The Color Red: How to use it in Decorating

Color: A trip through the Color Wheel starting with RED!

This is the first in a series of six articles about the wonderful world of color and how to select and use the colors that speak to YOU!

When I started my interior design business, it was my love of color, color combining, and decorating with vibrant colors that got me started. My favorite class in design school was the color theory class where our professor required us to mix two complimentary colors until we created medium gray…an exercise that fascinated and puzzled me. Look at the combination of so many colors represented in this beautiful piece of slate stone...and the result is basically...grey.

Mixing compliments trains your eye to understand how the six basic colors in the spectrum interact with one another and how color combinations…sometimes in very minute amounts can make or break the resulting color creation. So, let’s meet Mr. “Roy G. Biv” (this acronym is the easy way to remember all the primary color names) and get an introduction to each of the colors in the spectrum…Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue and Violet. I hope through this journey you will better understand why each of these colors (and their secondary friends created by various color combinations) can create such a different message and impact when we see it, dress in it, and live with it!

RED

What comes into your when someone says RED? The most emotionally intense color, red stimulates a faster heartbeat and breathing. It is also the color of love. In decorating, red is usually used as an accent...unless you dare to make a statement! Make that statement in the entry of your home...by welcoming your guests with an inviting shade of red that sets off the Oriental rug and tansu chest in this Walnut Creek home.

The various shades of red evoke different meanings and feelings… The warning “that’s a red flag”, a Red Herring…meaning …………., taking the “Red Eye” from coast to coast, something we’ve seen lately…lots of companies “in the red”…fire…”from the frying pan into…”Blood Red” (life or death)…fear or warning.

In this Piedmont home, the dinining room could not have been MORE BORING! The room was a cold interior dark room, so it needed to be warmed up with both lighting and a bold shade of orange/red...and now it's fit for a dinner party!

Light red represents joy, sexuality, passion, sensitivity, and love. When red is combined with its compliment, green...look at the impact in this interior dining room.

Check out the red walls in this master bath. Again, the color makes you look beautiful...even after a short night and an early morning! Combined with the warm golden travertine the room is both inviting and envigorating!

This powder room is perhaps the only room in the home where a guest will be all alone...so make it memorable with a punch of color and lots of interesting details like the Asian-influenced mirror and lighting.

Want to add a bit of drama? We painted the insides of these plain cabinets with Chinese Red, and lacquered the outside in glossy black. Now the beautiful contents shine!

Before a rather major remodel, this room was a dank, dark "basement room" that was transformed into a warm inviting library and office by combining an earthy red with the concrete flooring, maple cabinetry and soft furnishings. Can you believe this is the same room in these photos?

Pink (Red toned down with white) signifies romance, love, and friendship. It denotes feminine qualities and passiveness. The red in this traditional dining room has a pink undertone which makes people look beautiful...in any light!





The Rust accent wall in the Berkeley Condo Kitchen was intended to draw your eye to the beautiful deck and foliage outside and add some warmth to the almost industrial feeling of the white Italian cabinetry and laminate flooring.

So...give RED a try in your home...it's only paint!

If you don't like it...try moving on to orange...!