Freudian Slipcovers: Color Confidence

Monday, November 28, 2011

Color Confidence

I think a color pro is anyone who takes the colors in nature and uses them with confidence and pride in their home. For some, decorating a room with color may initially feel overwhelming, but it need not be. First of all paint is paint and can always be changed.
I suggest these few steps to help you decide on the color scheme for you.
* Look at your wardrobe. What colors do you gravitate toward? What colors do you wear often?
* What colors make you feel happy, serene, relaxed, stimulated, inspired?
* Look at the room or space that you intend to color. How is it used and how do you hope it will make you feel?
* Check out what you are using within the space that you already have, can you keep it or is it possible to change the color to work with your new color palate.

Once you have asked yourself these questions, you are ready to make decisions about which color will dominate, and which colors will be the secondary and the accent colors. Your goal is to create a balance; however, with color, rarely are colors balanced when used in equal proportion. According to many interior design and color associations the formula that is most successful is 70% of the room dominated by one main color (often walls and floors), 20% of the room in another (window treatments and upholstered furniture)and 10% of the room for accent color (often pillows and artwork).
Most importantly, do not forget to look at the lighting in your room. Color changes hues and value and tone according to the time of day and the amount and type of light within the room.

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My Journey

I began my journey as a teacher of children with special needs. Through serendipity, my physician Dad offer me an opportunity to "institutionalize" the cardiac rehab unit of the hospital. As an amateur dabbler in design, I took classes in design and began moonlighting with a friend creating kids rooms.

Business was rewarding and in ways I felt but could not articulate. For example, one 5-year-old boy was afraid of fire and would not sleep in his room because of his fear. My partner and I decided to recreated his bedroom into a pretty funky firehouse complete with a firetruck on the wall, shelves as a running board and a water hose. Because this was "real" for him, we conducted fire drills with him and his family, installed cool rope ladders and taught everyone how to react in case of smoke and fire. An amazing transformation happened. No longer was the little boy afraid of sleeping alone. In fact, his room became his sanctuary and a place where he felt safe, secure, and empowered.

This became the unspoken goal of each design opportunity. The cardiac unit was meant to feel fun and secure while promoting health and wellness and a touch if whimsy, all within a hospital environment. Success!!!! Soon we were working on the pediatric ambulatory care center, the OB unit and the nursery to name a few.

As life will have it, when you least expect it, expect it. That has been the mantra I have lived by. I taught culinary classes to friends (of course I am a garnishing wizard) when I moved to the south and catered when I was poor. I pimped out my kids in movies and modeling (mainly for fun) but ALWAYS was in school for something wanting to further my education.

I settled in the early 80's with my amazing 2 kids, and reinvented myself again. This time as a local magazine editor. What a great way to earn money and continue to do design work. We focused on lifestyles and surprise...homes.

The saga continues with a fun and cutting edge local TV program Lynes on Design (oops, there was no HGTV at the time), which is still in production today. Being a TV host is an avocation and brings me bliss. This show was followed by a program called Healthy Living. With this show, I get to talk to doctors, see procedures, and of course look at the environments where healing occurs.

Along the way (at 50), I went back to school full time, received my masters in health and human services and this year, FINALLY, completed my PHD in counseling services. It was during the dissertation phase of this process that I began to put together the ingredients of my life and saw that something magical was percolating.

Freudian Slipcovers was born.

Your home is your sanctuary. My goal as a counselor and as an interior designer is simple: to help people on a personal journey that facilitates awareness, knowledge, and personal meaning to their home, office and work space, through evidence-based facilitative and supportive design.

What is Facilitative Design?

Facilitative design is the mindful and purposeful incorporation of design elements in the physical environment to enhance psychological outcomes such as increasing client self-disclosure in counseling, minimizing burnout, increasing efficacy, productivity, and healing, and stress reduction to name a few. Studies are showing that incorporating elements such as certain colors, textures, furniture styles and arrangement, art, accessories, smells, lighting, plants and nature have a significant impact on health and wellness.