Colorful Connie: We've lost pleasure of glorious color
David Perry, Executive Editor -- Furniture Today, January 22, 2006
Seeking help in my never-ending but largely futile quest to encourage the use of more color in mattress ticking, I decided to turn to the Corporal of Color and the Diva of Design. Yes, I'm referring to Colorful Connie Post. Her latest book, "A Beautiful Room Will Change Your Life: Your Personal Guide to Color," seemed like a good place to get ammunition in my quest for color.
You know the problem: The Maestros of Mattresses have been feeding the industry a steady diet of eggshells, off-whites, ivories, creams, beiges, etc. True, consumers do like the neutrals. I can't argue with that. But wouldn't more color help us sell even more mattresses?
Post does give me some support. In her prologue she writes, "Do you remember the sheer joy you felt as a child when someone handed you a brand new box of crayons? How you just had to try out every one? Well, I've noticed something throughout my career as a design professional: As we age, too many people lose the sense of pleasure that comes from personal expression and splashing the world around us with glorious swatches of color. Soon the child's joy is replaced by the adult's fear of making mistakes. We learn to play it safe. Remember how somebody said not to color outside the lines?"
The result, Post says, is that "most homes in America today are awash in a sea of neutrals. White walls, beige carpets, vanilla everything." Now that's what I'm talking about.
She asserts that most people choose neutrals "not because they are in the mood for nude" (hmmm, that sounds intriguing), "but because they fear making a costly decorating mistake." And that, Post continues, is sad, because "we humans respond to color in the most positive sense."
I probably should make that my closing statement, but I do have to add some comments Post makes later in her book on the power of white: "White in all its myriad variations is clean and immaculate, pure in heart and spirit. Like a porch light that welcomes us home in the darkness, or a cold glass of milk after a cookie, white comforts, calms and refreshes."
OK, white scores some big points here. Post suggests warming up a bleached-out palette with the addition of "earthy tones like cream, bisque, straw, bread, butterscotch, caramel, coffee and, yes, chocolate. (Yum!)"
That's good advice, which some bedding producers already are heeding.
Post will be sharing her ideas on retail bedding design at Furniture/Today's Bedding Conference, set for March 29–31 at the Ritz-Carlton at Lake Las Vegas. I'm looking forward to her presentation. Maybe, just maybe, she'll convince some bedding makers to add more color to their mattresses.
Contact David Perry at dperry@reedbusiness.com
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