It’s a Colourful World
It's a colourful world. We are instinctively drawn to certain colours. By choosing shades that resonate with your soul, you can create a home that reflects your own personality and is filled with love, character and joy. Earthy tones of sienna and ochre bring warmth to spaces in our home. Furniture, art and decor are invigorated by a backdrop of mustard yellow. Sky blue relaxes my senses while deep navy adds contrast to white accents, like whitecaps on a stormy sea. Green is the colour of life found growing throughout the house and bringing much joy to us from the garden. Kick off your shoes and join me on a tour of my colourful world.
Sienna and rust are used in my home to represent discovery, wonder and age. As a child, much of my time was spent with my brother, sister and cousins searching for treasure. Scrap heaps beside the shop, burial sites in the field, and abandoned equipment hidden in the windbreaks, were wonderful areas to explore. Archeological finds such as tarnished gears, oxidized ball bearings, corroded tools, captivated our minds while we travelled back in time. The tradition of unearthing farmyard finds continues on with my son today. For me, the warmth of sienna is reminiscent of this tradition.
Returning home from a full day of work, my husband was very pleased to see that I had painted the main floor in a colour he described as, "Peanut Butter." I prefer to call it ochre. Ochre is an earthy pigment that reminds me of sand and dried wheat. In an interior setting, I imagine the golden hue found embossed on the spines of leatherbound books, or worn metal pulls. I daydream about researching while sitting at an antique library table; reading under the light of a brass bankers lamp. It does look a lot like peanut butter.
When we first settled into our place, the entire house was muted by a soft neutral grey. I decided to pump it up and add a clash of bright yellow throughout the upstairs. I feel like I am walking on sunshine whenever I'm tiddling about on the upper floor. Mustard has got to be one of my favourite shades of yellow. In my eyes, mustard sets off all other colours beautifully and enhances any objects placed in front of it.
It is miraculous to watch the transformation of the sky-blue graduate into a thunderous eruption of deep navy. Room colours were inspired by the shift of a bright summer's day, turned into a stormy evening. I like to leave the doors open to appreciate the contrast of yellow from the central space against the powder blue of adjoining rooms. What should be a sharp contrast, instead, flows seamlessly like sunshine in the sky. The master bedroom is painted in heavy and deep agean. White accents seem extra crisp against this intense hue and playful colours become extra frivolous.
Green is found everywhere in and around our home. I cannot resist various shades of moss, lichen or forest green in decor. Most of the green is found living in collections and through window views of our garden. In the winter months, my favourite furnishings are the stoic spruce trees and shaggy pines standing guard outside the frosty glass panes. Evergreen trees watch over the rest of the garden while it sleeps. Every other shade of green will burst into life in the spring, as will my excitement for another season spent in the garden.
My home is decorated in colours sewn together like a quilt. the patchwork is made up of sentimental tones from childhood and warm hues that spark my curiosity. Bright pigments make me want to dance. Deep shades resonate with power and lively infusions that continue to inspire. These are my colours. Every person is unique, as is, their choices in colour palettes and patterns. I wish you great joy, wrapped up in a patchwork of your own colourful world.
