Interior Design Today - Episode 013

Welcome to the Interior Design Today radio show with Mary Knackstedt.In our 13th episode, Mary talks about color. What color should you use? What color works for you? What do colors say, what do they mean? Faber Birren was one of the very famous, noted, professors on color. He was probably the leading person to live in this last century. He was one of the leading professors to study under, and fortunately, I had that privilege earlier in my career. He explained that color has a physical and psychological effect on people. Obviously, it's somewhat different depending on where you live and where you come from. In Santa Fe, you'll find that brighter colors are far more appealing than they are in the Northeast. Of course, we want bright colors in the Northeast, but what they call bright and what we call bright are quite different.I find that people are now looking for more color. They're looking for colors that compliment them. They want us to create environments for them that are appropriate to their personal coloring. For example, if you have dark hair and darker skin, there are colors that are much more appropriate to you than if you were blonde and pale. Obviously, the people that are living and working in the environment, do affect the proper color planning of your space. Also, the age and functions that are being conducted there... I say age because children love bright colors. One of my clients asked me to assist with the coloring of a nursery for their grandchildren. I showed them some bright colors, some different palettes. The minute the color panels were introduced into their room, the babies looked at these color panels. They were quite excited by them. Children of that age are not really interested in soft pastel blue, pink, and yellow as we have been used to seeing for nurseries. They really like bright and impacting colors.As we mature, our color palette tastes change somewhat. When I was doing many spaces for education, starting with nursery school and through to college, I learned and studied that we needed to change the color palette in the different spaces according to the amount of time that people spent on their particular subject, also their age and culture. This is rather fascinating because, as you think about it, the attention span of a child is very short. If you are a college professor or student working on a tedious subject, you must be able to concentrate for a long period of time. As a result, the whole environment around you should be colored accordingly. We are finding that people are very bored with the 'vanilla' types of environments. Everyone felt that beige or neutral colors were very classic and good for everyone. Now we're finding that people are understanding the luxury and pleasure of color.Look at your environment. Does it fit? Do we need to add some color? Let's add it in a very artistic and balanced way so that it really enhances your room and you gain much pleasure from this beautiful new color palette. Interiors have a wonderful way of creating an environment that gives you great pleasure, and color is one of the components.Please subscribe to the video or audio version of the radio show via iTunes or listen to it at http://interiordesigntodaypodcast.blogger.com via the following MP3 Link.