Zatera Ul

My mother-in-law is about to repaint her kitchen, and is having a hard time choosing a color. The lady at the paint store kept recommending colors like gray, and taupe, and beige; dull, drab, and much, much too dark. She tried a few samples out on the wall, and….ugh. Even some of the “whites” are too dark. Not colors that would make you happy to be home. These were more like colors that would make you want to shoot yourself when you came home.

So I am forecasting continuing economic pain. When you can’t even get dish drainers and paint in cheerful colors, something is still wrong with the fundamentals.

Alexandra Stoddard, the decorator, recommends painting with the clearest colors–not toned down with black at all–that you can find. Her reasoning is that the shadows of the indoor environment will naturally tone it down for you. I’ve been trying to decide if I believe that is absolutely true, or if it is affected by her “color season”–because she looks best in bright, clear colors herself. I agree that having clear colors around does make it feel much more cheerful and sunny indoors. But putting any of those colors right next to me is going to make me look orange, because of my skin tones. Maybe the best answer for me is to go for something dappled, like being in the woods in the autumn on a sunny day.