When the question was posed – “What is your favorite color?” I instantly thought that many people have a favorite color – but I don’t think I do.
‘Why is that’ you ask? It’s because I am a highly trained to move beyond my own color predilections and I choose my favorite color based on application and I don’t have a default color – or so I would like to think. I spent the weekend thinking about this very question – what is my favorite color? I am a problem solver so I set to solving this problem.
<shouting> “Kate! Come here, I have a very important question to ask you!”
Kate: “Hi Daddy.”
Me: “What would you say is my favorite color?”
Kate: “Red. Blue….Green?
Me: “You’re just guessing.”
Kate: “It’s purple, definitely purple. Or pink”
Me: “Those are your favorite colors.”
Kate: <smiley face> “They are pretty good aren’t they?”
Dang, that didn’t really help. So let’s turn to the evidence at hand. First up … my closet. The problem here is that this data is polluted because despite the fact that I have impeccable taste and style, I stopped dressing myself when I got married. I hate clothes shopping so if it weren’t for my wife, I would wear my clothes until they looked like zombie dressing (dirty beyond cleansing and full of holes, not covered in blood and brain matter) and on the verge of falling apart. I’d like to pretend that the areas that wear through first are the bits where people would actually want to see what’s underneath but we all know that isn’t true. No, the only clothes I buy these days are socks, underwear, and t-shirts – and those are all either white or black. Thanks closet, you didn’t help me at all.
What’s up next? I turned my highly trained eye towards my house and it’s bounty of data riches. Oh-oh -everything of size or substance in my house is brown or some shade of beige. I didn’t select any of the the existing finishes but I haven’t ever felt like they were so dated and terrible that they needed replacing. That’s when the light bulb went off above my head and I realized that I have my own color theory – the Bob Borson ‘Theory of Neutrals’.
My ‘Theory of Neutrals” falls in line with most tenants of modernist thinking. An easy analogy would be to say that everything should be a square until it shouldn’t be. Anything other than that is self-indulgent, temporary popular thinking. You see a lot of this sort of thing in retail environments, which was a project type that I used to spend a lot of time working on. We would basically create a white box so that the products, millwork, displays and merchandise provide the color and interest. Since those temporary items will change seasonally and from year to year, instead of constantly renovating your environment, use the items to set the tone and mood for the space.
As I look around my house … and it’s happening everywhere … I have a lot of exposed wood and white plaster walls inside my house, this means brown + white. Then I look at the throw pillows on the couch – you’ll find teal, orange, and gold. I even have an orange glass lamp. The rugs on the floor have color, the art on the walls have color, linens, towels, blankets – tons of stuff has color … but the walls are white and most of the furniture is some shade of brown.
So I suppose I do have a favorite color and it isn’t very exciting. It’s brown – although I like to party with white and black on my personal billboard. I know it’s not very exciting and I fall into the stereotypical dress uniform of most aesthetically and color challenged architects but c’mon! Have you ever seen me? I’ve had white-ish/ clear hair since my late twenties so black is a strong option regardless of my profession.
If you are color challenged, or subscribe to my extremely valid “Theory of Neutrals”, here are some colors for you to use this fall. I’m letting you know now so you can be on the look-out for them when it comes time to update you Den with some new pillows or something.
According to the Pantone Fashion Fall Color Report 2011, these are the colors for women in the know come this fall.
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And here is the list of hot fall colors for men. Pretty much the same colors with the exception of 3. But what do I care, my wife will be selecting my clothes for me – although I don’t have to wear anything that looks like ‘raspberry wine 18-1741’.
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My head is starting to hurt … too much color for me.
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