ColorTherapy: Putty; or Riviera Baroque

Possible Names: Tudric Pewter TH02, Forde Abbey TH06
Brand: Ralph Lauren

What could such an impossibly beautiful room as this have to do with Color Therapy or a bunch of urban modernists? I had to ask myself the same thing, for indeed I originally wanted to post this picture simply for its prettiness. But there's something very interesting going on here. Look at the color of the wall: it's a plain putty color...

Look closer and you'll notice how perfectly the hue balances out the primary color scheme of the blue chairs, yellow drapes, red floor as well as the gilding and tapestries. The wall color is full, yet it sets back and allows the other elements in the room to come together without overwhelming them.

I've noticed elegant grey colors used in other settings, and they can be absolutely gorgeous; the word grey should not be equated with the color of a garbage dumpster. In many of my columns I've emphasized dark or dramatic colors, but you don't necessarily want them in the whole house. Something like this would be perfect for a quiet space, or as the background for a room with a lot going on in it.

Possible color matches: Ralph Lauren Tudric Pewter TH02, Forde Abbey TH06. See also the Benjamin Moore Classic deck, which has more nuanced neutrals than their Color Preview deck. Photographed at the Palais Lascaris, Nice.

- Mark Chamberlain, interior and decorative painter

(ReEdited from 2006-08-15 - MC)

N.B. Every door in the house was hung this way. Is it because they would then be self-closing? Photographed at the Palais Lascaris, Nice.

Comments (4)

I just threw up in my mouth a little.

Emily:

BM Atrium white is lovely if you want a really clean, fresh white. It has the tiniest hint of pink in it, so it works where greeny-gray and yellow-y whites won't.

But for a dining room, what about introducing a chair-rail line and going for a two-toned look? You could even pull a tone of the color from the adjoining room for the bottom half.

We have just painted the interior of our place with Forde Abbey, Picture Gallery Red and some creamy white .... It is a modern box ... LOOKS FANTASTIC!

The light in Nice is a throbbing fantastic blue that seems to vibrate psychedelically everywhere you go, even when the view of the "wine-dark" Mediterranean is completely blocked by buildings or other things. In the photo, for example, it makes those pale blue chairs positively sing in their golden frames. Could the effect be duplicated elsewhere? Hmm.