Freedom in Constraint
What do you do when the carpet has to stay but the colour just doesn’t do it for you?
My client has a 20-year-old sage green carpet that he says he can’t stand. The problem is, it is of such good quality that you’d never know it had a bit of age behind it - as it is in a guest room that’s not used very often, it is pretty much as good as new.
When he showed me the room it was immediately obvious that it wasn’t the carpet that was at fault but the rest of the room – an ode to the misguided and ‘safe’ decorating trends of the 90s. The walls are a tired shade of magnolia that has yellowed over time. The curtains have a magnolia ground and no hint of sage green in the butterfly design to tie them in with the flooring. The artwork looks like it came from granny’s attic (and I discover that most of it did!), and just makes the room look frumpy and blah.
Given his budget constraints and the zeitgeist around reinventing and reusing rather than discarding, the carpet is here to stay. And I am very happy about that. The bedroom is on the first floor, it has high ceilings and the garden sits directly outside one of the two windows. It makes sense therefore to use the green carpet to announce the idea of bringing the outside in. After all, sage green is the colour of nature and it connects us to the outside world. In fact, it has long been used to cultivate feelings of positivity and quiet contemplation – what could be more perfect for a bedroom? Thankfully, as a keen gardener, my client loves the idea as much as I do. We both found this example of bringing the outdoors in - with its muted greens and pinks and collection of fern prints – a calming and inspirational space:
I have observed, not for the first time, that when I embark on a design, a few non-negotiable limitations can be a good thing. Sometimes in decorating, as in so many other aspects of life, too much choice can be overwhelming. Paradoxically, limitations seem to give me a sense of freedom. By removing some choices, my creative juices seem to go into overdrive and enjoy the process a whole lot more.
The room hasn’t been finished yet, but here is an idea of the light, airy, calm and restful mood we are creating for my client’s guests:
So, why not give it a go - it may not be the flooring (or the curtains, or the sofa...) that needs to be replaced. It could just be that viewing the problem from a different angle, and embracing the freedom that constraints can lend, are all the ingredients you need to make a room sing.
