Celebrating Spring series - No one does colour better than Anthropologie

In my home I like to keep the tone neutral - whites in the bedroom, creams in the living room. I've been known to paint a few accent walls olive green, burgundy and deep blue. But my preference is for the canvas to be simple.

Colour for me comes in the accessories. I love colourful cushions, paintings, books, objects I've picked up on my travels, rugs, lamps. There is often no rhyme or reason for the colour combinations, they just work for me or the items are too special to resist displaying together. I'm always amazed how different colours that you might not think to combine often work brilliantly.

At the moment my living room has cream as the base with yellow and red as the primary colours. Not a combination I had ever thought of but finding red and cream cushions I loved, and one day absentmindedly throwing on a lone yellow cushion I had, brought this combination to life for me. I am also very taken with navy and burnt orange at the moment...

Anthropologie is always top of my shopping list. They combine many colours and the result is always simple, beautiful and just what you were looking for.

I'm very taken with the blue, yellow and black butterfly linen in the first photo. It wouldn't work in my bedroom but perhaps in a guestroom. And I'm sure I can find space in my kitchen cupboards for the floral jug and many of the multi-coloured glasses. Oh, and I'm definitely in the market for a turquoise fruit bowl. Fruit will never have tasted so good!

Anthropologie is an American store. It was a very happy day for me early last year to find out that they were opening branches in London.

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(Images: Anthropologie March 2011 catalogue)

Celebrating Spring series - No one does colour better than Kate Spade

This was an easy one.

Kate Spade is to colour what Haagen Dazs is to ice-cream. A perfect match.

In the world of Kate Spade colour changes. It becomes even better. Yellow becomes buttercup. Red becomes ruby. Blue becomes sapphire. Pink becomes rose.

The clothes are gorgeous but it's the accessories I love...

Whether you're shopping at a market, taking a trip to the beach or sheltering from a spring shower, Kate Spade really does inspire us to live colourfully.

Look out for more in this Celebrating Spring series, No one does colour better than...

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(Images: Kate Spade)

Celebrating Spring series: No one does colour better than Matisse

I’m not an art expert. But I adore art. My perfect day would always include a visit to a gallery. I love that I can wander among so many beautiful things. I love the sense that artists have left something of themselves behind in their paintings.

My favourite artists are very different. I love Edward Hopper because of the light he creates and the loneliness of many of his subjects. Degas because of the delicacy of his ballerinas even when they’re stretching. And I love Matisse because of the incredible colours.

Colours are infinitely varied so blue, for example, has many shades, and changes depending on the other colours that are around it. Matisse understood how to place different colours together so that each appears more vibrant. He’s recognised as a master of colour.

Of all his works I love Matisse’s paper collages the most. Some are huge. All are vivid and full of imagination. And yet they are so simple.

Matisse produced his collages at a time in his life when he was too weak to stand in front of a canvas all day. His assistant would paint paper in the colours he wanted to use, while he sat in his wheel chair carving out the forms he imagined with scissors. Matisse would then tell his assistant exactly how to pin each piece of carved paper onto a background on the walls of his studio. When he found the balance of form and colour that he wanted –  months or even years later – the finished piece would be glued to a canvas.

Beautiful, simple, memorable, inspiring. I love them all.

“Colours have their own distinctive beauty that you have to preserve… It is a question of...finding the arrangement that will keep the beauty and freshness of the colour.” Matisse

 

Stay tuned for the next installment in this Celebrating Spring series, No one does colour better than...

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(Images: Henri Matisse)

Let's show our true colours

It’s all about to change.

Spring 2011 is on its way in the northern hemisphere and this year it means colour. Lots of full-on, bright, dazzling colour. Colourful clothes, colourful bags, colourful homeware, coloured pens, colourful food, colourful opinions and ideas. It means putting on your rose-tinted glasses and marveling at the world. It means painting the town red – and purple, blue and orange.

What’s more, mixing colours is encouraged – those glossy pinks with radiant reds, shining blues with lustrous yellows, polished purples with glistening greens. I have a skip in my typing step as I tap out those delicious adjectives on my keyboard.

You might have guessed that I'm excited!

The world needs more colour. Colour makes us smile – think of a rainbow or the first crocuses that brave the cold. Colour represents boldness and being our best selves – open, bright, honest, vivacious and loving.

So, to celebrate the arrival of colour this spring, I’m starting a No one does colour better than… series of posts that will run for the next few weeks. I’m on the hunt for incredible, inspirational colour and looking forward to the colourful stories I find to tell you about.

And, of course, I’d love to hear about anything you come across on your colourful travels.

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(Images: Prabul Gurung Spring 2011 RTW via Prabal Gurung; Dear Jacquie; Lanvin Spring 2011 RTW via style.com; Burano, Italy via Black Tomato on HuffPost; Oaxaca, Mexico by PPT; Harrison Street Adelle via Kate Spade; Marimekko socks rolled down tumbler via Finnish Design Centre; iPhone 4 cover via Kate Spade)