The Psychology of Color
We had an especially warm last few days of winter in Seattle and the daffodils and flowering cherry and plum trees are starting to bloom. It’s about to be color time!
As designers, we are often focused on color and learning about what resonates with our clients. Color is a powerful tool in the world of home design, capable of evoking emotions, influencing moods, and transforming spaces. Understanding the psychology of color allows for the creation of environments that resonate with inhabitants on a deeper level.
Every color has its own psychological associations, which can vary based on cultural context and personal experiences. Here’s a brief overview of some common colors and their psychological effects:
Blue: Known for its calming and serene qualities, blue is often used in bedrooms and living rooms to promote relaxation and tranquility. Lighter shades can create an airy and spacious feel, while darker blues can add depth and sophistication.
Green: Symbolizing growth, harmony and nature, green is ideal for spaces where rejuvenation and balance are desired. It’s particularly well-suited for kitchens, bathrooms and home offices.
Yellow: As the color of sunshine, yellow is associated with happiness, optimism, and energy. Incorporating yellow accents or using it as a primary color can brighten up any room and create a cheerful atmosphere. However, too much yellow can be overwhelming, so it’s best used in moderation.
Red: Bold and passionate, red stimulates the senses and encourages action. It’s often used in dining rooms and areas where socialization and activity are encouraged. Excessive use of red can also lead to feelings of agitation so it’s important to balance it with more calming hues.
Neutral Colors: Colors like white, beige and gray are versatile and timeless, providing a neutral backdrop that can complement any style or aesthetic. Neutral colors create a sense of balance and simplicity, allowing other elements in the room to stand out.
When designing a home, it’s essential to consider the psychological impact of color and how it contributes to the overall ambiance of each space. By choosing colors that resonate with the desired mood and atmosphere, homeowners can create environments that promote well-being, productivity, and comfort.
Ultimately, the key to successful home design lies in finding the perfect balance of colors that not only reflect personal preferences but also enhance the functionality and livability of the space Whether it’s a cozy bedroom retreat or an inviting living area, harnessing the psychology of color can truly transform a house into a home.
A fresh blue in this West Seattle bathroom creates an airiness that showcases the natural light. Designed by Housewarming
This burnt orange accent wall paired with blue-toned furnishings provides a warmth and depth to this Burien living/dining area. Designed by Housewarming
Pale blue walls and white built-ins and millwork allow this beautiful tiled fireplace to be the show stopper in this North Seattle living room. Designed by Housewarming
We’ll Take the Pain Out of Permitting
Most housing construction projects need a permit in the City of Seattle and the surrounding municipalities. The permitting process can be a bit of a bear and we often hear from our contractor clients that it can sometimes be a real roadblock in their process and a drain on their teams.
Did you know that our Housewarming design team handles permitting for our contractor clients? Well, we do!
We create the drawings and manage all communications with the city, address any redlines and then send final permit documents once completed. With many of our clients, we handle 99% of their permitting. The few exceptions are the energy form and salvage forms; those tend to be easier for the builder to do themselves. But for the rest of it, we’ve got you covered.
If your project needs engineering, we can coordinate with one of our many trusted engineering partners or work with yours. It is our goal to be sure that we have all drawings required by the city and the permit moves forward without issue.
Mayra is our resident permit expert and here to help your project run smoothly.
We know that this business can be tough, but we pride ourselves in partnering with our clients to help streamline the processes in any ways we can. When things go smoothly, the homeowners are happy and we all benefit.
We’d love to connect to learn about how you work and see if there are ways that we can add value to your business.
Dear Dear Santa Fe
Travel and design are two of my favorite things. I recently went on an incredible journey across the United States. I visited 19 states and drove 9000 miles (actually 8999) in a month.
To quote Bob Dylan, “Santa Fe, dear, dear, dear, dear, dear Santa Fe.” Those are pretty much the only lyrics of that song that I really understand but I like the song nonetheless and I absolutely LOVED dear, dear, dear, dear, dear Santa Fe. It’s no surprise that this Mecca of art and architecture would be inspiring but truly I hadn’t thought too much about it before the trip. This was one of those under-researched happy surprises.
Santa Fe is the home of the original Meow Wolf. This could be an unpopular confession but I didn’t love it. Maybe it was the altitude and it’s probably just me, but I couldn’t really get into it (kind of like the rest of Bob Dylan’s Santa Fe lyrics—look them up or better yet, listen to the song). I cannot deny that Meow Wolf was amazing and the work of the artists who contributed to it was out of this world but honestly, it made me feel dizzy and slightly claustrophobic. Forgive me Meow Wolf fans, it was probably just the altitude. By the way, Santa Fe is the 3rd highest city in the United States—7000 feet above sea level. Gasp!
I did, however, adore the Georgia O’Keefe museum. Can I just say it….I’m note sure she was painting pictures of flowers… but once again, that might just be me and whatever she had in mind, I love her art so much. Beauty in nature! Her artwork should be displayed in a romantic primary suite or maybe a boudoir—beautiful sexy nature. She was an inspiring independent renaissance woman.
The exhibit in Santa Fe’s Georgia O’Keefe Museum was entitled Georgia O’Keeffe: Making a Life, and according to the museum, it explores the artist’s identity as a “Maker” – an individual who carefully curated her life, personal style and artistic practice.
Let’s read this again: carefully curated her life, personal style and artistic practice. Was G.O. an OG influencer? Perhaps, but obviously the internet did not exist in her lifetime so even if she wanted to, which I don’t really think she did, she would not have been broadcasting how she was curating herself. I think G.O. just did what G.O. wanted to do. I say she was the O.G. You GO Girl.
I really enjoyed the local artists who were displaying and selling their work in the plaza. The food was fabulous in Santa Fe and the weather was in the 70s which was such a nice break from the 100s I had been in for a couple weeks in the south.
I went to an awesome place called the Pottery Pub where you can make your own pottery pieces while you have a drink. I didn’t make my own but I did a tasting of some locally distilled Reposado and coffee liquor, which were both fabulous. I bought a bottle of each and the Western-themed decanters I purchased in Wyoming are the perfect vessels for them in my bar back home. I also bought a beautiful cup made by a local artist. Next time I go back, I will get some lovely companions for it. While it’s often in my hand, it still feels lonely. I can’t have that. I must go back to Santa Fe to find some companions for my new favorite cup.
Homeowner Inspiration
Collect the Beauty
I recently visited Harry’s Beach House on Alki Beach in West Seattle. It was an unusually sunny and clear day for mid-February which made everything in the light and airy café stand out beautifully. I’ve been to Harry’s quite a few times but there was something about the sun and the view of the restaurant interior from where I was seated that really impressed and inspired me this time.
The décor is a combination between beachy and cabinlike with some old school touches thrown in. One side of the bar has this fabulous handmade tile that I could sit and study for hours. Heavy wood furniture and a rustic fireplace combined with the light and buoyant wicker light fixtures provides an appealing balance. The space itself is open and airy with lots of windows, thankfully lacking blinds or treatments of any kind, allowing the light to flood in and the incredible views of Alki Beach and downtown Seattle to steal the show.
I love the gallery wall of old school nautical artwork, which adds a kind of heaviness juxtaposed to the white walls and neutral fixtures. There is so much to look at, yet the space still feels uncluttered and breezy. 
When trying to define a style or look for your home, you need not limit yourself to home décor. Finding and collecting inspiration from restaurants, hotels, public spaces and even naturescapes is a great way to define your style. Anything that speaks to you and captivates your attention can be inspiration for your home. Consider creating an album in your phone of design inspiration photos. Even if you’re not sure why or where you would use something, the fact that you love it and were caught by it is enough to make it worth saving.
At Housewarming, we love when our clients come in with any kind of inspiration that can help us to help them determine their style. Even if you think you don’t “know your style”, anything you like can be a tool to define the look that will bring you the greatest joy and comfort. Some of our clients have shown us a piece of artwork that they love or some wallpaper they’ve picked out, a piece of fabric, photos of places, even just a few colors that are appealing to them. Personally, I have been inspired by outdoor murals and public art, and colors and textures found in nature on my travels, as well as in my own backyard.
Whether you’re going about your day in your neighborhood or perhaps wandering the globe, keep an eye out for the things that captivate your attention, and collect them. Wouldn’t it be lovely to have an album of images that you find inspiring and beautiful?
Collect the beauty! It may be the style definer that you need to create your perfect space, or it just may be a beautiful place to browse for a few minutes when you need to feed your soul.
Nuts & Bolts of Design
Welcome to our new blog series Nuts & Bolts. This series is geared toward our contractor clients and vendors but, of course, open to all who wish to learn how we work with our industry partners and what makes us an expert in our field.
Relationships First
Relationships are everything to us at Housewarming. We are, of course, in the interior design business but first and foremost, we are in the relationship business. We value the relationships we have with one another internally on our team, with our clients and certainly with our partners with whom we work regularly. Our general contractor and subcontractors are an integral part of who we are. We recognize that when we are brought in to assist with a client that we are like an extension of their company. We are representing our organization as well as the contractor’s organization. We do not take this lightly.
In an effort to continuously improve our internal team’s working relationships with one another, we recently all took a DISC Profile test https://www.discprofile.com/what-is-disc and shared our results with each other. The purpose of this is so we can better understand how to communicate most effectively with one another. We learned which of us tend to be big picture thinkers and who tend to prefer to study the data and analyze situations before acting on it. It is so great to have a combination of both within our team. And it’s even more important for us to understand each other and know that certain communication styles may not always be right for all of our team members. We respect that about each other and are doing our best to honor it all times.
In a similar way, we take the time to get to know our business partners. We want to know how it’s best to communicate with them and their teams. Are regular weekly meetings the best way to stay in touch? Are email status reports a better solution? Whatever it is, we are happy to accommodate and adapt our systems to work with and within theirs.
With several of our contractor partners, we sit in on their weekly production meetings so we can address in real time the status of
the projects that we are actively engaged with. We are given access to some of their online project tracking tools so we can provide real time status and schedule updates.
The more we can stay in step and in communication with our partners, the better it is for each of us and in turn for our clients. We strive to communicate effectively and professionally with one another and with all of our clients, partners and vendors. We choose relationships first and take the time to get to know the people with whom we work.
If you’d like to learn more about how we at Housewarming work with our general contractor partners, please contact us admin@housewarmingseattle.com or 206-719-1662. We’d love to get to know you better and/or meet you and learn about your organization and what’s important to you and your team. Our office is located in Georgetown next door to the Seattle Design Center. We’d love to host you for a visit but we’d also be happy to come to you. We look forward to seeing you soon!
Cheers to nurturing our relationships and creating new ones in 2024.
The APB on KPB; Where in the World is our CEO?
Laramie, Wyoming: Next Time I’ll Be Driving a Truck
Travel and design are two of my favorite things. I recently went on an incredible journey across the United States. I visited 19 states and drove 9000 miles (actually 8999) in a month. Along the way, I had a lot of time to think especially while driving through places like Eastern Colorado and Western Kansas. My son used to travel through those states when he was playing sports in college in Boulder. He aptly described Eastern Colorado “as more Kansas than Kansas” and he added that “the only thing to do in Eastern Colorado and Western Kansas is to think.” He was right.
I’m not sure if I began to flesh out the travel-design blog series while driving across the Great Plains but it was definitely somewhere between Seattle and Arkansas.
There were so many things that struck me as interesting and inspired me on my journey. One of the things that struck me was how many Americans drive pick-up trucks. And one of the things that inspired me was the amount of amazing public art especially outdoor murals in small cities and towns across the United States. Laramie, Wyoming really stands out for me, both in the mural and truck categories.
Laramie is a small city with a population of around 31,000. I learned when I was there that it was also where the first woman to vote in the United States cast her ballot. In 1869, Wyoming became the first state or territory to give women the right to vote. I learned this at the beautiful Wyoming Women’s History House on 2nd Street in Laramie.
In addition to this treasure of a little museum, I found Laramie to be quite endearing with its iconic Western downtown and charming small town mom and pop shops. The outdoor murals were plentiful and beautiful showcasing Native American history and culture as well as nature, outdoor recreation and Western themes. I was intrigued by a particular mural that featured a woman holding a flower in each hand and including the phrase “De Aqui De Alla”, which roughly translates from Spanish to “from here and there”. In addition to the beauty and unique nature of the mural, the colors…teal, turquoise, burnt orange and black were stunning under the vast Wyoming sky. I always gravitate towards teal and turquoise but the combination with black and orange was inspiring.
As I learned, almost everything in Laramie is closed on Sundays (apparently for church and football). Lucky for me, a fabulous store called The Bent and Rusty was open. They bill themselves as America’s Largest Craftsman Co-Op where, according to their website, they “create, repurpose, and remake objects, pieces and furnishings that may be the future history we work to document”. I wandered around in there for over an hour trying to figure out how I could incorporate this fabulous western décor into my beachy-ish Seattle home. The place was packed with reclaimed materials, both human-made and natural, crafted into beautiful art and décor. In a back corner I came upon a collection of old doors that was swoon-worthy and had me imagining driving the rest of the way across the country with one of those strapped to the roof of my car.
I restrained myself and settled on purchasing two lovely glass liquor decanters, one etched with an image of a cowboy riding a bucking bronco and the other with a buffalo head. I love them and they are now filled with artisanal Reposado and coffee liquor I picked up at the Pottery Pub in Santa Fe, New Mexico (more on that in a later post).
Laramie and all of Wyoming was breathtaking. I drove through a rain and electrical storm that I was watching for many, many miles before we reached each other. The vastness of the landscape and the skies in that part of the country are incredible; words can’t do it justice. Also, I paid $3.30/gallon for gas in Wyoming, as compared to over $7/gallon in a couple of places in California. Yee-haw!
Laramie is the gem of the high plains and The Bent and Rusty is a western décor dream. Someday I’ll have a reason to come back to shop there again and when I do, I’ll bring a truck.