After writing my latest blog post about the black on black on black house I saw on Grand Designs NZ, I thought I’d dedicate this post to a similar, yet almost opposite extreme: The All White interior.
For some time now there has been a very strong trend to white interiors. Many years ago I had a client who loved white so much that she wanted to do an all white interior – this was even down to the buttoned leather sofa she had specially purchased for the apartment! Against my better judgment, and despite my attempts to break up the white at least a bit, my client was adamant she knew what she wanted, and so the all white interior went ahead…
The trouble wasn’t so much the white as it was the lighting. My client’s apartment was large, with massive glazing to take in both the stunning view and the sunlight. And so, with white everything, unless it was a particularly cloudy day you had to wear sunglasses inside the home. It was awful!
Frequently I am shown an interior from a magazine that a client desperately wants, and it’s all white. White walls, white cabinetry, and white counter tops. Although I agree that these all white kitchens look amazing in the magazines, this is where we need to stop and properly analyse the best way to go about recreating such a look. White interiors tend to photograph well, and are therefore really easy to publish in printed matter, but it is important to remember that things can look very different in real life.
When introducing an abundance of white into your home, you need to think about textures and products to warm up the clinical aspects of such a stark colour. We also need to look at the type of white, as different whites tend to have different hues, which in turn can have very different looks. Whites with a little bit of black in them, for example, tend to look very clinical, so if you were to add to that some basic downlights, you could suddenly feel as though you’re sitting in a retail setting rather than relaxing in your own home.
At the risk of beginning to sound like a broken record, deciding on a white interior is once again a very important time to consider lighting carefully. Get an expert to advise you on the ideal lighting plan for your home and colour scheme, and be sure to check in with an interior designer before you paint your walls. Unless, of course, you quite like wearing your sunnies indoors.
Interior Designer, Tauranga
