ColorTherapy: Beach Haven

Name: Beach Haven
Brand: Benjamin Moore

I don't find this room to be column-worthy for its dynamism, but for its subtle arrangement of varying hues. As a color therapist, I’m in Beach Haven heaven...

The wall itself is painted in what I think my mother’s generation would call “harvest beige.” It’s a somewhat conventional golden neutral, but it allows a specific dialogue to occur between the other elements in the room. The colors in the drapes are bold—black and gold with a glimmer of blue—and flow into the cool champagne of the fabric on the sofa by way of the wall color. The photographs pick up on the other tones in the room, and their black frames echo the rhythm of the drapes. If the walls had been painted plain white, or something more random like pale yellow, none of this would occur with the same sensuality.

Although I often try to champion in these pages bold and unusual uses of color, I am equally intrigued by things like this that are softer and so precisely considered. And I can’t get enough of the shape of this sofa—in my opinion Modernism never looked so good.

- Mark Chamberlain, interior and decorative painter

Comments (7)

This color scheme works for me too. Thanks for posting something down to earth and sane.

Please try to keep in mind though that not everybody here is stuck in the past ("vintage", "modernism" etc). I'd like to see more "modern" things from this decade on the site.

posted by boomer on June 5th 2007 at 8:19am
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Dear Boomer,

send us an email with a few pics of exactly what you mean. I'd love to see them: maxwell @ apartmenttherapy dot com.

posted by Maxwell on June 5th 2007 at 8:28am
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Maybe I was too harsh - just delete my comment...

I do like this room though.

posted by boomer on June 5th 2007 at 9:22am
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To me this looks very "vintage modern". So not sure about the first comment. Antique endtables, frame, etc.

posted by Trisha L. on June 5th 2007 at 9:29am
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Why oh why are those pictures hung that way? The colors are fine though and probably look even better in real life.

posted by Kurt on June 5th 2007 at 12:21pm
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I agree about the pictures, they seem oddly random and so don't make a strong statement; clustering them closer together or going for one single strong piece would seem to make better use of the visual 'space' of the wall-
I like the wall color but feel it needs a texture ,such a simple color can look flat and lifeless especially against richer textures like the fabrics- when subtler colors are used ('neutrals') the smaller and subtle details (like texture )play a much more prominent role!
BB

posted by bball on June 5th 2007 at 2:41pm
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I love the sofa - is it vintage and reupholstered?

posted by Bridget212323 on June 5th 2007 at 6:34pm
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