A passel of pretty pastels
After a hard winter, candy colours provide sweet relief and renewal
Usually I groan when I see Easter candy and decorations migrate into the drug and grocery store aisles well before the actual holiday, but not this year.
This year, I want to buy all the plastic green grass and brightly coloured eggs and spread them across the barren winter landscape. After this cold, white winter, I need to surround myself with doses of bright, cheery, jelly bean colours.
Unfortunately, my weatherinduced craving for sunny hues is completely out of sync with Pantone’s pick for colour of the year, Marsala. It is a rich, earthy red-brown named after the fortified red wine from Sicily. Leatrice Eiseman, the executive director of the Pantone Color Institute, describes Marsala as a “subtly seductive shade, one that draws us in to its embracing warmth.”
The colour does indeed connote warmth, but to me it’s the kind of warmth reminiscent of the smoky, alcohol-drenched nights of the 1970s — a colour that is present in just about every scene of the 2013 film American Hustle.
No doubt the movie had influence; Pantone looks to fashion and Hollywood as harbingers of colour trends. My suggestion to Pantone: Consult a few meteorologists and the Farmers’ Almanac as well as runways and movie reels. This winter calls for more than just warm colours; we need happy ones.
I am fully aware, however, that many people are Crayola colour phobic. I understand why: if not used properly, colours — especially bright ones — can make your living room look like a kindergarten or worse, a Marvel comic.
Follow these four tips to keep cheery colours in check.
1.
Use colour as an accent, not a focus.
I have several clients who are colour averse — they like rooms that are all white, grey and/or neutral. Recently, I have nudged a couple of them to add hints of colour to give their spaces a lift.
Adding small pops of colour is like accessorizing an outfit — think coloured earrings or a necklace on a woman, a colourful tie or pocket scarf on a man. Try small strokes of colour, not huge ones. In general, I like to have three to five colourful elements peppered throughout a room. Don’t glop them all together. And remember, a book jacket, flower or candle can add just as much colour as a throw, pillow or tray.
2.
Let colour flow.
In the same way that you want to spread pops of colour throughout a room, you want to carry those pops of colour throughout your house, particularly if your house has an open plan. You should always consider how colour flows from one room to another.
3.
Use a paint deck for guidance.
Paint decks usually show a gradation of colour from light to bright (or dark). When you choose a bright accent colour for your room, complement it with items that represent the full spectrum of that colour, just as you would see on a paint deck.
By layering the lighter shades of a colour, you make the brightness of that colour less pronounced.
4.
Ground colours with black, brown or grey.
Any colour in the spectrum looks good — and more sophisticated — when it is offset by strong, dark colours like black, dark brown or grey.
As you have no doubt gleaned, I am not buying into the Marsala trend. No Marsala-coloured throw or coffee maker for me.
Instead, I am lifting my spirits — and my rooms — with candy colours.