with throw pillows to make the fit. So we searched and sat and searched and sat until one day, like Goldilocks, we found one that was “just right.”
A few weeks later, having waited anxiously for this perfect sofa to arrive, Mom excitedly called me and said “they’re delivering my sofa today!” I told her I would be by after work to see it. But before I could finish my day and see this long-awaited focal piece, she called again exclaiming “It’s the wrong sofa!” To which I replied “hang on – I’ll be right there.”
Sure enough, I watched her as she sat on her beautiful new leather sofa and looked like Lily Tomlin doing Edith Ann! Her legs shot straight out and even with a scoot forward, her feet dangled in mid-air. We knew something was wrong. It looked like the right sofa, but we didn’t have the intended dimensions of what we ordered. So all we could do was go back to the showroom and hope the sofa that we thought we had ordered was still on the floor and go from there…
With great relief, we found the showroom model…Mom crossed the room and took a seat. A very comfortable seat. Everything fit just right. So what was with the sofa that was delivered earlier today? As it turned out, it was the right sofa, only hers was brand new. The one on the floor had been sat upon for months and by a thousand fannies…the answer was simple prompted by a simple question. Would they exchange the brand new cushion filling for the broken down stuffing that was in the floor model? And with that – voila! Her new sofa was modified to be the perfect fit – old, broken-down cushions and all!!!!! She still sits comfortably on that sofa today. Function. The outside looked great – the ingredients were a bit off. Ingredients make the difference.
I used this example with a client recently when she had a chair reupholstered. Per her request, the stuffing was not changed – but the upholsterer thought that the collapsed appearance was not good and would reflect a lack of attention on his part. So he plumped and made more firm the stuffing inside his new, tighter envelopes. She was not pleased and thought all was lost. I assured her that it was an easy fix and asked that it be redone. He is in the process of modifying the fill to accomplish the comfort she remembers. The chair looks great – but the ingredients/details are not creating the function that would make it a truly successful design.
As a designer, we often (especially in bidding environments) are faced with “or equal” substitutions to our design selections. The specifications have to be within a certain tolerance, but the results can radically change the complexion, success, look and effectiveness of the design. Imagine how this could affect a recipe? Well,sometimes great new recipes come from unintentional substitutions….take these cookies I baked last weekend.
Barbara Bush’s popular Cowboy Cookies – unplanned, I had a wild hair to bake cookies. I can count on one hand how often that has happened in the last 20 years!! So having had these fabulous cookies recently (thanks Feath), I rummaged through the pantry for the ingredients. Well, I had wholewheat flour, not all purpose, I had a few butterscotch morsels and a few more white chocolate chips. I had no chocolate chips nor coconut. I had steel cut oats not rolled oats. Too lazy to run to the store, I thought that the worst that could happen was that my cookies would be terrible and I would have wasted the ingredients and a couple hours of time…However, I am pleased to report that they are wonderful and resulted in a new oatmeal cookie worth sharing. Substitutions can work, but the harmony of ingredients is the key.
Another issue that can challenge a good design is when there are too many chefs in the kitchen. The ingredients can become imbalanced and substitutions can be made that alter if not spoil the intended results. In some projects, the”lead” shifts. The contractor, subs, and owner can all insert changes that alter the design. This usually occurs without regard for the design as a whole. Each person has their field of vision, their focus of expertise or special interest. Sweet, salty, acidic…each has its place – balance. A disregard for any of the ingredients, poor substitutions or imbalanced quantities – will alter the results.
Yin and Yang – the balance of our known universe – is all at the root of the balance of good design. Balance and the relationships of scale (which are also forms of balance). Rough/Smooth, Shiny/Dull, Dark/Light, Soft/Hard are all ingredients of good design. The balance of these are the equation of successful solutions. And this doesn’t even include the magic of color its balance and compliments.
Many people are good cooks. They have an innate sense of what works. Many people have an innate sense of good design. They often take it for granted. They might not be able to articulate it – but they can create it, they know it when they see it and they employ the rules of balance whether they realize it or not. In both of these cases, theses innately talented people often need reinforcement or encouragement – validation – affirmation.
From dinner guests to friends coming over to see the new furniture arrangement, talented cooks and decorators can get the job done – as with all professional chefs and designers – with the support and contribution of the talents around them.
