ColorTherapy: Christmas Red

Name: Amalfi Red IB60, Stadium Red TH42
Brand: Ralph Lauren

This Christmas I’d like to continue quoting the endlessly quotable Diana Vreeland:

"All my life I’ve pursued the perfect red. I can never get painters to mix it for me. It’s exactly as if I’d said ‘I want Rococo with a spot of Gothic in it and a bit of Buddhist temple’—they have no idea what I’m talking about."

For her own Park Avenue apartment she had Billy Baldwin design a living room from crown to toe in scarlet, replete with red lacquer and fleurs du mal wallpaper. I think I have two red dining rooms that might meet with her approval. Both remind me of the deep color of holly berries.

The first image shows Amalfi Red. Though I’ve been to the Amalfi Coast, I’m not exactly sure what Mr. Lauren means in naming this color, and as always, he excels at nomenclature. To my eye this is as blue as red can go before it becomes magenta. The second color is Stadium Red. It’s thicker and bloodlike, there’s nothing vermillion about it, and its effect is very patrician.

I love red in a dining room. It stimulates the senses and provokes conversation. Red also connotes food items: wine, steak, cherries, tomato sauce. It makes me hungry just thinking about it.

- Mark Chamberlain, interior and decorative painter

Comments (1)

Super! - I have my kitchen painted pillar box red and its smashing - its the third kitchen I've done in this colour - I used to have the living room this colour too - it always feels warm and friendly to come home to

posted by Violetsrose on 2006-12-20 07:00:05