Following on from my previous blog post I’m continuing to explore the four seasonal personalities and how colour psychology can be used to help you make powerful design schemes. (If you’re new to colour psychology then you can catch up and read my post here.) So summer….
After all the energy and newness of spring has past summer takes on a completely different rhythm. The weather is too hot to do anything (imagine!) and its time to stop running around and relax. When we look at the colours around us, it’s not about the perky brights of spring anymore as the landscape takes on a hazier and more sun bleached look. When you think of summer, stick to the natural European landscapes, both inland and along the coast and don’t be tempted to think of long haul summer beaches abroad with garish tropical prints and pina colada’s. Instead think of an English rose garden with its deep green leaves and soft rose pinks.
So with this seasonal landscape in mind the summer personality is graceful and elegant and more reserved in character. As people they are cool, calm and collected, composed and organised, and brilliant with the detail. In terms of interiors they are not so interested in keeping up with trends and would much rather stick to their own sense of timeless classic style, not particularly attached to the past or the future.
Just as the summer landscape is looking faded and sun bleached, this personality is drawn towards soft, cool, muted and chalky colours. The Farrow and Ball paint chart with its muted with-a-hint-of-grey shades would be perfect. Quality is really important to them so they’ll want to invest in the real thing; wool, cashmere, linen and the finest velvets. They’ll be drawn to flowing prints like painterly florals and watercolours and will love antiques with patina.
Overall the styling will be soft and relaxed, and never showy. However they do love structure and a sense of formality so while it may look laissez-faire every object is likely to have been styled with meticulous precision!
You can shop for this look over on the Habitat website were everything in these images is listed here. To find out more about Colour Psychology and how to create your own authentic interior design scheme why not sign up for one of my forthcoming Colour workshops here.
Habitat photographs by Lol Johnson.