Hello friends. It’s Friday. You know what that means. Without further ado, I present ID Collection’s Jim Williamson. Are you a junkie? A color junkie, that is. Not long ago, I had a conversation about color with Italian-based interior and textile designer Erasmo Figini. He loves color and he knows how to use it. When you design fabrics, homes, hotels, and everything in between, you probably should.
Anyway, Figini once described his version of a nightmare as waking up and being in an entirely beige room. When I looked around at all the cream and neutral colors in the showroom I said, “Welcome to hell.” As his primary language is Italian, it was somewhat lost in translation.This is nothing new, as most of my conversations are lost in translation. It’s just what happens when sarcasm meets bitter by way of my Southern frankness.
Back to color.
I love color, too. I work with lots of color on a daily basis. Color makes people happy. Too much color can sometimes be overwhelming though. This is why I tend to keep my home more masculine with color coming mainly from art with a few pillows, accessories, and flowers thrown in. Although typing the words “pillows,” ” accessories,” and “flowers” seems anything but masculine. But I digress. I have experimented with color along the way in some of the 14 plus places I have called home over the years. In one house, I painted the upper kitchen cabinets split pea green and the lower in jet black. It sounds awful but looked pretty awesome with the black and white floor from the ’20s. Another one had a beautiful sofa in a velvet stripe ranging from shades of purples to reds. It didn’t last long. At yet another house, I painted my office mandarin orange. It somehow emitted a strange glow evident far away. It wasn’t really conducive to work so it later became shoe storage.
Now that I’ve been in the new place for a few weeks, several people have asked me,“What style is your home?” To which I reply,” Postmodern consignment.” I’ve got everything from George II to George Smith toBy George. How am I going to pull it all together? Fabric. Lots of fabric. Once I get all those different periods in colors that work together, I think we will be just fine. That and a few trips to the dumpster.
I’m off to shop for my next shade of greige . Until next time.
