Color Me Truthful: The Interior Decorator's Guide to Mood and Color
By Wendy Croixwendy.croix@interiordesignschoolreview.com
Interior Design School Review Columnist
Back in 1969, Ian Scott translated Dr. Max Luscher's ground-breaking study of personality and color, The Luscher Color Test. My old paperback, purchased ages ago, came with the eight Luscher colors on punch-out cards. The test proves uncanny in its capacity to reveal personality. Luscher demonstrates what most of us intuit: color speaks to our core human needs. Unfortunately, color preferences also reflect mood, and therein lies the rub for any home interior decorating project.
Color Caveats
Since color is so closely tied to personality and to mood, separating the former from the latter can be tough. Why should you care? If interior decorating means pleasing your client, then you've got to distinguish true tastes from passing whims. Since monitoring your client's preferences over time isn't practical, you'll need to observe telling details in your client's current environment.- When you're checking out the bedroom, check out the closets. Consistent wardrobe choices reveal the colors with which your client's most comfortable. If the client's asking for a radically different color scheme, try to mix the new with the tried and true.
- Ask about prized possessions. Much-loved objects telegraph enduring attachments, and comments the client shares about these objects reveal core traits like seriousness versus whimsy, affection versus independence, old-shoe comfort versus openness to the new and the stimulating.
- "Look at color samples in the room where they'll be used, not in a showroom or a paint store," suggests Brian Santos, television's "Wall Wizard." Samples of the actual paint are far more helpful in home interior decorating than the standard color recreations.
- Don't forget that interior decorating marries the client's personality to your aesthetic sense. Ultimately, your clients are paying for the interior decorating ideas they'd never come up with if left to their own devices (and personalities).
Sources:
"Color Preferences Reveal Your Personality," by Geraldo Fuentes."Comfort Zone Color." Good Housekeeping (Oct 2005 supplement).
The Luscher Color Test, by Max Luscher, translated by Ian Scott. (Pocket Books, 1971).
About the Author
Wendy Croix, Ph.D. is a freelance writer, cultural critic and university professor. In her twenty years as a professional educator, Wendy has guided hundreds of students toward the careers of their dreams.
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