Re: Have you noticed your "favourite" colours changing....

[mint]

with aging?

Now this is not as silly a question as might at first appear.

I remember that everything in my house had to be white or of pale and very light colours.  Even as recently as 5 years ago, when I first moved to France, I had everything very pale or neutral.  My then French teacher, who has subsequently become a very good friend, said to me that she loved our house but she couldn't live with everything white or neutral.  She said she WOULD have to have colours.

When I went to HER house, I used to think, oh goodness, I couldn't have all these oranges and greens (colours she favours)!

Now, interestingly, I have just picked a set of crockery (porcelain, of course!) from leboncoin.  I had to choose between "pale and interesting" and "vibrant and cheerful" (I would have said "garish" in the past).  Couldn't make up my mind and roped in OH for his opinion.  Him, poor man, having had years of pale colours foistered on him, said he preferred the pale set.

Now me, I'm going for the colourful!

Has it anything to do with failing eyesight or maybe just being in the south west of France in the sunshine?

Any thoughts or comments?[:)]

[nectarine]

I reckon it's a Mediterranean thing ... my Italian mother always loved to have colour in the house - bright floral tablecloths, riotously coloured carpets, and she wore red all the time. When I went to friend's houses I was surprised at how, er, boring they were whereas at home it was loud and noisy and colourful. Right up to her death she never conformed - always wore bright red or, if she was wearing something more 'sober' then there would be a brilliantly coloured scarf to lighten the outfit.

Maybe it's something to do with grey northern skies over the UK and the warmer light you get as you travel south. I can't offer an answer, maybe it's something in the blood. Yes I have inherited her fondness for bright colours (I don't always get it right and Mr. Nectarine complains he has to wear sunglasses around the house!) but, to me, strong vivid colours convey an energy, something that feeds you positivity and zest.

Just my thoughts ...

[mint]

Yes, nectarine, I, too, think it's a sunshine thing.

Look at how colourful saris are in India, for example, and they have loads of sunshine.

Then look at Scandivians; all pale and washy colours.

Could be to do with the colour of the skin as well, I think.  Pale, Northern Europeans would look drained in vibrant colours whereas people with darker skins can carry off brighter colours.

Anyway, I am plumbing for the colourful crockery and am very glad I spotted it before going off to buy the pale coloured set!

Plus, I am sticking to the bright red lippy........[:D]

[idun]

I have recently realised that the colours I love most are the ones I loved most as a child. But I do not necessarily live with them, but rather 'wear' them. In infants school one of the two colour crayons was an apple green on one end and a wine colour on the other, I loved that crayon and always used it up before any of the others. And then when we started with poster paints, my favourite was turkey red.

I had wine coloured red curtains in my french house, but here, I have other bright colours instead. Walls are muted, but curtains and cushions and rugs can be bright and cheery and even a carpet in one of our rooms.

I am considering being very ambitious in my colour scheme in my kitchen, and have no idea if it will be OK. Strangely my MIL bought me a Hornsea pottery jar years ago, which I found a few months ago and realised that what I fancy doing are the colours on this jar. So when I can be bothered, we'll see if it 'works'.

 

[Hoddy]

I wonder if what we are witnessing is a change of fashion rather than aging ? When I moved to this newly built house in 2002 it was all painted in the ubiquitous 'magnolia'. I loved it because it made it easy to move my existing belongings in without any dreadful clashes of colour.

Now many people who want to move can't do so and I wonder if it is having an effect on the decor of their homes. My pale walls are looking rather dreary and I'm thinking of changing some of them.

I don't think it's because I'm getting older; one of my grand daughters has just painted a wall in her bedroom acid green.

Hoddy

[mint]

I do think that pale, neutral colours are easier to live with.  Didn't they do some research that showed that if you painted a bathroom or toilet red, people are less likely to linger in them?[:D]

Also, as Hoddy says, if people can't move for financial reasons or simply can't manage to sell in the present climate, a colour makeover relieves the boredom of being stuck and might well cheer you up.

We have now had decades of so-called interior designers, style gurus (or whatever fancy titles they like to give themselves) urging us to go pale and neutral and then it became the "norm" so that only brave souls ventured into bright colours.

I had a study in our house in Wales which faced north, always felt cold and unwelcoming and not a nice place to work in solitude.  I had it painted a bright sunshine yellow and I was very pleased with the results.

Anyway, I am off to pick up my "new" crockery on Thursday and it remains to be seen whether I would love it in real life rather than in virtual life on the computer screen.  Better wish me luck.........[:)]

[Théière]

1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was empty, a formless mass cloaked in darkness. And the Spirit of God was hovering over its surface. 3 Then God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. 4 And God saw that it was good.

If God had been a women.........it would go "hang on can I just see it dark again"  

[:P][;-)]

[idun]

My north facing dark living room is painted light yellow, a cheery colour, which I love. And yet, still neutral enough for most other colours to match it.

In France lots of people I knew had big bold 'orrible wall paper on their walls which had been there for donkeys years. Now many people in the UK are having big bold wall paper, however, I just know it won't be on for long. A family member has a big bold feature wall and the wallpaper  has what I can only call a repetative erotic pattern in it. I have no idea if it is just 'my' mind, or was naughtily put there by the artist, which I rather hope is the case. When I visit I prefer to not be facing this wall, as I cannot help myself but 'see' these patterns.

 

[mint]

Oh, id, I was hoping nobody would talk about French wallpaper, the sort that goes not only on the walls but also on ceilings and doors of cupboards![:-))]

As I write this, I am in fear and trembling.  We have a fabulous location for our house, with most of our windows looking out on to fields on the south side of the house and the north side faces onto a country lane with a bank of tall trees, sheltering us from cold north winds and giving an impression of a leafy country lane although we are actually deux pas from the village church.

Now the lovely old house opposite has been bought for 83k euros (yes, I know, a recession and it is an inheritance) and the new owners have had heavy machinery to cut down I would think at least 30 trees.  Now, instead of a lovely bank of trees from our bedroom, I look on to a moonscape of destabilised earth bank.  When it rains, all that earth is going to be washed down onto the road![:-))]

Hope that stops soon, not only has the sound of machinery been going on for several days, I fear there will not even be other than denuded waste ground left.  Call me elitist, but I have noticed in the past that when property prices go down to the extent that any old bod can afford to buy, the neighbourhood goes downhill fast.

Experienced that once or twice in the UK.  We lived in quite an exclusive estate in Somerset in the early 1980s, then property prices fell and all sorts of people began to be able to afford to move in.  In no time at all, every Sunday morning's peace was soon shattered by people testing the decibel limit of their wretched motorbikes.

Now, I am going to quietly start my New Year's Eve drinking early in the day because I am a bit anxious about what er...surprises next year is going to bring!

[Gardengirl]

I can't really see brightly-coloured rooms as being a sunny country thing at all.

Throughout my childhood, until I left home at 18, the colour schemes at home were very bright - orange and yellow patterns, with patterned carpets for good measure. Where? The NE of England!

After marrying my husband, we bought a house in the midlands, which was again brightly-coloured when we moved in. It all disappeared as we went through the house re-wiring etc. When we moved to the south of England we bought the house we still live in - it had bright curtains, swirly-patterned wallpapered walls (sometimes with two different bright swirly patterns on walls in the same room), with swirly-patterned carpets in most of the rooms - all in oranges and yellows with some red sprinkled around just for good measure.

I find pale colours and carpets etc very restful. Maybe it's a reaction against the strong colours I was surrounded by as a child - who knows? All of our homes have had mainly white walls and plain-coloured carpets usually in restrained colours. Curtains, cushions and pictures add colour. For our apartment in the south of France we chose white floor tiles and bathroom tiles, all the walls are white, and again colour comes from accessories.

[Frecossais]

Gardengirl, I can't actually say that I suffered from the swirly orange/ green walls and carpeting, because on my way through the 1970s and 80s, I often chose curtains or carpets with those designs. Indeed, my bathroom is a shrine to the 1970s, being green and orange with big bold colourful tiles and an avocado suite.

However I have embraced the pastel unobtrusive look in the past few years for my walls, think I am just going with the flow. Times change, ideas change, and it's hard to find anything different or unusual in the shops. OH reckons if we just hang on a bit longer, our bathroom will be back in fashion. [:)][:)]

[mint]

[quote user="Frecossais"]Gardengirl, I can't actually say that I suffered from the swirly orange/ green walls and carpeting, because on my way through the 1970s and 80s, I often chose curtains or carpets with those designs. Indeed, my bathroom is a shrine to the 1970s, being green and orange with big bold colourful tiles and an avocado suite.
However I have embraced the pastel unobtrusive look in the past few years for my walls, think I am just going with the flow. Times change, ideas change, and it's hard to find anything different or unusual in the shops. OH reckons if we just hang on a bit longer, our bathroom will be back in fashion. [:)][:)]
[/quote]

Ooh, I had one of those as well!  And swirly, green, orange, red, yellow carpets.  Mind you, they weren't my choice but I was too skint to change the choice of the previous owner!

I eventually left that house and left all the swirlies for the next owner.  Wonder if they've still got them?[:)]

[mint]

In defence of swirly carpets, you never had to hoover them too carefully because all dirt was very well camouflaged amongst the swirls of ancanthus  leaves or whatever motifs they were meant to be![:D]

[Gardengirl]

[quote user="sweet 17"]In defence of swirly carpets, you never had to hoover them too carefully because all dirt was very well camouflaged amongst the swirls of ancanthus  leaves or whatever motifs they were meant to be![:D][/quote]

That is certainly true! Our cream living room carpet is showing up all the bits our granddaughter has been dropping! She's just gone home, so OH has the hoover out again. Swirls definitely didn't show the dirt when our two were young!

[mint]

[quote user="gardengirl "][quote user="sweet 17"]In defence of swirly carpets, you never had to hoover them too carefully because all dirt was very well camouflaged amongst the swirls of ancanthus  leaves or whatever motifs they were meant to be![:D][/quote]

That is certainly true! Our cream living room carpet is showing up all the bits our granddaughter has been dropping! She's just gone home, so OH has the hoover out again. Swirls definitely didn't show the dirt when our two were young!
[/quote]

But, GG, will you put your money where your mouth is?  Will you swap your cream carpet for a swirly one?  Is this one of those adverts where the housewife is asked, "will you swap your washing powder for Persil/Daz/Omo?"

So, your answer would be??????????...........ha, ha, ha, ha, ha!

[Gardengirl]

[quote user="sweet 17"]

[quote user="gardengirl "][quote user="sweet 17"]In defence of swirly carpets, you never had to hoover them too carefully because all dirt was very well camouflaged amongst the swirls of ancanthus  leaves or whatever motifs they were meant to be![:D][/quote]

That is certainly true! Our cream living room carpet is showing up all the bits our granddaughter has been dropping! She's just gone home, so OH has the hoover out again. Swirls definitely didn't show the dirt when our two were young!

[/quote]

But, GG, will you put your money where your mouth is?  Will you swap your cream carpet for a swirly one?  Is this one of those adverts where the housewife is asked, "will you swap your washing powder for Persil/Daz/Omo?"

So, your answer would be??????????...........ha, ha, ha, ha, ha!

[/quote]

Nay, nay, a thousand times nay to the carpet swap!  [:D]

And the same to the soap powder question - I only use Ecover LIQUID!  [:D]

[Rabbie]

[quote user="sweet 17"]In defence of swirly carpets, you never had to hoover them too carefully because all dirt was very well camouflaged amongst the swirls of ancanthus  leaves or whatever motifs they were meant to be![:D][/quote]I always thought they were meant to be abstract representations of a bilious attack[:D]

[mint]

[quote user="Rabbie"][quote user="sweet 17"]In defence of swirly carpets, you never had to hoover them too carefully because all dirt was very well camouflaged amongst the swirls of ancanthus  leaves or whatever motifs they were meant to be![:D][/quote]I always thought they were meant to be abstract representations of a bilious attack[:D][/quote]

Er.....would the bilious attack be after some haggis and neeps on Hogmanay night?  [:D]

[Rabbie]

[quote user="sweet 17"]

[quote user="Rabbie"][quote user="sweet 17"]In defence of swirly carpets, you never had to hoover them too carefully because all dirt was very well camouflaged amongst the swirls of ancanthus  leaves or whatever motifs they were meant to be![:D][/quote]I always thought they were meant to be abstract representations of a bilious attack[:D][/quote]

Er.....would the bilious attack be after some haggis and neeps on Hogmanay night?  [:D]

[/quote]NO More likely after Haggis, Chappit tatties and smashit neaps on Burns night[:D]

[Théière]

In a house I was selling many years ago, I said to the prospective purchaser they had better give a good offer or we would leave the swirly carpet [:)]

[mint]

Well, if anyone's still interested, we picked up the beautiful crockery yesterday.

And, yes, the colours are orange, green, violet, etc but NOT garish.  This is because the set is very old, was the service de mariage of the vendeuse, and would have been, I think, manufactured in the 50s or 40s.  So, NOT psychedelic colours of the 60s or neon colours of the 70s.

The china is delicate, thin, from another era.  There are loads of it (many pieces) and most of it doesn't look like it's ever been used.

The plus point is, the crocks were left with a neighbour and, because they were kept in the man's garage, we saw his amazing Citroën built in 1910 and kept in pristine condition.  Running boards, 3 seats, clignotants like coach lamps, wonderful curvy wood body, retractable bonnet and a manivel to get it started.  I tell you, if there were no china and if we only saw the car, I'd have gone to look!

So, I still can't say whether I would have loved more vibrant colours.  These colours were varied and brighter than my usual choice but not perhaps as bright as nectarine would have liked!