Have you planned your getaway for the summer holidays yet?

Colour by numbers - the Pantone Hotel

In my pursuit of colourful design ideas my attention was drawn this week to the Pantone Hotel in Brussels. The ‘Pantone Hotel Experience’ invites you to travel to a “colorific world – experienced through a lens of colour and spectrum of comforts”. The design ethos is described as an ‘exceptional use of contrast where a white canvas provides clean space for saturated colours to pop’.

Quite startling in design, definition and drama are certainly created by the space and reflective qualities of white married with intense bursts of colour in the furnishings and artwork.

The feeling among many designers of different disciplines about including white in design is that it adds impeccable, classy, elegant, clean, simple, peaceful, sophisticated qualities; whilst making other colours in its space appear more intense and vibrant. As white doesn’t alter the reflection of light from its surface it will appear ‘bright’ compared to its surroundings and appear to open up a space.

Citrus at the Semiramus

Another eye popping colourful hotel worth a look is the Semiramis in Athens. Designed by Karim Rashid the look is ultra contemporary and I like the way that colour is used to define space. The colour palettes are sugared almond  (complete with squishy looking marshmallow chairs in the lobby!) or bright and citrusy countered with a lot of white.

Other colourful hotels worth a look are the Mykonos Theoxenia, Greece and the Hi Hotel in Nice

Want to brighten up your space? The Dulux Light & Space range offer a range of ‘whites’ (with a hint of colour) that reflect up to twice as much light around a room.

Last week I had the opportunity to visit a recently completed project that I worked on last summer. Applewood is a respite care facility built in the community in Tadworth, Surrey by Surrey County Council for children and young people with disabilities aged 5-18 years. Accompanying me was Susannah Mathieson, National Account Services Manager for Dulux who was interested to see how I had used colour on this project.

When working with colour psychology the key to selecting a palette of colours is to identify the ‘colour personality’ of the environment. What is it used for – who will be using the space and how? A family of colours is then selected accordingly that best captures, expresses and supports the required qualities of the environment. The brief from Pat Williams, manager of Applewood was to create a bright, lively, fun and ‘funky’ living accommodation that would inspire the young guests who will be able to stay at the facility for between 2 and 6 nights

To convey these qualities and the feel that Applewood wanted to create I specified colours that had warm, clear and bright characteristics. The ‘personality’ of this family of fresh spring colours captures perfectly the qualities of youth, vitality, energy, creativity, activity, motivation and fun! It also identifies particularly well with professions, institutions or businesses linked with children and ‘youth’.

I then looked at the individual colours to select the ones which would best support an activity or create an ambience within each particular room. For example in the recreation rooms where the youngsters would be perhaps socialising and conducting activities I specified yellow to encourage optimism and confidence. Other colours I specified for the Applewood palette were green, turquoise, purple, orange and blue. Each of these colours selected contribute to an upbeat and engaging environment both for the young people staying at Applwood and for the staff working there.

Interior Designers – Would you like to learn how to apply the power of colour in to interior design? Our courses may be just what you’re looking for! http://www.incolourconsultancy.com/interiors_training_in_colour.htm