DE S IGN CENTRE
COLOUR
MAKES YOU HAPPY
After the challenges of the last eighteen months, vibrant hues offer the best way to celebrate our newfound freedom, says Giles Kime
There’s a clue in the name of the moodboard, that carefully curated collage of fabrics, paint and wallpaper which interior designers use to plan a scheme. It’s the word ‘mood’; interior design in general – and colour in particular – has the capacity to affect the way we feel in a way that is good, bad and, well, just a little indifferent. Some have claimed that
it can be transformative,
including Wassily Kandinsky, the Russian painter and father of abstract art, for whom the possibilities of colour transcended the limits of mere visual representation: “Colour” he wrote, “creates a psychic vibration.” Now, more than ever, psychic vibration is a quality
of colour we need to exploit. The past 18 months have changed our relationship with our homes; while style will always be important, so, too, are substance, quality, longevity and the capacity to make us feel comfortable. “We are spending more time at home and there’s no doubt that colour makes you happy,” says Kit Kemp, the creative dynamo behind some of the most colourful hotels in London and New York. “If you open your front door to sunshine colours it will immediately lift your mood.” Earlier in the year, a heady mix of hot pink and saffron yellow radiated from the window she dreamt up for the Porta Romana showroom at Design Centre, Chelsea Harbour. The mood-enhancing possibilities of colour are also the subject of a chapter of her new book Design Secrets (Hardie Grant) with a particular emphasis on both yellows and vibrant greens. It’s hard to leave Ham Yard, The Soho Hotel or The Whitby
in Midtown Manhattan without being convinced of the life enhancing possibilities of a confident use of pattern and colour. It’s the calming properties of green that Louisa
Greville Williams of Vanrenen GW Designs employed to bring her drawing room to life. She, too, believes in the power of colour to enthral the solar plexus. So, too, does Nicolò Favaretto Rubelli, CEO of Rubelli, the Venetian company with a showroom in Design Centre East. “After such a grim time, colour can enhance people’s lives. It was the challenges of the pandemic that inspired the joyous San Polo collection of silk damasks, as well as
the opportunity to celebrate the 1,600th
anniversary of Venice, a city that has weathered many storms in its long history.” While colours impact on mood, it is the effect they
have on each other that creates the magic. The 16 colours of the designs in Rubelli’s San Polo collection interact with one another in different ways to create a rainbow of different outcomes. What is true of silk damasks is also true of spaces.
It is the contrast that is key. “I try to give a different tone and character to each area, no matter how small,” says Kit Kemp. “Interconnecting hallways, spaces between rooms, the insides of cupboards; all these areas can be made into fascinating spaces and capture the imagination. I love a length of view with an interesting colour at the end to capture my curiosity and carry me through a building or scheme,” she adds. Louisa
CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT: Cheery sunshine yellow greets homeowners in this London hallway by Kit Kemp Design Studio – the walls are covered Pierre Frey’s ‘Sirenes’ linen. Salvesen Graham’s ‘Scallop’ rugs are a colourful bestseller at Jennifer Manners Design. ‘San Polo’ fabric by Rubelli celebrates Venice’s 1,600th anniversary, reimagining a classic damask in vibrant new shades
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