MIX AND MATCH: Complimentary colour schemes are a good choice.
RAY OF SUNSHINE: A vase of yellow flowers to warm the heart. DO YOU feel strongly about colour? Are there some colours you never like to be associated with even in small doses? Or are you one of those people that shy clear of it and put it into the too hard to do basket? Do you always wear black?
I am an "autumn" when it comes to personal colours and there are some colours and textures I really love to wear that give me a lift.
There are also certain colours that I enjoy working in to release my creative energy. And I rarely wear black or white. In the winter I love to wear texture and pattern with colour and tend to lean towards velvet, silk, mohair in rich teals, aubergine, purple and red along with brown tones.
Actually practically any colour as long as it suits me. In the summer, I tend to wear linen, cotton and silk in softer tones but always from the autumn pallet.
Colour is a vibration. It is a powerful tool, it can stimulate and excite or sedate, it can calm you, make you feel hot or cold, it can irritate you or bring pleasure.
There are so many responses and everyone will react differently to a single colour. It always has a positive or a negative and when I use colour with clients I need to ensure it isn't going to have a negative reaction, especially if I am dealing with more than one person in a household. The same goes for the workplace. There is no point in using a colour that makes people feel tired and under achieve.
When it comes to a room or building colour can be used to manipulate a space. It can visually lower a ceiling, shorten a room or lengthen it. Make a space intimate and cosy or appear to increase an area. There are so many possibilities.
Yellow - the hue of yellow is the brightest colour at maximum saturation. It is the closest colour to white and when used side by side yellow will appear brighter. Yellow represents warmth, cheerfulness and sunny days. It is also said to stimulate activity and communication - a great kitchen colour, if your kitchen is the hub of the house and everyone comes home from work or school and congregates to talk about their day.
Not so good if siblings share a bedroom, chatting and laughter into the night is not a good antidote for sleep. Yellow sharpens memory recall - many students will take notes on yellow paper.
The negatives in yellow are said to increase hostility, irritability, deceit and meanness. Over the years it has been associated with cowardice, sickliness and anxiety.
When my son Hamish was younger and shorter he went through that stomping stage of getting up in the morning and slamming doors and generally not being a nice person. We talked about what it was that made him angry in the morning. In the end, I told him I was going to paint his room yellow, so every morning he would wake up in a sunny, happy bedroom.
We went through the colours that I felt would be good, working from paler yellows to good strong hues. We whittled the colours down to three Resene yellows - Gorse, Energy Yellow and Moon Yellow.
The colour we chose was Energy Yellow and what a transformation. Hamish became this nice boy again that talked in the morning instead of mumbling, walked instead of stomping and was generally really pleasant. The vibration from yellow worked as a positive with Hamish - pity help Bailee and I if it had been a negative reaction.
I find kids will have a natural awareness of the colours they enjoy and work well with them, much too many parents' nervousness.
It's not until we get older that we tend to lose that and dress and live in "safe" colours. Some of us will remember Spanish White as a safe colour and every second house, if not every house, you visited was painted in Spanish White.
Today it is Tea, a greyed off colour from the brown oxide palette. It can work well teamed with the right colours or it can be a cold dead colour.
Unfortunately the house in Wellington that Hamish and Bailee live in is painted Tea, teamed with the wrong accent colours so on those cold dreary days, and there are many in Wellington, it is a very uninviting colour to live in.
Fortunately it is only paint and time to change the colour!
If you have any questions about issues discussed or product supply give me a call on 0276023298 or drop me a line on terry@terrylobb.com.
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