Our homes and the Comfort of Color…

As I sit here in my Evergreen home, I think of all the elements of color that are so inspired by our incredible surroundings in this part of the country. One of my favorite sayings about Evergreen is”the views out our windows ARE our art”! The flow of outside to inside with color, texture and flavor are all part of how our homes reflect not only who WE are, but how important our surroundings are. I often tell my clients who are struggling with paint colors to give the colors the ‘outside in’ test – does the paint color not only work with your interior space, but also have a relationship with what we see out our windows? If the underlying hues of any wall color have some connection to our local environment, they’re usually safe! Which is why in Florida pinks, yellows and blues work, and why those same colors don’t work quite as well here in Colorado! Our natural environmental pallet is our best guideline for color choices.

Spring is such an amazing time of year; new beginnings and fresh starts are the perfect backdrop for creating a new color pallet for your home. The secret to creating great spaces is to keep in mind the most important rules of design - there are no rules! It’s all about relationships – between colors and fabrics, woods and wall textures, fixtures and hardware… nothing has to ‘match’ but everything needs to have a relationship. For instance, taking our cue from our local ‘red rock’ colors, putting several reds in a room can give it a lot of punch. If it’s a red chenille throw, a large red ceramic pot or red walls, they don’t all have to be ‘exactly’ the same color of red – but they do need to have a base connection of all coming from the same family of red; earth reds in this case. I use a lot of earthy undertones in my color recommendations for homes here in Evergreen – even when working on contemporary designs (which are often depicted with cooler colors). In fact, I think some of the best mountain contemporary homes I’ve seen use the outside/in theory to warm up the oftentimes harder, more edgy lines of modern design. Mixing steel and concrete with warm wood tones and earthy rock colors, then throwing in wonderful woven textures in tonal area rugs or wall coverings, gives that modern feel more balance in this Rocky Mountain environment.

The outside-in theory holds true for choosing furnishings and accessories as well. Though we’ve moved away from what was more the ‘Log Cabin’ look of several years ago and are leaning more towards the ‘Elegant Lodge’ look of today (read; Beaver Creek hotels and lobbies!) many local homeowners still want that Colorado ‘look’. Without forcing a certain style into a home, I like to suggest that they use their favorite pieces and work more local pieces in, adding color and natural tones to their personal space.

Let your colors and fabrics invite people to come, sit and stay awhile, and be gently brought into the room’s story. I always feel that a well designed home has a definite WOW factor when people see it for the first time, but they can never really put their finger on the one thing that they liked the most about it - it just felt good! Ahh, the comfort of a well designed home...

Alexa Cowley is the owner of Alexa Interiors LLC; an Evergreen based residential and commercial interior design company, in business since 2000. Alexa enjoys the challenges of matching design elements with her client’s personalities and lifestyles! You can check out more of her design work at www.alexainteriors.com or call 720.560.9534.