This is an excerpt from Janice Linsday’s talk “Getting white Right” sponsored by Pittsburgh Paints at the Buildex show today in Vancouver;
“The night before I arrive at a clients home, I’m sure they dream about the colours they imagine I will push on them when I arrive at their house. That I’ll arrive at the door and say, ‘OMG you are so colour deprived, step aside and let me fix it’.”
This she assured us, is not what we can expect (I have talked about this before—how a good colour designer also needs to understand neutrals). Janice said that choosing colours from the perimeter of the colour wheel is easy, it’s when you start going into the middle where the neutrals live that you can get into trouble.
This part of the colour wheel is what my True Colour Expert Training is all about!
In one consultation, the couple informed her they were either going to sell their house or they wanted to paint it purple. They went for purple and on all four floors of their home there is not an inch of white. Everything that would be white was instead a soft gray mauve.
They kept emailing her saying, ‘we love it, come and see it’, and then they sent her a note:
“We can’t tell you how happy we are in this house, we will never sell it, the people who come to visit who thought we were crazy to do 18 different shades of purple and a fuscia now call it the happy house and they love it too. It is strange to us that so many people want to live in beige and colourless homes now that we find ourselves so happy in our colourful house!”
“Workplaces studies have shown where there is lots of colour variety there is less absenteeism and better productivity. When men and women are in colorless rooms, stress levels go higher than in coloured rooms and men experience higher levels of stress than women in these rooms.”
“The reason for this is that white is not a natural colour and is actually the enemy to nature in many ways. Our responses to colours are coded in our DNA from the millions of years that it took for nature to evolve with us and this was our home.”
“Nature’s colours are the right from which we see wrong. You would never look at a colour in nature and say ‘that is so wrong’ That floor colour [above] clashes with the house!”
We evolved in a world that was full of magnificent colour where there was very little white and colourlessness happened when things faded and died. Somehow we’ve gone from that world to one where 70% of all paint purchased is white. . .” Janice Lindsay
Janice is Pittsburgh Paint’s spokesperson, we all received one of their fan decks and her book, All About Colour!
If you would like to transform the way you see colour, become a True Colour Expert.
Need help choosing the right neutral or colour? My How to Choose Paint Colours: It’s all in the Undertones ebook takes the hundreds of choices down to 9 neutral undertones along with list of all my other go-to best grays, broken down into 3 undertones, green, blue and purple. The beige undertones of pink, yellow, green, gold, orange and taupe along with the best greens and blues.
My bonus book of colours is worth the price of the ebook alone but you will also get my system of understanding undertones so you can stop making mistakes when sourcing tile, carpet, countertops, etc.
Related posts:
White is a Snob; Janice Lindsay
Interview with Colour Expert; Janice Lindsay
[Colour Theory] Rules are for Breaking by Janice LindsayIf you are new to this blog, click here to see the Best of Colour Me Happy
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My FAVORITE post yet. and then without light, one would not see such fabulous colors!
pve
I am beginning to appreciate color more and more, thanks to you. My home mostly consists of neutrals but I am learning to incorporate more pops of color to dazzle the eyes.
Thanks for the terrific post Maria!
My only question is then why are all these women on so many blogs crazy about all white interiors? From the walls, floors to furniture?
I love colour !
I try and do an all white room but colour always has a way of sneaking in !
Pamela from French Buttons
What a wonderful and rich source of information! I am so glad I came across your blog and I will be spending some time going back through your older blogs… as a designer you can never stop learning.
I have forwarded your blog to my mother, who is a painter… she will love it!
I so agree! (Funny, I just posted about color as well.)
Maria, you DO have the best photos with your posts!
I think we've all been a bit color deprived in recent days – but from the looks of things at High Point this market, we are going to be living life in color again! Yippee!!
Maria, I feel so much better about my natural tendencies after reading this post! I like visiting houses that are mostly neutral because they seem restful, but I wouldn't want to live there. I adore color!
I find myself apologizing all the time for my 'colorful' style, but I just can't help it!
Thanks for another very interesting post…and for visiting…Maria…not (the way I spelled it! sorry!)
One of your many fans,
Donna @ Comin' Home
These pictures are beautiful, Maria!
Maria, now you know I am not color deprived. I thrive on it!!
I can totally see a home in many differnet shades of gray/ mauve/ purple/fuschia!!
Karena
Art by Karena
Great post Maria, and I agree, many people deprive themselves of color. Maybe because they are afraid?? We definately need to take more lessons from nature!
Nancy
My favorite part…You would never look at a colour in nature and say 'that is so wrong'. I have often thought that when arranging flowers. You can put so many colors together in a spring bouquet and voila–nothing clashes! Your posts are terrific!
My own home is full of colour – love it! My mum bought some older friends around once because they wanted to see where I live, and when the first one got in the door, he propped, and his wife ran into his back. Mum thought it was all the colour that stopped him in his tracks (I have grey walls, but colour absolutely everywhere else!!) They both loved it.
I too enjoy looking at homes with neutral palettes, and find them beautiful, but I could not live in one….. I'd go nuts after a few days, and start sneaking in bursts of colour here and there.
And I do agree, those photos are magnificent…. that bird is sooooo gorgeous!
Linda. 🙂
Funny…but we have lived in saturated color so long that I am peeling off the hues and going for a calming white…at least more of it on the walls. We'll see how long that lasts!
"White it not a natural colour and is actually the enemy to nature in many ways."
NOW it all makes sense! 🙂
Reminder for you: Brilliant you are, your posts NEVER disappoint!
Have a great day. xo
I love this post and I went back and read the other Janice Lindsay posts. I had apparently missed a couple of them. Also love the one about white.
Maria, Loved this post. I also went back to the related posts and read them as well.
Love the way Janice articulated the truth, that not only do beautiful white rooms need light but they need a few wonderful pieces well placed. Editing is crucial. Also liked her explanation of using darker or warmer colors in dark spaces like basements. These are things we always do, however I feel like I can now explain this to clients easier. Definitely going to buy this book. Thanks for the post. I always learn something from you.
How well Janice has articulated what I have felt and believed! Thanks for sharing her wisdom (and yours). For me, color is the most powerful of all the necessary design elements, and the more we learn about what it is, what it does, the better designers we will be. I think the neutral trend is being led by the real estate and staging industries, and we have allowed their need for a neutral palatte for selling purposes to be confused with good design. Bring on the color!
I went for a walk yesterday after dinner and spring is in full bloom! The bright green leaves and bright coloured flowers are everywhere. I actually stopped in the middle of the street and told Kelsea to look at all the beautiful colours! Just looking at the street lined with trees and flowers with all that colour made me happy.
My point? When I read %70 of all paint purchases is white it makes me cringe. Now when I see a white wall anywhere I'm going to think: 'hmmm I wonder how productive or happy these people are in this space". xo
What a wonderful story about the purple house people. I LOVE it! Isn't it amazing how much color can really change our lives? First they want to sell their home, now, with the addition of color, they are known as the happy house, with no desire to leave. Amazing. Such a testament to color's power.
And Janice is so right about nature's colors. We never question nature's color combinations, and we are always fascinated by her beauty. Yet, when it's time to color our own homes, so many of us retreat back to "safe" whites and beiges. She's so right – when you think about white and beige in nature, it often represents desolation and death. Kinda sad when we think about it, that these are the colors so many of us bring into our homes!
Thanks for sharing Janice's insightful, colorful perspectives. It's exciting! 🙂
I love color too! My house was all gray when I moved in. I am working on changing that!
When I see beautiful colors that take my breath away, I try to stop and count my blessings that I have eyes that can see. Color is medicine to our souls and brings joy to us each and every day. Wonderful photo's Maria once again!
Ruthie
Great post and point of view. Counterpoint:
"White … is not a mere absence of colour; it is a shining and affirmative thing, as fierce as red, as definite as black…. God paints in many colours; but He never paints so gorgeously, I had almost said so gaudily, as when He paints in white."
–Gilbert Keith Chesterton [British author, 1874–1936] “A Piece of Chalk,” Tremendous Trifles (1909)
Love this post!
When I read Janice Lindsay's quote about how colourlessness happened when thing faded and died, I suddenly felt like I understood why the colours of mourning are white in the East. The psychology is amazing.
Great post, Maria. I like looking at photos of creamy white rooms but I need color in my own home.
I absolutely love natural colors. Growing up in the Midwest there were plenty of greens, browns, blues, and oranges. In fact too many colors to mention by name.
But are these “natural” colors natural everywhere?
I’ve spent a fair amount of time in the Middle East. Many of those countries, like Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait and the UAE, are essentially just sand. For me it was very bland. Toxically bland.
But I was wondering just now if it’s different for the people who grow up there. Is their palate formed by the colors they were surrounded by growing up as mine were?
Hi Maria, this post inspired me to put up a couple of pics of my wall on my photography blog:
http://lahoredesign.blogspot.com
I'm glad I painted it a deep pink-red – not only do I find it good to look at, it helped pull together the room's look a bit and several months later, I havent tired of it.
Thanks! 🙂
Siddhartha – Interesting question.
My roomie's daughter finds Florida depressing because it's "overgrown and too green". She grew up in Arizona, where we see dramatically colored rock more than we see leafy greens.
My tastes in color changed radically after a couple of years in Mexico – an acquaintance lived in a house by Luis Barragan and the bold colors kinda grew on me.
Partly it's the light – a muted color that looks rich or soft in the Pacific Northwest (or the New England coast) looks dingy and boring where the light is more intense.
Lovely post. What a good reminder that we need colour for our mental health – the colours of nature are vivid (well, with the exception of snow) and very healing. Funny I just did a post today about the colours of Yellowstone Park. They are vivid in the extreme, and I loved them.
I've noticed that in San Francisco and in my hometown of Oakland there are so many beautiful exterior colors and interesting color combination's yet the further I drive East, the less exterior color diversity there is. Lots of beige and taupe! I'm always pleased when a client decides they want to move outside their comfort zone and embrace a little color. Every single time, they are so glad they took the jump.
The pics that you put up were stunning!
I am not (too) ashamed to say that the sight of all that fresh green grass made me want to roll on it 🙂 i can almost smell the grass from here!
Colour is wonderful but I have to admit that I do like to have the restfulness of white and neutrals in parts of my house. Perhaps it's because there is so little white in either the rushing downtown of a city or ever-changing nature that it signifies "HOME" to many of us.
Hi Maria – Love hearing your views on colour. My feeling right now is for white with bright accents, it just makes them feel brighter and happier in a white environment. Thanks for a great post.
I couldn’t refrain from commenting. Perfectly written!