COLOR STORY: The Familiarity Yet Freshness of Pink & Green
COLOR STORY
What We Love About Pink & Green For The Home
Katie Shelter, Domino magazine Mario Buatta, AD magazine (below) |
Ever since those very first days in kindergarten with crayon in hand, I've been fascinated with color and their combinations. Later, in elementary school, I learned about the color wheel and which colors work well with one another- this set me on the path to a life-long passion for color. Pink and green may have been my very first color crush because while I was away for summer vacation my mother surprised me by painting the wood floors of my tiny bedroom in a deep, dark shiny maroon/pink then trimmed the woodwork in a fresh white and painted the wood floor white, then decorated my bedroom with varying shades of dark and light pink and shots of leaf green. I found the pink and green comforting. It was the 1970s when shocking color was all the rage but the preppy nature of pink and green comforted. This color combination is seen all throughout nature in gardens and botanicals. I remember back in college when I read about the famous interior decorator Mario Buatta (the Prince of Chintz) and saw this beautiful dining room he created which graced the pages of Architectural Digest magazine complete with floral toile and regaled in pink and green. This inspired me years later to go to design school at Parsons School of Design to practice interior design as a profession. From then on, pink and green became my go-to for interiors, my familiar friend. There is something wonderful about a pink sofa with supporting colors to add to this dramatic decision. Today, my living room in New York City is a pink, green and yellow combination- quite a bold trio and in our pre-war apartment with high ceilings and beautiful trim (but not much natural light), the color gives us a needed focal point to accentuate the detailing. I painted the walls an emerald green and the dramatic color story goes on from there.
Today as a textile designer, color is literally my career. Creating and designing and offering fabric and wallpaper collections to like-minded interior designers has become our daily job. Offering up new combinations and new designs to mix with the old, allows our designer clients to stay relevant and continue to offer their homeowners something fresh.
The last decade I've moved on to other color combinations - but I'm back to pink and green. The nuances of these two hues do not limit themselves to the duo of shocking pink and Kelly green (although that's fun)- from sage to pale, whisper pink there are nuanced combinations of these two hues to bring to our interiors in sophisticated ways.
Shop root cellar designs' pink & green home textiles, Color Story page
XO Tamara