Going groovy with Lavender

Hey, I am all for computer upgrades, things moving faster and 100's of new fonts. I did ask for this. This photo is supposed to be at the bottom of this post but today is the day of computer reckoning. One failed attempt after another while I go on a blind date with something that I am supposed to love in the end. I love computer technology, just not the dating part. I am trying to make friends with Windows 7 and Adobe Photoshop on one computer and all those Mac programs on another. I don't know why these two companies just don't get married and get it over with once and for all. Life and technology could be so much more pleasant and zen-like if they did. This is like dating two guys at once........not that I ever did that before.

The physical characteristics of our Master Bedroom are very similar to the room above so beautifully designed by Jeffrey Biluber. The high ceiling slope, the windows, the generous proportions, and a well-used fireplace . Our walls are painted a warm and cosy "milk chocolate' (the husbands request), the furniture of large scale and a beautiful design. So why on earth do we not have a headboard and draperies (we do have shutters) that will grandly finish this room once and for all? A son in school, a business launch, a designer hiatus, and a whole lot of indecisiveness about what that defining colour should be, the one colour that will sweep me off my feet and keep me happy for years to come. I am not and never have been a short-term designer. But I am a very patient one.

To be fair to myself, when we built our custom Jack Arnold French Country home eleven years ago every other interior room was 99.9% done and decorated, every paint colour, every wallpaper, furniture placed, every picture hung, every accessory in its spot, so it's not that I was a design slouch. To this day there is little I would change and I still love my home. Every once in awhile I get the urge to downsize into the smallest little cottage, but that usually passes for now as it does with most of us. When I came across these photos using varying shades of purple................well I knew I had found the "it" colour. Milk chocolate and lavender, maybe some accents in eggplant. My teenage attic bedroom was a groovy purple so it will be a sentimental choice even if I twist the tone to a more elegant one. I also have a thing for natural linen so sometimes one photo, one colour combination, can answer all your colour questions.

Colour trends mean nothing to me and never did even when working with clients. If anything, it meant that that colour was going to saturate the market quickly and you know what happens when it starts showing up everywhere.........it becomes dated real quick. To some clients who were eager to jump on what they saw as being current, I appeared like I was out of the loop. If anything I was always trying to protect them, to see past the expired date that was just ahead. It is one thing to wear a fashionable and trendy colour, quite another to dress up a whole room or house. The easy answer is to do what decorating magazines tell you to do when you want to indulge a colour whim, test it out. Throw pillows, a couple vases, or some framed prints. And this theory does work, a temporary dose of aqua has quickly told me this tranquil colour just doesn't have the drama this room wants and needs. I am going to go for it............a groovy kind of lavender. My heart is telling me it is the colour of my dreams.

Top photo by Polly Wreford via Sarah Kaye/2nd photo by designer Jeffrey Bilhuber via Southern Accents/3rd Photo by Dallas designer Shannon Bowers via Veranda/Bottom Photo via Traditional Home