The Key West Citizen

THE HOME DECORATOR

Color, Color, Everywhere

"Um ... that red looks good enough to eat!" Once in a while a color strikes us as being too good to be true. Then, often as not, we forget all about color.

After we live in a house for a long time, it's likely to fade and become drab so slowly we're not even conscious of the change.

Fact is, we get so we actually don't "see ourselves as others see us."

So, once in a long while it's a good idea to take stock. If the rooms are sick-looking, it's time to do something about them.

Maybe new curtains will do the trick, perhaps new and bright slip covers on that big chair by the fireplace will be enough. Maybe the only thing that will help is painting the walls a new and exciting color.

Actually decoration, in most cases, IS color...color attractively and usefully used. For one thing, the amount of light different rooms get, makes a whale of a difference in picking colors for those rooms. Rooms with northern exposure, not much sun, almost demand warm colors.

With discretion, anything will go here from palest pink or yellow or white, to the warm exciting colors so often used in Spain and Mexico.

East and West rooms which get a great deal of sunlight, but which are also cool for part of the day, can wear almost any color.

It's a good idea to avoid painting the walls in brilliant reds, yellows, greens and so on. Stick to paler colors which do not "vibrate" so strongly. But those bright colors will look grand on smaller pieces ... vases, lamps, flowers and pictures.

Now, for the south rooms ... the sunny rooms ... cool calm colors are nice. Greens and blues with white or gray. A room with delicate powder blue painted walls, satiny white woodwork and soft blue-green rug sounds lovely and is cool as a cucumber. Of course you may have small accents of warm color but there is no color "heat" here.

And so, outside of a few hard and fast rules, one person's ideas on color are as good as the next. Within reason use what your heart desires. But try to associate your choice in paint colors, with the amount of light the rooms get.