Saturday, October 12, 2002

Bold color adds drama to ´plain´ room

By MORRIS SULLIVAN
NEWS-JOURNAL CORRESPONDENT

DELAND — It happens at least once every few hours on the home improvement television networks: A chic designer breezes into a humdrum room, quickly takes stock and begins to work his or her design magic.

Within a half-hour of TV time, a wonderful transformation takes place. Blah has turned into bold and a ho-hum room has become a showcase for the designer´s art.

Never, ever does the metamorphosis involve putting white paint on a wall. Instead, a bold color typically coats one wall, with lots of other colors on adjacent walls and trim.

The effect often is startling, always dramatic and usually beautiful. At least, it is when compared to the eggshell with gloss white effect most people have in their homes.

But can the average homeowner get that look without hiring a chic California interior design expert?

In most cases, yes, according to Linda Odle. An interior designer specializing in "middle to high end" homes, she has worked in the field for 23 years, often collaborating with builders in east Volusia County.

Odle recently opened a studio/shop in DeLand, Interior Images, and has begun working on homes in the DeLand and DeBary areas.

To stay in touch with trends, she travels to the shows in North Carolina, Chicago, California and Dallas.

"That´s what it takes to stay on top of new design trends and keep on the cutting edge of the industry," she said.

She thinks almost anyone can ride the bold color trend if they exercise a little planning and use some design sense.

"Colors have changed, especially for Florida," Odle said.

Both home interiors and exteriors have become more colorful in recent years, according to Odle.

"The trend has been that lighter is better because of the sun and heat," she said. "The paint industry has helped by giving us more colors from which to select. We´ve always had cream and yellow but there were maybe only 10 choices from those ranges. Today, we´ve got probably 30 to 40 choices in those same colors."

And for the outside, new paint products, "jewel tones," came out several years ago.

Instead of the totally historical colors in deeper ranges, the paints take on a deeper range but they´re lighter in hue.

Never, ever does the metamorphosis involve putting white paint on a wall. Instead, a bold color typically coats one wall, with lots of other colors on adjacent walls and trim.

"So now we can have deeper tones but they´re not as flat as the old traditional darker colors used to be," she said.

Interior colors, like dress lengths and men´s shirt collars, follow fashion trends. For now, the hot interior colors are purples and greens, although Odle said those are almost "out."

Like most things trendy, interior colors start in California and make their way across the Sunbelt states. And trends starting on the West Coast have a lot of red and yellow on the palette.

"Especially with fall coming, we´ll see a lot more reds. That´s going to become the next really hot color in interior design," she said.

Along with red, golds and yellows soon will splash across the accent walls of chic houses.

"Crimson reds, yellows and deep golds are the next big trend in fabrics, accessories and art work," she said. "I did a model in Palm Coast about 10 months ago and that was the first time I used those colors. I chose an olive green and sage blend, with crimson reds and golds."

The model opened one day and sold the next, she said. "And that was a million dollar home."

But the color trend is not limited to millionaires.

Even in a small home, there are little things you can do to bring in that warmth of color. To get that million-dollar design look in one´s own home, she suggested going to warmer tones instead of using white or ivory.

"Rather than picking the lightest color at the bottom of the paint card, pick the third or fourth down the chart," she said. If you want to use a pale gold on your walls, you might take an accent wall and paint it the deepest of the tones.

"That might be the headboard wall in the master bedroom or what I call the wow wall,´ the first wall you see when you walk in the house."

Many people will find it hard to break the white-on-white mind set. Fear of change and worry about whether the family will like a bold color creates a lot of resistance to putting bright colors on the living room walls.

"I have a saying: ´No guts, no glory,´" Odle said. "The other thing I say to first-time homeowners is that the most wonderful way to get color is to paint. Paint is an inexpensive way to experience color."

Rather than buying drapery fabric for $40 per yard, she said, "You can put paint on a wall and, if you hate it, you can change it. But if you´re doing drapes and you just bought an expensive fabric and hate it, that´s harder to fix.

"Get a quart, paint a wall and live with it for a few days. You´ll find you will get used to it."

A good design takes different color elements and pulls them all together. A homeowner might begin with a champagne colored carpet and paint the walls a deeper shade of that tone. Then, perhaps a purple accent wall and deep teal accents in the furnishings will brighten things up.

"Now take that green, purple and champagne and tie it all together with an accent fabric," Odle said. "To come up with ideas for trendier colors, look at fabrics, dishes and whatever else you like coming from trendier shops or catalogues."

However, she cautions people to avoid spending time and money on a re-do that will be passe almost before the paint dries.

"Once you´re on the cutting edge of a color, you´ve got seven to eight years before it goes out of style," she said. "A lot of people who are doing it themselves pick colors that don´t always last a long time.

"By the time a lot of people like a color, like purples and lilacs we see now, it´s on its way out of style."

Magazines like "Architectural Digest" and "Florida Design" often introduce new trends early on.

"And you can buy fabrics over the counter but you´ll have to go to a designer place for "higher end" fabrics to get the newest, hottest colors.

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