OH OLIVE ... !!!
You are soooooo goood !
Here we go again. Walls lighter grey than floor , ceiling in an even lighter grey(but not white.All furniture would be antracite (antracite is always a bit stone-ish as to be anthracite and not silver-black) The accent colour would be a cooper/bloody/rusty orange.Then a dash of petrol blue.
The area with the white stained oak ceiling would have furniture in a greige colour and look like a room within a room.
I may even try to keep the oranges in the grey area and the blues in the beige/greige area or vice versa.So i would have a dirty/lightened black&white , with dashes of rusty orange and petrol blue.i would keep all oranges and all blues together and not mix them here and there as to look more basic/childish.
I'm glad your happy!
The room now sounds balanced from my viewpoint. I think you'll feel good in the space when it's done. So go for it! But remember not to be too rigid. Vary the shades of the petrol blue and the two oranges. And add things like a yellow vase, an acid green pillow, a bunch of hot pink gerbera daisies...
The marble
was described as "medium/light grey". . .
Olive's prescriptions seem a model of the type, clearly describing the intended results and the technical and aesthetic reasoning behind the choices. . .which of course are also a matter of her preferences, as advertised. See, you CAN get something for nothing !
Maybe some1 will photograph the eventual results ? It would be fun to see if our imaginations accord with the realities of this space. (Not in terms of color, but the spacial realities are often a surprise; when I have worked on a project without actually seeing the space, the architectural drawings have usually failed to transmit a sense of the scale and "feel" of the room(s) -- not something they are designed to do, being merely construction documents.)
SDR
While not
intending to detract in any way from O's professional generosity, and its benefits for the far-away some1, I am reminded of a family anecdote that might (or might not) have more to do with the subject at hand, than did my previous digression.
Among the friends and neighbors available when I was growing up in a NY suburb were an illustrator/art director and a fine art importer. The illustrator worked for the prestigeous BBD&O advertising agency, where he prepared print ads for clients like Seagram's (I recall seeing winter-season guache page art showing big snow-clad 7's on his easel at home); the impresario, European by birth, was one of the earlier in New York to bring the Big Names of European modernism to American galleries. These two met at a party given by my mother, and the hard-working illustrator shared with the Great Man his complex and carefully-contrived Color System, which would enable the professional artist to confidently assemble Primaries, Secondaries and Tertiaries into well-harmonized compositions.
After delivering himself of this triumph to the impresario, the working artist expected at least some recognition of the value of his achievement; instead, the Great Man paused to gather his thoughts, then declared, ". . .Color. . .comes from the Soul. . .!"
Ah, well. . .
Color absolutely does come from the soul
No matter how carefully one uses the science of Color Theory or stares deeply into the Josef Albers' "Homage to the Squares" it all comes down to how it makes you feel. Color affects you in the gut. I really don't like blue, it makes me sad. Navy makes me down right depressed. I wouldn't enjoy living with the color palette that I've described for Some1, but he/she will and that's all that matters.
One more mumble
Yesterday I helped a woman select a color palette for her new home office. She was taking over a recently vacated bedroom and leaving behind a cramped dark room she hated. She was totally focused on making the new space 'hers' by adding inspiring/energizing colors. When I walked into the room there was a total riot of tester colors all over the walls. The place looked like a rainbow threw up on it. There was no way to get a clear idea of what anything looked like. I immediately took her out of the room and we went around her house looking at her furniture, clothing, art and 'favorite things'. From what she showed me and from how she described why she loved certain things I was able to see what colors truly inspired her. Her gut instinct for color was all over the rest of her house but, not in that room. All she could think of in that space was doing domething new and different and she wandered away from what she truly loved thinking she needed a fresh change. My point again, color really does come from the soul.
That's a great
story. I bet you left a happy client behind. Was it initially difficult to convince her of your "unusual" prescription ?
Even the most seemingly egocentric designers sometimes surprise us by their real devotion to their client's needs and wishes. Wright's story is filled with anecdotes which make it clear that this was a goal of his -- at least some of the time ! And as a designer I can attest to the value of having a "brief" (as the British call it) -- a set of client requirements (and other constraints) that constitute the initial assignment.
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