2nd Place: Red

Red came in 2nd place via the poll recently held here. Red is a fun color to work with and I certainly can understand how some may be reluctant to paint walls red for fear of it being overpowering or too loud. Above (top) is Benjamin Moore's Red Oxide, picture via Apartment Therapy. What a great looking room. The walls have such a nice warm glow yet the color does not overwhelm or overpower everything else in the room. 2nd from the top is Farrow and Ball's Blazer red. The walls aren't too loud as the navy area rug tones down the red and makes the room feel more grounded. Below is Benjamin Moore's Spring Tulip, a pink red. The color is much more pronounced and becomes the main feature of the room. It's a matter of personal taste.


Below are some nice reds from Benjamin Moore's Aura line, a low VOC paint.

I love the Pomegranite and the Caliente is nice too. There are several neutrals shown that would work well as companion colors. Using a muted or dulled red will prevent your walls from being too loud. First decide whether you prefer a yellow based red or a blue based red. The yellow based reds are warmer and some are shown on the top row below. Blue based reds are shown on the bottom row below.

If you've been wanting a red room or just a red accent wall then you should give it a try. Red walls envelop a room, making it feel cozy and intimate. A dining room is a great place to try red and subdued reds also work well in living areas. You should start with a duller red and go brighter or more saturated if you feel like it. It's easier to add color than to cover it up. Reserve your judgment of the red until you bring your furniture and accessories back into the room as those other items will make a big difference.

Color Poll

Recently I held a poll on which colors you all like but are afraid to use because you think you may get a different result than expected. Purple had the most votes which is no surprise since purple has been making a huge splash in 07 and 08. But purple hasn't seen this much popularity pre 07 in quite a while so many people may not have ever decorated with it before. I added some pics and a little advice on choosing purples in a post below.

As with any trend be careful not to paint yourself into a corner, so to speak, with all trend and no lasting appeal. Unless you can afford redecorating frequently you may regret spending so much on a passing fancy and tire of the design quickly. More budget friendly, if you want to jump on the trend wagon, is carefully choosing a few trendy items as accessories but make your money go further with buying larger items that survive the trends. You may also be able to transform items you already own which could use a face lift. Adding fresh new colors and surface designs to existing furnishings or accessories can give you a nice change and a taste of that current trend you're dying to try. In the latter, we are approaching sustainable design, a good thing for our beautiful planet. ; )

Choosing any color new scheme is a personal choice and a great way to start deciding on a new color palette for your home is to look in your closet. If you tend to look healthy and vibrant in bright, bold colors and fade away or look awash in pale pastels then you should try and incorporate some of your best bold and bright colors from your wardrobe into your interior color scheme. I don't mean to say you need to paint your walls that ruby red color of your favorite evening dress, although it could look awesome, but if you're more conservative and want to retain more versatility keep the walls a nice neutral and just accent with bold and bright colors. You look great in certain colors because certain colors make you appear healthier, enhance your skin tone and even make you feel better. You want to feel this way in your home too so if you look sickly in purple but want to indulge in this trendy color then use it sparingly rather than covering the walls with it.

Choosing paint colors is not rocket science and in the end, it IS just paint. ; )

Color Advice

I stumbled upon an excellent article giving some advice on choosing color. You can read the whole article here. Kelly, the blogs author touches upon the effects of lighting on color.

I wanted to add my own 2 cents to this topic, specifically how different types of lighting will alter a color. Fluorescent lighting imparts coldness and cool color, which is why most humans don't much care for it. We're warm creatures and gravitate towards warm environments and warm colors. A great example is how we are drawn to fire light in a fireplace or outdoor firepit.

Though the lighting movement is toward all of us switching to compact fluorescent lighting for environmental reasons, (a good thing) we need to understand how to work with this sort of lighting to make it more friendly for us warmth seekers. So, what happens to color under fluorescent lighting? The warmth gets sucked out leaving you with the cooler ingredients. A nice warm off white will lose much of it's warmer ingredient (yellow) and take on a cool blue and touches of green. If a room has predominantly fluorescent lighting you will need to compensate for this by adding more warmth to the color.

Incandescent lighting is warm and adds yellow. And Who doesn't like the warm orange red glow from firelight? Fireplaces and outdoor fire pits are natural gravitation points where we like to congregate and relax. The warm golden yellow glow from candle light is attractive, inviting and a nice mood enhancer. Likewise the soft warm hues of sunrise and sunset have garnered admirers through the ages.


I was just at the ASID Student Career Forum in San Francisco this weekend and JoeAnne Day from the Day Studios gave an excellent lecture on color, covering the effects of lighting on color and much more. She touched on all sorts of lighting including Halogen, Firelight, Incandescent, Xenon, Ultra Violet. She showed pictures of a room in her own loft/studio that she photographed at different times of the day. This illustrated the effect of natural light, via a sky light in the room, and how the color changes so dramatically with the shifting sunlight. You can try this at home and take pictures of a room in the morning, at noon and in the late afternoon. You'll see how the direction of the light source shifts the color in the room. Understanding color shifts and the effects of lighting is something your Interior Designer or Color Consultant can help you with. One of the first things I find out when consulting for someone on color is the direction of the natural light source and the types of artificial lighting used in the room. It makes a difference.