It was with huge excitement that Livingetc took over the wonderful Karndean showroom in Design Centre, Chelsea Harbour, for another fascinating In Session event. This time, we'd gathered color psychology expert Karen Haller, designer Alex Dauley and paint maker Cassandra Ellis of Atelier Ellis to share their wisdom. And boy was it revealing.
I knew it would be. All three speakers are hugely knowledgable and just as opinionated, with different approaches to all doing the same thing - making liveable spaces that make the people in them feel good.
Here are the key lessons the audience - and I - came away with.
1. Color is more than just color
When you're picking a tone for your walls, furniture or floor, it's key that you're not thinking purely visually. That instead you understand the deeper resonance each color has.
'Color is emotion,' said Karen Haller. 'It’s that emotive connection we have to color that has an impact on us, rather than the color itself. The impact is personal. If we decorate our homes for other people to like them, or we follow trends on Instagram, then we're missing a huge trick. Instead, you have to think about context. Ask yourself what the space you're decorating will be used for, what it does to your energy levels when you see it. And choose your palette accordingly.'
2. The best colors for you come from positive memories
If you're unsure where to start or how to find a color that makes you feel good, you might not be looking too far back. The answer is often locked inside our favorite childhood memories, that time we felt happiest and most safe.
'My first color memory is from when I was aged four, and my mum was a seamstress,' said Cassandra Ellis. 'She always had offcuts of fabric, and she made my clothes from them. I remember wearing a pale blue-green dress and I remember smoothing it with my hands and just feeling so ultimately pleased and loved and safe. That exact hue has since followed me everywhere, it has become part of our palette at Atelier Ellis - it's now in our paint collection as Tamaki - and it’s always my colour. It’s in my living room, it’s in a bedroom, it was the colour of my first flat. Everyone has that color somewhere in their mind, and when you work out what it is it will make decorating decisions so much easier.
3. There's an easy trick to realising what colors you like
The audience enjoying the breakfast after this edition of Livingetc In Session
Understandably, many of us struggle to know or name the colors we like, perhaps not giving it enough thought or being overwhelmed by the choice. But Alex Dauley has a straightforward way of pulling this information out of her clients, which can help anyone struggling with indecision.
'When clients can't tell me what they like, I always tell them to go to their wardrobes and take a look at the things they wear,' Alex said. 'Those tend to be the shades that make you feel comfortable, and they might end up being the accent color or even the base of a scheme.'
She points out that response to color is very subjective, and only you can really articulate what you like and what you don't. 'Another good place to start is to look at what colors you've used in your home before - what did you gravitate to?' she says. 'How brave are you? How much saturation can you live with? Previous schemes should at least hint at that.'
4. The tone is more important than the color itself
'People might say "oh, I hate pink," but no one could possibly hate all the variations of one color - there are so many!' Karen says. 'And a softer pink is so nurturing, it's like a hug. If cuddles were a color it would be pink. Whereas magenta is feisty, independent, and strong. It's possible that someone hates either one, but unlikely that they really hate both.'
So dig deep into what versions of color it is you don't like, and then into what tones and saturation levels you do.
5. Color is the most important factor in how a room feels
'There is no simple equation for how one color equals one emotion - everybody has a different response,' Alex says. 'But generally creams and beiges are calm while warmer colors tend to be energising.'
She says that color palettes come very early in her schemes, before the more specific pieces she plans to choose. 'I'll be thinking about the walls and floors and what color they will be and how they will affect the mood of the room long before I've chosen a sofa,' she said.
It was at this moment we pointed towards Karndean's new Knight Tile Curio collection, on display in the showroom. Its tiles comes in sage, terracotta and black, and are a wonderful opportunity to layer color into a space, that dynamic palette meaning there will definitely be something for everyone.