I do love me up a serving of neutral: a quiet scheme of sweet ivory and mellow ecru; schemes that are never more than a tone or two from home. They tend to be classic and sophisticated, modern or transitional. I get the appeal. But there is a change a comin’.
Fashion is the sexy, big sister of all design – more agile, motivated by season, inventor of the trend. We are seeing colour this year – in bright denim, in ambitious patterns and in weighty, enamel accessories. But not far behind, interior design translates and interprets cautiously for the home and colour is making a spectacle of itself. The results this fall are stunning.
My go to for keeping current is always fabric (and architectural lighting – have I said this before?). A sourcing excursion this week provided just the poke I needed to pay attention to the wild world of colour. Here are some of my favs:
Bermingham & Co.
Now this is colour, Not “dip your toe in, check out the temperature” but dive in colour – bold, edgy, brave, commitment colour in the most eye popping combinations. Their ikats make me dizzy with inspiration. Now – I would reserve these beauties for occasional chairs and accessorizing, maybe window coverings in a quiet space. Maybe. Their lampshades are magnificent. Complete. Showstopping. Colour.
Windsor Smith
Available through Kravet, this collection is best seen live as they have yet to really crack the internet nut. Their site completely blows and doesn’t begin to accurately represent the breadth and ingenuity of the line. Patterns tend to be geometric and simple but I love the colour ways.
Dwell Studios
Christiane Lemieux, Creative Director of Dwell, and I have had a long standing affair (perhaps not technically an affair as I am the only one completely enamoured but I digress). I love Dwell – I love the price point; I love how current it is with introducing new colour directions; I love the pattern play and whimsy. Pure design never taking itself too seriously. They make design accessible. Love.
Cole & Son
I am not wallpaper folk but was called (cough…forced) to get intimate with wallpaper on a recent teen/young adult bedroom I was charged with completing. She loves Missoni so we landed on a traditional chevron multi-coloured Missoni print – stunning – but paint just wasn’t standing up to the complexity of the pattern. There really wasn’t any balance in the space. Enter Cole & Son. Skip everything but their Contemporary II collection and consider creating a feature wall with the paper vs. enveloping all four.
Favorite Hues
Teal. Sigh. I have a huge crush on this colour. I do. I do.
Ink. The brother of midnight blue and slate.
Citrine. Not just yellow. Jaune with a bit of green and rounded out with grey.
Turquoise. I just finished a living room using this modern aqua and wanted to move in myself.