with all of the painting and arranging and decorating that's gone on around here over the past year, i find myself thinking about colors and the effect they seem to have on me. it's clear, looking around our home, that color is very important to me, but why is that? when i'm surrounded by bright and vibrant colors, i feel brighter and more vibrant myself. tho' because of the industry i'm in, my clothes tend towards blacks and greys, tho' i often have a jewel-toned shirt under my grey suit and almost always some funky tights of some sort, usually in a bright color. so perhaps it's in reaction to having to wear drab colors at work that my home is very colorful--turquoise walls and darker turquoise ceiling in the atelier, goldeny-orange walls in the kitchen and my beloved red smeg refrigerator--all speak of a deep need in me to immerse myself in color.

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i was resistant to husband's desire to paint the new dining room white, but have to admit that i like it, because of the way it sets off the colorful book jackets which line the walls. the neutral, warm coffee cream walls of our bedroom are counterbalanced by a rich turquoise velvety bedspread and the colorful heather moore patchwork.

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but how does color make you feel? can it lift your spirits or dampen them? it seems to me that it can. if the colors are warm, do they warm you? or cool you if they are cool? are you inspired differently by different color palettes? check out these pictures..one of which i "warmed up" in lightroom and one which i "cooled down."

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is there a difference in how you feel when you look at them? for me, looking at the top one, i can very nearly feel the glow of warm candlelight (even tho' it's really only a preset lightroom filter) and i feel inspired to make something snuggly and warm from the fabrics.  the bottom one gives me a feeling of crispness and makes me want to make something a bit harder-edged, with crisp, ironed corners. both are actually inspiring, but in wholly different ways. that's interesting, isn't it?

i can't help but think about color during this dark, dreary, grey time of year when the sun, while probably shining up there somewhere above the clouds, never really breaks through. perhaps it's that weather and the darkness of the northern winter that draws me to fill our home with vibrant, vital colors. we are surely shaped by our environment all the time, but i don't think we're always particularly mindful of it. maybe next time i feel a case of SAD coming on, i'll wear something bright and sassy and see if that helps.