If you were to walk in our front door—the fancy one, not the friendly one in the kitchen—you’d be surprised, maybe, by all the colors you’d see. The walls in the hallway are a pretty taupe (yes, there is such a thing), but the rooms themselves are different colors, based on the furniture and the art on the walls.
The dining room on the left is a sunny, light yellow with a commissioned watercolor abstract by our friend, Beverly Key, as well as an oil painting with the most beautiful pears I’ve ever seen.
The living room on the right is peach, with a large painting of a multi-colored jar of clay, another abstract by Beverly, and several pieces of glass art.
Over the piano in the hallway is a gold and teal painting of a woman on a large sheet of wood. It was that painting that I saw when I walked into my husband Mart's home for the first time and decided he just might be the man for me. (That’s a story for another blog post.)
If you keep going through the main floor, you’ll see other shades on the wall as well as both fine and folk art. My favorite room, which I’ve mentioned before, is the sunroom, with its yellow walls and funky art. One friend told me she loved that room, too, because it felt like a fun folk art restaurant.
Why all this color? Mart says it’s so that each room is its own piece of art. I like that.
For me, color brings fun and vibrancy and life. Years ago, I went through a time when everything—my life, my clothes, my house—seemed gray. As I emerged from that time, my senses came alive, and I became attracted to color. I wanted as much of it in my life as possible.
Color makes this home our home. Almost all of the art and accessories has a story behind it, some of which I’ve written about here and here and here. We’ve collected it all along—some of it before we met, some of it together. It’s not a look for everyone, to be sure, but for us, it works.
If you want more color in your home, you don’t have to immerse yourselves in it like we have. Just add little touches here and there through your accessories. And see if collecting color makes your home a little more fun, a little more vibrant, a little more yours.
Do you want to add more color to your life? What are some ways you could do that? Or do you already have plenty of color? Let me know in the comments.
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Photo courtesy of StockSnap | Miguel A. Padrinan