Loading ...The article below by Marta Gold was published in The Victoria Times Colonist on December 10, 2011.
This colour calls for discretion
Colour is a great way to brighten your home and add a spark of interest without undertaking a major renovation. But what colour?
At first blush, decorating with purple seems a daring move, best made by those with wild, animal-print rugs or exotic tapestries hanging on their walls.
But purple, in its varying shades and mixed with other colours, can be in turn conservative, contemporary and, yes, bold.
Rest assured, in any and all of its forms from lavender to eggplant, purple is popping up everywhere.
“Definitely this fall, the colour purple is really strong,” says Alana Schilf, owner of Inspired Home Interiors, where purple is visible in the barest hint of a not-quite-clear acrylic ghost chair, or the bolder shade of a boxy, upholstered chair.
The store even has a plum-coloured sectional sofa on order for its showroom, but that’s about as daring as most people will go with bigger pieces of furniture, says Schilf.
“Mostly we see it in smaller pieces and accessories like toss cushions,” she says.
Som Sourachit, owner of Posh at Home, says purple accents are a great way to add colour to a room. “We love colour here. We push for the daring,” she adds.
“I’ve noticed that a lot more people are more daring with colours right now, which is great. We need a dash of colour in our life.”
True colour thrill-seekers are mixing purple and pink, she says. Another great combination is purple and yellow.
White, too, fits easily into the mix. Add it and light grey to purple for a more contemporary feel, Sourachit says.
Schilf likes the combination of purple with black, or, unexpectedly, with brownygold shades.
“If you look toward nature, mountains are grey, but there’s also gold and other colours in the stone,” she says.
Using more natural tones mixed with greyish purples is a good way to prevent purple from becoming too garish, she adds.
Sourachit also likes to soften purple with a neutral. “If you have a stronger purple or a brighter purple, definitely grey will tone it down,” she advises. Those with more conservative tastes could try a grey sofa, add a purple throw and use an area rug in shades of grey and purple. “That doesn’t yell out purple too much, and then when you change it, all you have to do is change the throw and possibly change the area rug, too.”
Brighter purples should be reserved for accents such as bits of a rug, drapes or cushions, she adds. For example, the lighter purple drapes shown above, from Posh, along with splashes of purple and yellow in the throw cushions, brighten an otherwise neutral decor and are easy to switch with changing tastes.
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