I often say that once you have lived with something other than white walls it’s hard to go back. Color embodies emotion, and when used effectively in a space color creates a definite mood, making the people in the space feel a certain way. When coloring a home for a client, I start by asking them to provide images to create a “visual vocabulary” that puts some of their desired subconscious environment into the design conversation. And always the question comes up for me, “How do you want to feel in this space?”

On a recent trip up to see my mom in Napa Valley, a chance glance out the window left my color sensibility breathless. A simple vineyard captured the most intense hue of chartreuse green that I can ever remember seeing. This reminded me of an age-old design trick: pull from what you see. Some religious people might call a reference like this “god’s palette.”

I find myself reflecting on some of our most successful color projects and am reminded of another related idea: to pull colors for schemes from artists’ presentations. A landscape artist like Turner might inspire a moody, almost monotone room, while a painting from Gauguin’s island period would produce the opposite: a lively and rich arrangement.

Nature, and the portrayal of nature, can give us permission to put unexpected colors together with the added benefit of knowing what the room will feel like in the end.