Island Color

A bit uncertain about how to select colors for a house that is thousands of miles away and that we would live with for many years (MG doesn't particularly love change) I decided there was nothing to do but simply plunge in. First I needed some inspiration.

I began by going to my bookshelves where I rounded up books and magazines. I luxuriously spent two evenings flipping through gorgeous full color photos of interiors and exteriors of houses located in warm climates: the American South and Southwest, California, islands around the world, Southeast Asia, India. The books resembled porcupines with hundreds of post-it notes fluttering from the edges. I paid particular attention to bathrooms, kitchens, living rooms and outdoor terraces as these were the colors and materials I needed to nail down.

Next, I went to several book stores with the intention of purchasing books showing the interiors of Greek or Greek island homes. I searched everywhere and with the help of reference librarians, discovered with surprise that there are no books in print on modern Greek interior design or Greek style. Yes, opportunity for sarcasm to think, well, Greeks have no style, but there is plenty available on ancient Greek style and quaint villages. All these, however, contain only exterior shots. Hmmm...perhaps after I have lived there a few years I'll publish my own book about interior Greek style. I know several professional photographers in Athens, a publisher in New York...but STOP! Focus on the task at hand.

I next went to two local libraries and not finding any books there on modern Greek style either, I checked out an armload of books on modern kitchens, bathrooms and terraces/landscapes. Two more evenings of study and research and my head was crammed with images and ideas. My dreams were vivid and colorful as I floated through many houses and countries in my sleep.

The next day, I took out my trusty color wheel and began dialing. Ultimately, I decided on a tetrad color scheme so there would be 4 main colors to play with and use repeatedly throughout the house to give a sense of cohesion, unity and flow overall. I decided on red-violet, red-orange, blue-green and yellow-orange. The main driver for the scheme was the flooring. During this period MG was in Greece overseeing construction and scouting for tiles. By taking photos and sending them to me online, we selected the stones for the terraces and outside walkways. The outside stones will be blue-gray flagstones. We decided on terracotta tiles for the interior floors rather than the more traditional white marble. Knowing I could liven up the place with textiles, I previously agreed to stark white interior and exterior walls as MG wished and as is traditional. He agreed to terracotta flooring to add some warmth to the "cold" of the massive expanses of white walls and ceilings. The tetrad was driven by the red-orange of the flooring.

With all that settled, I played with my Benjamin Moore color deck to find shades and tones I LOVED in the red-violet, blue-green and yellow-orange colors. I then went to my local paint shop to pull color chips of the shades.

Meanwhile a decision was needed on whether to pave all external terraces in the flagstones or to make an exception and use the terracotta tiles on the main terrace. This terrace is visible and accessible from both the dining and living rooms. An argument could be made that a better sense of the desired effect of the indoors merging with the outdoors would be had if the main terrace was tiled rather than paved with stones. The eye would be pulled across the rooms to the outdoors. Using the flagstones on the terrace, while creating unity for the outside surfaces, could create a hard dividing line between the inside and the outside. I was a bit unsettled by not having all outside surfaces the same and by using what seemed to me to be an indoors material(tiles) outside, but I did want that indoor-outdoor flow. After all, that is why we were particular to modify the original plans so that these two "walls" would be built almost entirely of glass.

One morning while not thinking about this at all, I had the insight that if we used a gray colored grout on the inside tiles and the outside stones, this could be the color and material that created the indoor/outdoor flow. I re-looked at all the books and magazines to find photos of indoor terracotta tiles with gray grout and outdoor terraces with gray flagstones and gray grout. I much preferred the gray grout. In the case of the terracotta tiles, it made the floor less noticeable and appear old. I preferred this look to a white grout which made the tiles "pop" and everything scream I'M HERE AND I'M NEW. In the case of the outside paving, I had been somewhat "bothered" by the way the island masons leave large patches of white cement between the stones, which did not please my eye. In a strange case of figure-ground, the patches were dominant in my sight when looking at island flagstone walks and terraces. With the gray grout, I felt sure that I would not notice the cement areas and the stones would blend better. Voila! We could use tile indoors and flagstone outdoors without creating a dividing line to interrupt the continuity between inside and outside.

I created a mock up to show MG the color scheme and materials on the architectural renderings. He was due home from Greece that evening and I couldn't wait for "show and tell" to begin! We needed decisions quite soon on colors for the exterior doors and window frames, the interior doors, the bathroom tiles, and the kitchen cabinets and countertops. The doors, frames and kitchen cabinets are custom made and painted at the factory in Poland so dithering on these decisions would bring the entire construction to a halt.

We came to our decision quite easily as I was able to demonstrate the logic of my recommendations and show examples of what the finished product would look like. The exterior color would be that vibrant island blue you see everywhere in the Greek islands, the terracotta tiles are a warm red-orange with areas of gray tones, the interior doors and door frames would be red-violet (aka purple), the one inch mosaic tiles in the various bathrooms yellow-green (aka peridot), red-orange (aka persimmon),blue-green (aka aqua) and white in the 1/2 bath/powder room. These same colors would be repeated in various rooms in differing combinations throughout the house with textiles (table linens, dishes, bedding, drapes, couches and chairs, pillows, etc.) The kitchen cabinets would be gray with black granite countertops and stainless steel appliances, which would pick up the grout and the gray n the floor tiles. Great! I THRILL at the image in my head of how the house will look aglow with these colors, the strong sun shining in, guests on the terrace, grapes in the garden. I love it already.

AAARRRRGGGGHH! It isn't as easy as sending BF or the contractor the names and numbers of the Benjamin Moore colors I want because, I belatedly discover, in Europe another system is used. The color system in Europe is standardized and based on a German scheme known as RAL. The only way I could communicate what I want is to provide the RAL color codes. Well in this modern era of technology, amazing things can happen. I researched RAL online, located one company in the Northeast that would sell me a single RAL color deck, ordered it and it was on my doorstep via UPS the next day. Fine Paints of Europe came to the rescue. I selected the RAL colors closest to the Benjamin Moore colors and sent off an email the following day.

The only problem remaining is that when MG was in Greece we didn't know the colors we want for bathroom tiles. None of the photos he took show the colors on which I now had my heart set. It is too risky to send the RAL colors to the tile showroom in Athens and ask a random salesperson to select tiles closest to those colors. At the end of the day, we decided to have the house complete all but the bathroom tiles. When we travel to Greece in May we will select tiles in person, order them and have them installed after the fact. What a relief. All things are possible.

Next stage...finding textiles. Or would it be better at this point to think through whether it makes more sense to buy pots, pans, dishes, sheets, etc in Greece, or buy them here, fill a container with new and extra things we already own and ship it to Greece? I received a flier in the mail advertising a big one day sale at Bloomingdale's. Hmmmmm...how do I find out about shipping household goods overseas?