An Expert in Color Tells Us How to Give Our Environments Another Tone Without Getting Stuck

Marina Christe, an interior designer and color consultant, shares her expertise on navigating the complexities of choosing colors for home environments. With experience from around 70 color consultations, she observes that many people desire to use color but feel overwhelmed by the vast number of available shades, often struggling to know where to begin.

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After having done around 70 color consultancies, it is clear to me that people want to apply it, but they don't know where to start. And it's logical: if I make you choose between the 2,500 shades that paint stores have, you get overwhelmed.

Christe stresses the importance of establishing a "guiding idea" rooted in the client's unique story. This involves understanding the client's personality, the desired sensations for their home, the architectural style of the space, and the vision of the design team. Finding a balance between these elements, she explains, allows the project's direction to emerge naturally.

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The fundamental thing is to discover the guiding idea within a particular story: who is that client and what sensations do they want their house to convey; what is the architecture of their house like; what do they want and what is the studio that is going to do the work like.

She recounts challenges, such as convincing clients to accept certain colors, like a specific gray for a living room, which she felt was ideal to complement other chosen shades. Christe's consultation process typically lasts three hours, during which she helps clients clarify their ideas, refine their concept, and develop a proposal for colors and materials.

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Achieving that they would accept a gray in the living room was difficult. I felt it was the ideal color to accompany the sky blue and the peach.

Christe also offers practical advice on color selection, likening the process to defining a "color spectrum" by eliminating unsuitable options rather than simply picking preferred hues. She distinguishes between personal clothing color choices and the more considered selection for living spaces, emphasizing that a home's color palette should reflect its inhabitants and purpose. She notes a personal preference for peach-salmon and admires Swedish photographer Tecla Severín for her specialization in color.

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Putting together a palette is not choosing five colors, but discarding those that don't fit. You are saying: there will be no yellow, brown, or French blue here; we will go from green to burgundy, for example; I call that a color spectrum, which is less limiting.