Decorating with Green
The patch of lawn in our city garden has just gotten its first trim of the year. The primal fragrances of wet earth and hewn grass enter our home on the freshet of spring breezes. At the equinox, we ignite sprigs of rosemary and sage in a stone bowl, and circle the cleansing smoke throughout the apartment and around the patio. Cleansing breezes convey the smoke, carrying with them the accumulated residue of winter stillness, now gone stale. After winter's grounding, spring is bursting into bud and leaf. That regrowth is by turns riotous and gentle. That vibrant energy, regenerative yet somehow how so calming, is at the core of living with the color green.
Green is a secondary color, composed of the primary colors of blue and yellow. The other secondary colors are orange (red plus yellow) and purple (blue plus red). As do the three primaries (red, yellow, blue), the three secondary colors each has its own distinctive personality. All three secondaries are about energy - not the stoplight energies of the primaries, but the evolution of those three primal colors along spectra of energies that lead to the presence of all visible light in the spectrum (white) or its complete absence (black). As the energies of color develop along the spectrum, each refines into its own wavelength. Those wavelengths correspond to the emotional state the color dwells in. Dwelling in our dwellings, we respond to correspondences. Each color emits energy, and each shade or tone is a frequency and a refinement.
Of the three secondaries, orange and purple emit the hottest and fastest energies, but even when hot and fast they can be soothing, and that capacity to soothe is the common quality of secondary colors. Orange is the pop of a bottle of soda, but it is also the envelopment of a Western sunset. Purple is the rock and roll swerve of purple rain, but it is also the royal rainment of pann̩ velvet. The secondaries dash around their environments to invigorate, to inspire, to energize. Orange and purple do so with zing but green Рgreen does so with depth.
Green’s energy is still but deep. That is one of the reasons why, when we consider decorating with green, our first thought is of house plants. These green members of our families contribute so much to our homes, not the least of which is clean air. But from the banks of herbs on the kitchen windowsill to the potted ficus in the hospital waiting room, decorators have long been using plants to provide serenity in room design. That is why hospitals are often painted milky green, for from healing spikes of aloe to distinctive surgical green, green is curative. Houseplants ground a room with living energy, for as anyone who cares for them will tell you, plants may be still but they are very much alive. That is the profound nature of greenery: it deepens in the very act of being. Our being deepens in the encounter.
Perhaps that is why green is the color with which Mother Nature chooses to dress Herself. Nature emerges from brown earth and blue sea; is reflected in striated sky, white clouds, golden sunlight, and silver stars; but nature dwells in green. It is no accident how many of green’s colors, shades, and tones are named after nature. Green is the grass in the meadow and the moss on the forest floor. Green is wet fronds of fern, wide spans of palm, canopies of summer leaves. Aqueous greens wash over us with translucent drops of sea glass and undulant waves of kelp. Green is grasshoppers hopping, mantises chomping, and butterflies aflitter. It is the finish on a peacock's plumes and the sheen on a raven's feathers. Green is entomology, horticulture, botany, forestry, ecology. And green is geology, for green is prismatic geodes of peridot and coppery malachite. It is lucky turquoise, stately jade, and expensive emerald.
Green enriches us because green also signifies money. Because of its profound relationship with nature, green has a profound relationship with abundance. Unlike the rich autumn colors that correspond to gathering through the harvest, green abundance is the accumulation of riches. Green is the acquisition and growth of funds, and it is the responsibilities of stewardship. Green is money in the bank and in the wallet, and as it is a resource, green is the responsibility of managing, of income and expenditure, of growth and of pruning. Green is the hunter’s green of corporate boardrooms and the cabin green of wealthy lodges, and it is the heavy glass of wine bottles, preserving and sharing the fruits of the harvest.
Abundance spills into the kitchen. In the greening seasons of spring and summer, produce is at its freshest. We celebrate by tearing crisp leaves of lettuce into our salad bowl and tossing them with herby Green Goddess dressing. We place bowls of fresh buttered peas upon the spring table, alongside crystal dishes of celery stalks and platters of roasted asparagus. We grind basil into pesto and adorn both our iced tea and our julep with sprigs of mint. We crown our fruit salad with rounds of distinctive kiwi and fill the fruit bowl with tart Granny Smith apples. Vivid lime invigorates a bowl of chicken soup, refreshes from a popsicle stick, is the secret ingredient in a perfectly built gimlet. Those brights are the high energy tints of kitchen green but deep greens provide the shade. We tumble salty olives into a snack dish and spear them into an icy martini. We whip cloudy matcha into a cup of tea or a bowl of ice cream. Lest we forget, there was a time in American home design when the prevalent color of kitchen design was ghastly avocado.
As do all colors, green goes in and out of vogue. Along with mocha, cherry, and cream, palm green was one of the cardinal tones of the 1940s. We saw it everywhere from lapel pins to grasscloth wallpaper, but the designer’s eye sees in that grouping the innocence of the ice cream shop and the vibrancy of the jitterbug. And we see in those both the celebration and the mourning – perhaps most accurately, the awareness -- of the army green that was the cost of victory. In the 1970s, the back to nature movement gave us everything from rough-hewn furniture to macramé and the plants that hung from it. Fern green, contrasting against whitewash or harmonizing with rich browns, is one of the key color combinations of that era.
Green is so prevalent to the eye and in the spirit that in design, it is effectively a neutral. Neutrals work well together, and green plays beautifully on that field. In our urban home, green is the color of Christmas decor, from the cedar of the tree to the embroidery on vintage Christmas linens. The vintage bathroom in our LA dingbat is black and white, accessorized with rotating contrast tones of peach or evergreen. Evergreen is especially suited to the bath, where a relaxation aesthetic often prevails. Whereas evergreen is a deep tone of the secondary green and peach is the pastel of the secondary orange, the contrast colors, though separate, are in harmony. We switch out the linen suites seasonally, with the black and white of the tile work providing the neutral set piece that a Hollywood tile bathroom, at the core of its design, is.
To design with green, introduce it into a home environment - room, transition area, or outdoor living area - as an accent color. I have seen contrast walls in mid-century chartreuse spotlight collections of mid-century cookware, and collector's tiles in cactus green show off the walnut detailing in Craftsman bungalows. In is often done in New England homes to show a collection of cameo glass in the window, while many a farmhouse kitchen proudly accessorizes with a collection of Depression era Jadeite. I have seen rooms made beautiful by sea green sheers at the windows, stately by forest green paint on the cabinets, luxe from McCoy pottery pinlit in niches. And from plants in a terrarium to mints in a jar, no color looks as clean and elegant against clear glass as green does.
From the soaring drama of potted palms to the sinister maw of a Venus Flytrap, plants are a simple, living way to bring green into a room. But green looks forlorn when plants are the only hint of it in a room, and it takes very skilled design to keep green as a monochrome from being overpowering. So utilize green in textiles from curtains to pillows, in wall treatments from paper to paint, in trimmings from accents to collections. Use green in symphony with complimentary tones, to offset cream, beige, brown, red, black, or white, or in a controlled riot with yellow or blue. However you welcome green into your environment, it will respond with the energies, tranquil yet quickening, restive and abundant, that are the unique qualities of decorating with green.
Resources
Decorating with Brown
Indoor Plants
Winter Gardens
Urban Home Blog Guide to Terrariums
Urban Home Blog Guide to Caring for Cut Flowers
Green is a secondary color, composed of the primary colors of blue and yellow. The other secondary colors are orange (red plus yellow) and purple (blue plus red). As do the three primaries (red, yellow, blue), the three secondary colors each has its own distinctive personality. All three secondaries are about energy - not the stoplight energies of the primaries, but the evolution of those three primal colors along spectra of energies that lead to the presence of all visible light in the spectrum (white) or its complete absence (black). As the energies of color develop along the spectrum, each refines into its own wavelength. Those wavelengths correspond to the emotional state the color dwells in. Dwelling in our dwellings, we respond to correspondences. Each color emits energy, and each shade or tone is a frequency and a refinement.
Of the three secondaries, orange and purple emit the hottest and fastest energies, but even when hot and fast they can be soothing, and that capacity to soothe is the common quality of secondary colors. Orange is the pop of a bottle of soda, but it is also the envelopment of a Western sunset. Purple is the rock and roll swerve of purple rain, but it is also the royal rainment of pann̩ velvet. The secondaries dash around their environments to invigorate, to inspire, to energize. Orange and purple do so with zing but green Рgreen does so with depth.
Green’s energy is still but deep. That is one of the reasons why, when we consider decorating with green, our first thought is of house plants. These green members of our families contribute so much to our homes, not the least of which is clean air. But from the banks of herbs on the kitchen windowsill to the potted ficus in the hospital waiting room, decorators have long been using plants to provide serenity in room design. That is why hospitals are often painted milky green, for from healing spikes of aloe to distinctive surgical green, green is curative. Houseplants ground a room with living energy, for as anyone who cares for them will tell you, plants may be still but they are very much alive. That is the profound nature of greenery: it deepens in the very act of being. Our being deepens in the encounter.
Perhaps that is why green is the color with which Mother Nature chooses to dress Herself. Nature emerges from brown earth and blue sea; is reflected in striated sky, white clouds, golden sunlight, and silver stars; but nature dwells in green. It is no accident how many of green’s colors, shades, and tones are named after nature. Green is the grass in the meadow and the moss on the forest floor. Green is wet fronds of fern, wide spans of palm, canopies of summer leaves. Aqueous greens wash over us with translucent drops of sea glass and undulant waves of kelp. Green is grasshoppers hopping, mantises chomping, and butterflies aflitter. It is the finish on a peacock's plumes and the sheen on a raven's feathers. Green is entomology, horticulture, botany, forestry, ecology. And green is geology, for green is prismatic geodes of peridot and coppery malachite. It is lucky turquoise, stately jade, and expensive emerald.
Green enriches us because green also signifies money. Because of its profound relationship with nature, green has a profound relationship with abundance. Unlike the rich autumn colors that correspond to gathering through the harvest, green abundance is the accumulation of riches. Green is the acquisition and growth of funds, and it is the responsibilities of stewardship. Green is money in the bank and in the wallet, and as it is a resource, green is the responsibility of managing, of income and expenditure, of growth and of pruning. Green is the hunter’s green of corporate boardrooms and the cabin green of wealthy lodges, and it is the heavy glass of wine bottles, preserving and sharing the fruits of the harvest.
Abundance spills into the kitchen. In the greening seasons of spring and summer, produce is at its freshest. We celebrate by tearing crisp leaves of lettuce into our salad bowl and tossing them with herby Green Goddess dressing. We place bowls of fresh buttered peas upon the spring table, alongside crystal dishes of celery stalks and platters of roasted asparagus. We grind basil into pesto and adorn both our iced tea and our julep with sprigs of mint. We crown our fruit salad with rounds of distinctive kiwi and fill the fruit bowl with tart Granny Smith apples. Vivid lime invigorates a bowl of chicken soup, refreshes from a popsicle stick, is the secret ingredient in a perfectly built gimlet. Those brights are the high energy tints of kitchen green but deep greens provide the shade. We tumble salty olives into a snack dish and spear them into an icy martini. We whip cloudy matcha into a cup of tea or a bowl of ice cream. Lest we forget, there was a time in American home design when the prevalent color of kitchen design was ghastly avocado.
As do all colors, green goes in and out of vogue. Along with mocha, cherry, and cream, palm green was one of the cardinal tones of the 1940s. We saw it everywhere from lapel pins to grasscloth wallpaper, but the designer’s eye sees in that grouping the innocence of the ice cream shop and the vibrancy of the jitterbug. And we see in those both the celebration and the mourning – perhaps most accurately, the awareness -- of the army green that was the cost of victory. In the 1970s, the back to nature movement gave us everything from rough-hewn furniture to macramé and the plants that hung from it. Fern green, contrasting against whitewash or harmonizing with rich browns, is one of the key color combinations of that era.
Green is so prevalent to the eye and in the spirit that in design, it is effectively a neutral. Neutrals work well together, and green plays beautifully on that field. In our urban home, green is the color of Christmas decor, from the cedar of the tree to the embroidery on vintage Christmas linens. The vintage bathroom in our LA dingbat is black and white, accessorized with rotating contrast tones of peach or evergreen. Evergreen is especially suited to the bath, where a relaxation aesthetic often prevails. Whereas evergreen is a deep tone of the secondary green and peach is the pastel of the secondary orange, the contrast colors, though separate, are in harmony. We switch out the linen suites seasonally, with the black and white of the tile work providing the neutral set piece that a Hollywood tile bathroom, at the core of its design, is.
To design with green, introduce it into a home environment - room, transition area, or outdoor living area - as an accent color. I have seen contrast walls in mid-century chartreuse spotlight collections of mid-century cookware, and collector's tiles in cactus green show off the walnut detailing in Craftsman bungalows. In is often done in New England homes to show a collection of cameo glass in the window, while many a farmhouse kitchen proudly accessorizes with a collection of Depression era Jadeite. I have seen rooms made beautiful by sea green sheers at the windows, stately by forest green paint on the cabinets, luxe from McCoy pottery pinlit in niches. And from plants in a terrarium to mints in a jar, no color looks as clean and elegant against clear glass as green does.
From the soaring drama of potted palms to the sinister maw of a Venus Flytrap, plants are a simple, living way to bring green into a room. But green looks forlorn when plants are the only hint of it in a room, and it takes very skilled design to keep green as a monochrome from being overpowering. So utilize green in textiles from curtains to pillows, in wall treatments from paper to paint, in trimmings from accents to collections. Use green in symphony with complimentary tones, to offset cream, beige, brown, red, black, or white, or in a controlled riot with yellow or blue. However you welcome green into your environment, it will respond with the energies, tranquil yet quickening, restive and abundant, that are the unique qualities of decorating with green.
Resources
Decorating with Brown
Indoor Plants
Winter Gardens
Urban Home Blog Guide to Terrariums
Urban Home Blog Guide to Caring for Cut Flowers
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