COLOUR

"Strictly speaking, all visual appearance owes its existence to brightness and color."
Rudolf Arnheim"

I thought I would do some posts about individual colours and what kind of emotion and feeling they illicit from us. When you are a decorator, designer, artist or any creative person colour usually the first thing you notice about an object or room is it's colour. For me, when a room is done right the colour fades into the background and becomes part of it - almost secondary to the items in the room. I have never liked rooms where the colour screams at me - I like it to softly whisper. So I'm drawn to more muted, soft colours, colours that are found in nature.

For this post I am going to focus on white. White is actually the presence of all colours. Emotionally white feels innocent, hopeful, joyful, pure, sterile and cool.
It does not have a physical effect on us but behavioural can cause us to be indecisive and idealistic. It signals cleanliness, refinement, calmnesss, delicacy and purity. A pure white room can be very stressful to humans as it can reflect too much light. This is tempered by adding subtle shades of white and different textures to the whites in the room.

Here's some beautiful white rooms.

Almost all white except for blue mirror frame and bottles. Lots of textures in this space.

Shabby chic look with pink throw pillows. Love the old doors propped against the wall for interest.

White and mirrored surfaces are everywhere in this room. So Hollywood....

Again lots of white but different textures and shapes, has a retro feeling.

Love the shag rug this shows how to add textures to make a white room interesting.

A modern bedroom with lots of shiny surfaces....seems a little cold to me.

Another cool modern room with some hits of black.

A sleek modern bathroom again with lots of shiny surfaces, glass and mirror.

A vintage french looking bathroom with soft whites and a green gray on the cabinet.

Not completely white but I loved the white painted ceiling beams.
An almost all white office with just some hits of colour.

I believe that every space can be comfortable, warm, elegant and beautiful. I would love to help you achieve your beautiful space – email me at lisa@lisagouletdesign.com or if in the Ottawa area call me at 613-762-0818.

Photos from: Houzz interview with Maria's Dreamy whites; The Kensington House designed by SHH Architects under the supervisor of Rene Dekker; from oninteriordesign.blogspot.com/2010/03/modern-white-interior-design-pictures.html; http://roxxn.wordpress.com/tag/black; houseandhome frenchbathroom; houseandhome dreamywhitebedroom; houseandhome - LisaHiltondesign