Colour me happy

I'm excited.  I'm thinking about colour, I'm talking about colour, I'm making decisions about colour.  And best of all, I'm seeing colour I love, everywhere I look.

Heaven.

I don't know what it is that makes one person jump for joy or let out a gasp (sit near me while I read my favourite magazines and you'll hear this often) when colour pops out, where another person longs for calming or simply striking palettes of neutrals.  Thank goodness we're all so different and have such vastly ranging tastes, but I make no bones about the fact that I respond to certain colours (always have and probably always will) in a very tangible and energetic way.  They just make me happy!

Which is why this picture of a paint store in London raises a smile whenever I see it:

Siecle Colours store in London

So top of the list in what coloured me happy this week was reading about the new (well, new to me) palette of colours that Kevin McCloud of Grand Designs fame has created for Fired Earth paints.  I'm a huge fan of Mr McCloud's and use his Choosing Colors book all the time for reference.  Apart from that, Grand Designs was probably the first show I watched about design that really got me hooked.  It remains one of my favourites and I've been loving the revisits season, to see how all those grand plans really turned out (quite well, it seems!)  Imagine my utter delight, then, when I realised he's created a range of Mid-Century Modern colours, another of my great loves:

A 'bold and optimistic' palette of grey, blue, green, yellow, orange and pink launched to coincide with the 60th anniversary of the Festival of Britain (hmm, those chairs look familiar ...)

I'll definitely do some more on this in a later post - I'll see what images I can find to place these colours in modern interiors.  Sticking with Mid-Century, I stumbled across the wonderful Prairie Hive on my blog travels, so thanks to them for this image:

Check out their blog and magazine for more colour fun

Staying in and around the kitchen, these bowls just keep popping up on my radar.  I cut a pic of these out of a magazine months ago, then came across them in my file when I was looking for inspiration for a study project I'm doing.  I'm designing a cafe, called Rainforest & Reef - think sipping your latte perched in the rainforest canopy in an eco-lodge, or watching the marine life swim under your feet in a 'reef' aquarium built into the floor. (Hey, there's no budget, I'm going for it.)  If the cafe actually existed, you'd be served your food in these:

Bowls made from recycled Macadamia shells by Husque

Out and about in Brisbane on the weekend, I found myself at (m)art design store at South Bank - it turns out these gorgeous and environmentally conscious bowls are made right here in Brisbane.  (More on this and some other great local finds another day .... )

When it comes to making decisions about colour, inspiration can really come from anywhere.  Here's what I'm heading towards as a palette for Rainforest & Reef, totally inspired by nature:

Bird of Paradise flower photo by Deborah DeAmroim, Rainbow Lorikeet feathers by me (Tree Frog photo unknown)

Which rather randomly reminded me I'd seen this pleasing green/purple/orange combo somewhere before ...

A playing field in San Francisco (taken by me)

I splashed out on a couple of different magazines this week, and this feature in Plaza caught my eye:

Swedish 'barn' home featured in Plaza magazine (photo by Jesper Lindstrom)

Now that's taking colour to a whole new level!  I love this shot of the interior of the house:

Photo by Jesper Lindstrom, styling by Pontus Djanaieff

So whether it's a magazine that you bought just because it had a colourful cover:

Cover and feature from Just Be magazine May 2011 edition, photo by Barnaby Wilshier
Nice Dinosaur Designs jewellery!

The bits and pieces of colour splashed around your home that cheer you up without you realising:

K-Mix Barcelona mixer by Kenwood and Margate Chest of Drawers 63 by Zoe Murphy (both seen in in Livingetc)

Cul-de-sac graphic prints, images via Modern Findings

Some muted shades to complement your neutral tones:

Home featured in Livingetc May 2100, photo by Birgitta Wolfgang Drejer

Or a whole lotta colour going on:

Livingetc feature July 2010

Whether you're as obsessed with colour as I am ... or not ...

As part of my Cert IV in Design, I keep a 'visual diary' of things I find that inspire me. 
These are by far my favourite pages so far ....

... I hope that something colourful has popped up for you this week to make you happy, just as these things have made me.

Til next time, Nx