Granted, this is not my usual kind of subject but I wanted to touch on it anyway.  After all…it’s this type of life change that make you reflect on future development and how it’s a quite a mystery that we can only “plan” for to a relatively limited extent.

The reason I wanted to bring this up is that she had a lot of help from a friend and “moving-on-professional.”  I don’t know what we would have done without Laure Green, a Minneapolis real estate professional who also has a compatible business in helping elders with exactly this type of transition. From identifying attachments and being able to “let go” of them–right down to the last minute managing the movers. My mom—and we, her family— were so lucky to have Laure’s help.

Moving in, or moving out? This room needs color!

Emotion Rules…for better or worse!
More recently, and locally to us here in Massachusetts, Lisbeth Wiley Chapman has started a new “move management” company on Cape Cod. She’s named it “Extra Daughters,” and the name really fits the service.

Beth’s description of what is involved includes emotion as playing a major role in the moving process:
“It’s all about emotion. Downsizing and de-cluttering means making decisions. Rather than making them, we have spent years stashing stuff higher and deeper. We save too much and get emotionally bogged down in life’s leftovers that we will never use and have tenuous reasons for keeping.”

Beth’s Top Ten Tips
Check out Beth’s Top Ten Tips for Moving.

Between the two of them, Laure and Beth have a world of experience. Laure, from the Real Estate side—and Beth, having moved her own full household eighteen times before coming to Cape Cod nearly 12 years ago—has an unusual depth of  experiences to combine with her organized, focused approach to everything she does. Beth has settled five estates and worked for an antique/collectibles dealer.  Recently, she was the program director for Seashore Point, the only outer Cape continuing care retirement community.

Make the transition one that is joyous, radiant and full of positive energy!
Since this is, after all, IntegralColorViews, I can easily make the color connection:
Change a gray, depressing and overwhelmed feeling and experience to one that is brightly glowing with yellows, oranges, and luminous blues! As we age, our color needs change.

As always, environmental color is, in itself, an absorbing  and expansive subject.  It’s not unusual for designers of elder housing to create spaces with only the family members in mind. But it’s the people who live there who count the most!

A few the reasons to give color the serious consideration that people deserve

• Emotional comfort
• Physical comfort
• Wayfinding
• Safety in the home

Even if there is not a move planned at this time, you can always revive a current home to make it more appropriate for elder residents.
For now, I offer a few considerations, and tips for selecting colors as we age:

1. Hue: Many hues can work, but consider that we see more yellow as we age.
2. Pattern: larger patterns are sometimes easier to “read” but don’t overwhelm the viewer with visual information
3. Contrast: regardless of our age, higher contrast makes important items more identifiable
4. Sheen: high sheen creates reflection and can add confusion
5. Intensity: use colors that are moderate but not boring. Consider contrast, intensity, sheen.
6. Lighting: a critical piece! Consider lighting closer to daylight, rather than yellow-based lighting color. Consult an experienced lighting designer for this all-important part of the environment you want to create
7. In all cases, the balance between these elements is key.  Too subtly neutral is “boring” and can create anxiety, and too much color and pattern can create confusion when not used judiciously.

I look forward to addressing these details more specifically in a future article. Meanwhile, I’d love to hear your experiences in this area.

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I was first introduced to the work of Carlo Scarpa by the renowned Boston-area architect Paul Lukez. In a conversation with Paul about color in architecture, he immediately went to his bookshelf and brought forth his copy of this book.

Even now, looking through my own paperback copy, I get the same thrill seeing the forms, textures, and colors that Scarpa used in the variety of his work. It’s really an extraordinary example of color + form working together to create a higher-level space.

A Taschen publication, even the paperback is high quality. The interesting essay by Sergio Los, illustrated by the beautiful photographs of Klays Frahm, will bring you back time and time again to enjoy the spaces. For me: “wish I could see this in person!”

Do you have a favorite book (more than 1 is ok!) on design, architecture, color, and related topics, that you would like to recommend? Let me know!

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No, it's not a dragon—it's a building. From: Complete works: Gaudi / by Aurora Cuito, Cristina Montes. This image from the book is by Pere Planells

Exquisite photography and detailed descriptions of sites provide a compelling entree into the Gaudi world. As an architectural color consultant I particularly enjoy Gaudi’s bold, personal style of color in architecture. I’m happy to have the English edition so I can actually read the text!

Next stop…Barcelona!

See larger image Antonio Gaudi: Complete Works (Paperback) By (author) Aurora Cuito List Price: $38.95 USD Used from: $34.90 In Stock

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The Swedish design firm Happy F&B has really got it Right, in a subtle  yet effective way.

(Screen shot image)

The changes in the green color, the font style, the shape…these are the seemingly little changes that make the difference.

These same principles can also apply to using color in architecture and interiors.  It’s a broader view on what makes color selections important, and why many factors need to be considered.  Lighting is the one that’s most often mentioned as being important. After all, what is “color” if not reflected light!

As with the logo re-design above, it can be the little things that become the most important things. And getting to these can mean asking a lot of questions. Among them might be something like:

• What’s the purpose of the shape of the area considered for a color? Is it intended to be read as a collection of flat surfaces, or as a mass or volume?

• What about the position of the surface in the space? Is it above you, below, at the side, or behind other shapes? These all apply whether it’s indoors or outside.

We humans actually do respond both physically and emotionally to these qualities even if it’s not something we consciously think about. And, while these might seem like extraneous details—not romantic, fashionable, glamorous or “sexy”—they are exactly the kinds of considerations that can determine the success of a color palette and therefore of an interior, a building, or a product.

Find out more about  lighting design here.

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