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Painted Color —The Ultimate Compliment
By Ron Licklider,
ASID
Martha Stewart and Ralph Lauren,
trendsetters in style and design, whose market-driven collections,
products and publications continually top merchandising charts, have now
entered the world of color. Both designers have recently introduced
color palettes with diverse ideas on colors and its use and application.
Our use of paint is no longer limited to walls, in that we are
encouraged to cover chairs, wood trim, baseboards, picture frames and
even pianos with painted color. Ms. Stewart presented a collection of
colors inspired by the color of eggs … yes, chicken eggs of the Araucana
fowl from South America. These birds produce subtly-hued eggs in pretty
pastels and neutrals. And when the hues of these eggs are borrowed for
paint color, amazingly beautiful results occur. Combinations of drab
olives and tapes sparkle with dazzling blues and ivories. Unexpected
colors on floors and ceilings can liven up an otherwise lackluster
interior. Several colors are always used rather than the expected white
ceiling, pale walls and uninteresting stained or painted woodwork.
The Lauren group has come up with a more structured approach to color
selection in a program that groups a predetermined palette of colors to
achieve a specific mood. New finish techniques and applications add to
the practically and interest of this system.
Color, always a designer’s mainstay in his bag of tricks, continues to
be a most basic element, if not the most important function in a design
project. Interest in the area of color by major retailers underlines
this fact. Also the psychology of color has long been a fascinating
subject for study. One is to look only at the medical profession, as one
example, to see how the use of color sends definite signals. The
flashing red lights of an ambulance send signals of danger and caution,
while the surgeon’s eyestrain is kept to a minimum with use of unglaring
greens in the operating room.
In as much as one color costs no more to paint than the other, proper
color selection and choice is the most economical part of a design plan.
A basic misconception is that white, always the most common choice, is
the best. Color experts tell us that white is an unsettling choice for
mortuary use. Green, the other neutral, softened with beige or a pale
apricot with a hint of yellow will provide a more imaginative and
pleasing background for product display and service presentation.
Do not become painted into a corner by
fear of color or the dictates of current color trends.
”One color always reinforces another.” As is true with South American
chicken eggs, and all of Nature for that matter, colors and fabrics need
not match exactly, they only need compliment one another.
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