PAINTS USED Fine Paints of Europe H00110, Farrow & Ball Clunch 2009

Whereas Harold had a purple crayon with which to design and demarcate the world according to his whims, I’m actually doing the opposite — using paper white to line-draw animals over a color I think is perfect for a child’s room, and which had me thinking of this classic book the whole time I was working.

It’s purple, all right, or rather — magenta, a complex color with enough grey in it to remove all hints of “Crayola,” which belong in a box and not on the wall.

I do magenta rooms once every year or two, and each time I find myself giving a client permission — "you’ll love it, let’s just get the right one". Inside, of course, my own inner child is jumping up and down and in this case, that was doubly so.

- Mark Chamberlain, interior and decorative painter