Interior designers on TV are constantly encouraging people to paint their walls a color. If all four walls is too much, well, how about an accent wall?
Color is wonderful, and on walls, color is either the background music you subtly notice affecting your mood, or a CPR-like pounding attack on your senses.
However, what if we went with silence? That is, the mother of all colors: white.
White is peaceful, like in the bedroom above, where strong colors might otherwise be too stimulating.
Used in a kitchen, white can feel clean and spacious. Notice how the light suffuses both bedroom and kitchen, bouncing off the walls and surfaces in both spaces.
Although I’m also a fan of (painted) white floors, the stained hardwood floors anchor the space; the wooden counter top also adds a punch of natural color to the palette.
Scandinavian design has elevated the use of white, so that its seeming simplicity doesn’t reflect a lack of imagination or bleakness, but rather a soothing calm and clarity.
Perhaps it reflects the native environment of the designers, and their admiration for the ruggedness and austerity of their landscapes, which translates well into minimalism and modernism.
