April 4, 2008

Matching the Cat

My friend Evelyn and I had a Ladies' Day Out last week. We had lunch, drank too much iced tea and ended up window shopping on University Avenue in Palo Alto. Neither one of us is much of a shopper, and we had never done it together. So, I was unprepared for her style of picking out housewares.

In a shop named after a letter of the alphabet, we stood looking at a display of silk sheets. "These are GORGEOUS!" I proclaimed.

Evie turned up her nose. "They're dry clean only! What kind of a nut would you have to be to buy sheets you can't wash? Besides, they're blue."

As the owner of at least two sets of washable blue sheets, I had to ask, "What's the matter with blue?"

"I don't buy anything blue or green for my house. They don't go with my cat."

I pictured her living room, with its brown, taupe, and rust palette. I had always admired her taste, but I had not known that her calico cat was her design inspiration.

"Wait a minute," I said. "Didn't Silly Willy die over a year ago?"

"Yes, but don't tell my kids. She was so afraid of them, she always hid when they were over. They think she'll still under the bed."

On the way home, I pondered the esthetics of designing your home around a dead cat. It was easy to make fun of my kooky friend, but what really accounts for our color preferences? I came up with three categories of color decision makers:

The Narcissist

Some people pick paint and upholstery colors that make them look good, as if they are constantly on stage and their rooms are a backdrop. These people got their colors "done" back in the '80s and revamped their wardrobes and their décor to suit whatever "season" they are. To them, the fact that a chair is uncomfortable doesn't matter so much as the fact that they look great sitting in it.

The Mood Ringer

Others pick colors based on the mood evoked by them. The salient question for them is not "Does this go with my cat?" It's "How does this make me FEEL about my cat?" This varies by individual. For instance, bright orange makes my friend Sue feel cheerful. Me? I just feel nauseous.

The moodsters go for soothing colors in the bedroom and appetite-enhancing colors in the kitchen. Which makes me wonder: what are the appetite-REDUCING colors and why hasn't anyone thought of this as a diet scheme?

The Trendsetter

These folks change their décor as often as their wardrobes. When their trendy "muted sage green" walls begin to look dated they will paint them the latest color to be hyped in Elle Décor magazine, even it it's "stomach contents brown."

Of course, designers would never name a color "stomach contents." Names are just as significant as the fashion colors themselves. Undoubtedly they would call it something like "mochachino." Unless they were aiming for the young market. To someone who wears "pimp me purple" nail polish, "stomach contents" might have an appeal.

Personally, I don't follow the trends, but as a word person, names are important to me. In my search for the perfect color to go with my terra cotta accent wall, I've brought home 37 samples of tan. They have names like linen, flax, pueblo, and sahara. None of them is quite right.

I showed them to Keeper, who, after all, will have the pleasure of applying the color to seven walls. "I like the beige one," he said. "And, look! It matches the dog!"

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