It was an honor to be interviewed for an episode of Grand Designs Australia (ABC Television), especially for a project in Surry Hills, Sydney Australia – an area that I know very well as I’d lived close by before relocating to the USA. Here is a transcript of the interview:
After watching the Grand Designs Australia episode, what’s your reaction to the house with no white surfaces?
The house in Surry Hills looks great – it’s such an adventurous, bold use of color! The color scheme features quite a limited color palette of saturated colors inspired by the Mexican architect Luis Barragan – saturated pink, ochre yellow, orange, chrome yellow plus deep blue and indigo blue.
However, this color scheme is subtly embedded within a neutral color palette. That is, while most of the rooms feature saturated colors, the sitting room – located at the heart of the house – features neutral colors: off-white (bricks), soft gray (concrete) plus timber details – colors and finishes that are more ubiquitous.
The saturated colors are allocated using the color immersion strategy. That is, one saturated color across the entirety of a room. While saturated colors are dominant throughout the house, these are offset by the small proportion of neutral colors, which help to balance the flamboyant colors and the immersion color strategy. As such, the color scheme of the house works well, providing both opportunities to be immersed in color as well as opportunities that offset color immersion.
How can the colors we choose for our interiors affect our mood? Our mental health?
Color in our environment can act as a visual antidote of sorts. In an urban setting, we’re constantly surrounded by shades of white, light gray, dark asphalt gray, black, metal, glass – industrial, cityscape colors. Introducing color into perhaps dull, colorless industrial, cityscape settings can add a sense of energy, vibrancy and perhaps even playfulness and joy in an otherwise bland environment.
From a deeper perspective, color also acts as an antidote for the soul. We’re often bombarded with news and imagery of war, despair, political conflict, and so on. So, color can also give us a sense of hope for better times; hope for a better future.
For the layperson, they can identify their personal color preferences – it may be the colors of their favorite paintings or their furniture or their car – and allocate these colors to the degree with which they are comfortable in their home. In doing so, they create an environment in which they feel a higher degree of well-being and comfort, and this in turn impacts their mood and mental health.
Also, research indicates that tonal value and variations of saturation have as strong an impact as hue in interior spaces. So, to create a calming space, it’s not about the hue but more about reducing contrasts – hue, tonal value and saturation. That is, select one or maybe two hues, and build a color scheme based around similarity of tonal value and saturation. The overarching similarity of these help to reduce strong contrasts and this creates a more visually calming space.
The reason for this is that strong contrast attracts attention and if our attention is constantly being hijacked by strong contrasts scattered randomly around a room, then the effect can be disquieting or jarring.
Are there certain colors we should seek out in particular rooms? Or ones we should avoid?
Responses to color are highly personal and we’re not necessarily hard-wired to respond to color en masse, in a homogenous way. There are too many variables that influence the interface between color and human response such as personal preferences, gender as well as age and generational differences, contextual factors, plus color trends, and so on.
So, to answer the question of whether there are certain colors that we should seek out or avoid, the decision really boils down to these variables such as personal preferences. Allocating color in a meaningful way – that is meaningful to us – is the aim. By the same token, avoid using and allocating colors that we find distasteful. Colors that we dislike.
More broadly, how does the color in urban landscapes affect mood and mental health? The outside of the house in the episode is painted pink, for example.
Color adds visual variety in the urban landscape, and in doing so can enliven a setting and convey a sense of vitality. This in turn encourages engagement in the urban landscape.
While saturated colors may initially be considered somewhat “shocking”, this is because they’re new and add a contrast to perhaps a drab environment. But once the shock value has worn off, research indicates that the majority of people tend to have positive responses.
In the Grand Designs Australia episode, the pink exterior color has positive reactions from people in the neighborhood. As they say, it “brightens the area”, “adds a warm glow, especially at sunset”, and “gives a facelift to the rear laneway”.
‘Greige’ or ‘millennial white’ are the rage at the moment. What are the pros or cons of those colors when it comes to how they interact or change our moods?
The ubiquitous nature of white or light-colored interiors means that they have a strong sense of familiarity, which in itself conveys a sense of comfort.
White has been popular for many decades and more recently, Greige has become popular. Both can act as a ‘blank canvas’ in interior design providing an effective backdrop for artworks, furniture, and furnishings – all of which may introduce color into a space.
In interior spaces that are visually busy or complex, white, off-white and Greige can add surfaces that are restful for the eye. This can be imperative in work spaces that may be visually busy – the ‘blank canvas’ surfaces can be restful.
White, off-white and Greige are also ideal colors for the introduction of textures into interior spaces, and it is often the textures – especially soft, appealing textures – that also convey a welcoming sense of comfort.
What are your tips for people who want to bring color into their lives?
Tips to introduce color into the home can be inspired by personal color preferences. Allocate colors that feature in favorite paintings, objects d’art, or pieces of furniture. Obviously not ALL the colors but identify key colors and use these.
A common proportion is allocating hue using the 60% – 30% – 10% proportion. The color scheme might feature three hues but variety can be added via variations of tonal value.
Keep in mind that the more hues, tonal values and saturations level, the busier a space will appear. This may be good if variety and vibrancy is the desired outcome but not if the desired outcome is a calming, serene space.
The series goes live on October 10, 2024, and here is a link to the Grand Designs Australia series.
