So Not Over the Rainbow
Jul 17th 2007
Suzanne EnochOn Writing!
I have this thing about color. I always use it in my books as a shortcut to define character, where it can be very effective – the really out-there puces and lime greens are for the dandies, while I’ve noticed that my heroes tend to wear black. The heroines wear different colors depending on who they are and where they come from, with the free spirits wearing bright, bold colors, the shy ones pastels, 
and the ones trying not to be noticed at all wearing muted browns and grays. Does she blend in, or stand out from everyone else? It’s all a dimension of character.
There have been studies about color and the moods they invoke. Las Vegas uses reds and yellows in the casinos because it gets people excited. Therapists have rooms in muted greens because that helps calm people down. Samantha Jellicoe, my heroine in my contemporary series, talks about “white hats” and “black hats”. 
There’s no need to explain it; we all know to what she’s referring. (Hopefully, anyway.)
The walls in my house are all the builder-supplied antique white, but I admit that my favorite room is my living room with its dark olive greens and hint-of-red dark wood furniture. Favorite color? Charcoal gray, though I have no idea why. To me it’s just a rich, nuanced color. Put me around yellow, though, and I look like I need a liver transplant.
Is there a color that dominates your life? What color makes up your favorite room?
What color can you absolutely not wear? Do you like to stand out, or blend in?
43 Comments »
43 Responses to “So Not Over the Rainbow”
ladydawgfan on 17 Jul 2007 at 11:44 pm #
Hmmm. I don’t know about the rooms in the house, since all of them are the same off-white color, with the exception of the kitchen which is a sunny yellow. But the colors that dominate my life, the ones that I wear most are the winter colors, jewel tones like dark emerald, wine and burgundy, rich dark blues, and some purples. Any reds cannot have any yellows or they clash with my skin tone. And if I try to wear yellow, white, or black, I generally look like I am three days dead!!!
Generally, I’m not the type to “stand out,” but then again, I don’t want to blend in so much that I completely fade into the background either. Is there a happy medium somewhere??
catslady on 17 Jul 2007 at 11:57 pm #
I never cared for wearing green or some yellows that had a greenish cast - thought they made me look bad. I love magenta and turquoise. I had very dark hair and the brighter colors seemed to fit me. As far as my house - I love earth tones the most and for some reason mauve lol.
Tracy on 18 Jul 2007 at 12:23 am #
Green is my absolute favorite color in the world. …My room is yellow (one of my least favorite colors) but I intend to change that as soon as possible. I love earth tones and I look absolutely terrible in bright shades of anything except pink…strangely enough. Black is the best color on me, and white looks great on me when I have a tan.
pri.r. on 18 Jul 2007 at 6:37 am #
i like pink, but lately and truly because it’s this season’s colour ..i tend to lean towards grey tones…. i like it but am sadly afraid that maybe it actually isn’t all that flattering. i agree with tracy, my complexion is really dark so i can’t where dark colours without looking like the angel of doom, nor can i wear uber bright colours without looking like ….dare i quote Lady Whistledown… “a singed daffodil.” ..so i’m left with light colours that aren’t that great on me either… sometimes i try to break out but i’m afraid the tormet of my ’singed’ reflection puts me in line.
BethanyHamilton on 18 Jul 2007 at 7:22 am #
Purple, Silver, and Blue. My entire house is decorated in those colors. My bedroom is a pale blue, my office is a brighter blue, my daughter’s room is a nice lavender, my living room is a silvery blue (think storm clouds). Although…my kitchen is pink. I don’t know what I was thinking that day :D.
My absolute favorite would be a bluish/purplish pastel color (I’m sure it has a name, but I don’t have time to go digging through the crayolas at the moment.) the color you look at and one person sees more blue and someone else sees more purple.
I love that color.
gannon on 18 Jul 2007 at 7:51 am #
We have so many colors in our house–letting the kids pick their own paint is part of that! I love color and tend to wear bright colors, but also a lot of white shirts. Can you own too many?! In the winter I wear black, too. One color I cannot wear is yellow. Makes me look like a three day old corpse! Yuck!
SuzyQ on 18 Jul 2007 at 7:53 am #
Fuchsia. Love it - right down to the post-its on my desk. And yes, I have some tops in that color too. I love bright colors in the summer, but tend to wear deeper colors in the winter, like burgundies. Although I have to say for clothing black is my favorite (because it make me look thin)
As for my house, the walls used to be all off-white. Then my daughter, who is 5, picked out the colors for her room. One wall bright pink, one wall lime green, one wall bright orange and the other bright yellow. When we were in the store I gave my DH the look “no way” and he said “it’s only paint”. And yes, these are Barbie colors. Well, it happens to be my favorite room. It such a fun room and definitely girly girl. I then painted my kitchen a Tuscany yellow, my living room a deep green, my bedroom a dark plum. I really like the look of the richer colors with the white moldings. My son’s room is next - space theme. And hey, if you don’t like it you can always paint over it.
Claudia Dain on 18 Jul 2007 at 8:16 am #
Wow, strangely enough, this is a tough one. I can’t think of a color I don’t like, at least on its own. I may not want it in my kitchen or on my shirt, but I’ll still think it’s a great, pretty color.
The color that makes me look amazing, glowing, vibrant is orange. Orange is my color for clothes. It’s not that it’s my favorite color, but it’s that whenever I wear it people say I look wonderful. It’s hard not to like a color that does that for you!
Which leaves me with standing out. When you wear orange, red, double-line yellow (all good on me) you’re going to stand out. I don’t think I’m the wallflower type anyway, so it all works out. LOL
doglady on 18 Jul 2007 at 8:54 am #
Any shade of purple, especially lavender. Love the Goddess’s blog color scheme! Oh and the cover of your latest delicious book, Suzanne, has lots of my favorite color on it. People are always trying to find neat purple things for me. My favorite plants in my just getting started English garden are hyacinths and irises.
When I sang, all of my evening gowns were in black and white. It became kind of a signature thing. Truth was, it was easier to find comfortable, pretty shoes to match those colors. Sounds like I am channeling Karen, doesn’t it? But if you had to stand on a hard wooden stage and sing a 90 minute to two hour concert the one thing you would want is comfortable shoes!!
I’m getting to redo my livingroom, which is about to become my writing studio, in shades of ivory and lavender. Very soothing, I think.
Maggie Robinson on 18 Jul 2007 at 9:03 am #
Blue. From my Blue Willow dishes on, I think every room in my house has a touch of blue. I have a lot of turquoise jewelry, too, so all shades are good. My garden is mostly purples and pinks, because it’s hard to find blue flowers!
Caren Crane on 18 Jul 2007 at 9:06 am #
Orange, definitely! But, like Claudia, it must be a vibrant orange or a deep pumpkin. Pale orange looks too much like salmon, which makes me look like death warmed over. Ecru or any off-white also spells death. I’m a total autumn (from the Color Me Beautiful days), so it’s all brown/orange/deep gold for me. But, I also look good in the vibrant green that is out now (with yellow tones) and, for some reason, in a light, but vivid, blue. No pastels at all!
My favorite rooms in my house are my den, which is a dark peach (can’t wear it, but it’s great on the walls!) and my younger daughter’s room, which is orange and bright pink. It looks like the tropics–so fun! Both of those rooms also look warm, even in the winter. I love that!
Susan K on 18 Jul 2007 at 9:40 am #
My absolute favorite color is shades of blue. The walls in my apartment are a cream color, not my favorite but I didn’t see any point in painting it when I’d just have to paint it back to it’s original color before I moved out. Less work this way. My bridesmaids dresses are Cornflower blue and my entire wedding will be in shades of blue with silver accents.
I hate orange (I had to wear it every day when I worked for Garden Ridge and it does not look good on me.) I am also not very fond of yellow. I like purples and pinks. Greens are okay. I like pastels. Mostly I wear blue, white or black. I’m always told I look really good in black.
cail on 18 Jul 2007 at 9:43 am #
ah, i’m a dark green person, purple and blue come in close 2nd and 3rds. my old bedroom in my parent’s house is dark green, the curtains are purple. In my current apartment my dressers are blue (with acrylic sea scapes painted on the side pannels, (by me), and my summer blanket is blue, purple and gray. there is an extreme lack of green in my place, but since i’m keeping the apartment after my roomie moves out this weekend, i’ll probably make her old room up witha green color scheme.
the living room has a blue rug and a different color blue futon at the moment.
at work the walls are red, not exactly the most enjoyable color to look at at 745 in the morning.
clothes-wise i’m a fan of most colors, except orange
Sabrina Jeffries on 18 Jul 2007 at 10:03 am #
I’m weird. I’m more influenced by what the color is with. So I love black and red, but am not much of an all-black person (for clothes). I love teal on just about anything. I like certain shades of blue, but love blue and green or blue and purple together. My house is mostly green, which I’d like to change, but when it has gold or brown with it, I like it. If I had to pick a color I love, it would probably be purple. And if I had to pick a color I hate, it would be orange. I like peach, but hate pink. And I really don’t like yellow, but I love mustard or maize or whatever that brownish yellow would be called.
Julia London on 18 Jul 2007 at 10:35 am #
Cail and Tracy, I am a green girl, too! I always tend toward greens and its my first selection in anything.
There is another color that dominates my life. And its on my head. In its natural state, its turning really gray. In its altered state, its anywhere from red to dark brunette. But that color, more than any color, is what I think about the most!
zambonigirl on 18 Jul 2007 at 10:43 am #
Greens and turquoises seem to dominate my life. My room is a color of sage green called “moonshadow” that I love, and not just because of Cat Stevens. I’m actually thinking of repainting it a color called “Shakespeare” which is more of a yellow-green. I love the Louis XVI colors of turquoise and dark brown together, and I actually wear that combination a lot. Right now, since it’s summer, I’ve been living in this white linen skirt and a grass green top. I don’t know why. I think the shape is actually pretty bad on me…
If I had to choose a favorite color, however, it’d have to be orange. I use it a lot in scrapbooking, and I have my eye on that orange ipod mini. I’m really drawn to orange. It’s a happy color, and it’s really beautiful to me. Before I paint my room, I’m going to do the living room and buy some orange and turquoise pillows for the sofa. It’ll be muy tropical.
Suzanne Enoch on 18 Jul 2007 at 10:45 am #
How interesting that so many of us like the jewel, vibrant colors. I’m SO glad that the days of girly-girl pastels seem to be gone. I look awful in pastels.
My bedroom is decorated in kind of a South Pacific theme, and I want to paint the walls. I’m afraid, though, that an olive green, even a light one, will be too hot and claustrophobic. I hate being hot. *g*
foreverdelayed on 18 Jul 2007 at 11:24 am #
I love red and green! I love the colors of autumn but I cannot wear them. Orange and Yellow do nothing for my complexion.
I wear a lot of black, red and burgundy. Occasionally, if I am feeling frisky, I might wear some pink.
twolilhahas on 18 Jul 2007 at 11:34 am #
I love looking at yellow, green and blue. I’m also starting to really enjoy looking at purple, but not just regular purple, it’s probably more a sort of dark, vibrant purple, like the little wild flowers that grow on the roadsides here in Florida. lol
I love wearing olive green and brown.
Not necessarily together, but either/or.
Patty L. on 18 Jul 2007 at 11:34 am #
My favorite color is yellow, but ironically I don’t wear it and nothing in my house is that color anymore. I recently painted my kitchen a dark shade of red, but not burgandy. Actually, no two rooms in my house are the same color. The closest color combos I have are y kids bathroom is a painted this lime green and my daughter’s room is painted a not so bright lime green and turquoise. My son’s room is painted with the Dallas Cowboy colors (love them).
As for colors that make people look bad, my daughter can not wear any shade of yellow. It makes her look sickly.
Lisa H on 18 Jul 2007 at 11:42 am #
I love to wear black and white. I also love denim and white. As for my house, I love the brownish reds and chocolate browns. My all time favorite color is pink, but I look terrible in it, however my bedroom is pink as is my hallway and foyer (which my husband now is complaining about)
I feel color, when I decorate my house it is always with warm shades. You will never see pale green, blues or greys in my home because they are too cool for me.
I despise the color peach. It reminds me of cheap foundation, and I never wear it or have it in my house.
colinfirthfan on 18 Jul 2007 at 12:18 pm #
Most of my clothes tend to be whites, blues and blacks. I force my self to buy greens and reds! I love earth tones too.
Suzanne Enoch on 18 Jul 2007 at 12:36 pm #
Have you noticed how many of us will wear a color that we won’t have in the house? It’s funny that the colors we like aren’t necessarily the colors that look good on us. I’m not a big fan of red, but for some reason it looks good on me. So no red in the house anywhere but in my closet.
Julia London on 18 Jul 2007 at 12:42 pm #
Suzanne, I want to paint some green walls, too, but am afraid. Too olivey or too limey. I like something very subtle. But its so hard to pick paint!
Julia London on 18 Jul 2007 at 12:43 pm #
Hey, I know! Maybe Claudia does paint consults in addition to wardrobe consults!
FilmPhan on 18 Jul 2007 at 12:47 pm #
My bedroom is orange. Not a color I like to wear but it makes my room look warm. I like to wear darker colors. Black, gray, plum, olive, navy, maroon. I also like to wear ivory and white. I don’t like pastel colors so much. The darker looks nicer with my dark hair and light skin.
SuzyQ on 18 Jul 2007 at 1:22 pm #
Julia, when I painted my living room green, I taped a bunch of samples together to form about an 6 x 6 square and left it up for about a week on my wall. That way you can get a feel for what the color will look like in different lighting situations. I went through four different colors before deciding on the one I liked.
A better solution is to get the sample colors (if available) and actually paint it on the wall, but then you really commit yourself to painting the room.
Dot C on 18 Jul 2007 at 2:12 pm #
Alizarin Crimson, Prussian Blue, and Cadmium Yellow. When I was a painter, I would limit my palette to those three colors, include black and white to increase the hues and tones, and use those 3 most vibrant primaries to create and discover all the saturations of colors in between, most often blending with the brush right on the canvas. It carried into my bedroom, with deep burgundies and navy took over the bedding and curtains. I even bought a crimson carpet for the living room. (Such a bad move btw, it shows ever SPECK of dust)
For clothes, as a BBW, I just naturally gravitate towards black..it has this wonderful smoothing and camouflaging ability. I do however have an obscene amount of velour clothing. Because the TEXTURE, is so…thrilling. LOL. My significant other thought that velour was just a bbw thing, and I quickly informed that NO, I just like to PET myself when I’m wearing it! LOL.
Dot C on 18 Jul 2007 at 2:13 pm #
for the gal above who was wondering what to call the blue/purple color, I would most probably say it’s Wisteria.
Karen B on 18 Jul 2007 at 2:32 pm #
Detest yellow, except for the sun. The only thing I have that is yellow - post-its!
Keri Ford on 18 Jul 2007 at 2:33 pm #
I like wearing all colors, but it depends on my mood, tan at the time, and type of clothing on which colors I’ll actually put on. And don’t even get me started on fabric types. What can I say, I’m picky about my clothes. Everybody’s anal at something
Julia London on 18 Jul 2007 at 3:15 pm #
SuzyQ, do you mean those tiny little sqaures you get at Home Depot? You put up enough of those to see a 6 ft by 6 ft square?!?
Claudia Dain on 18 Jul 2007 at 3:45 pm #
The biggest lesson I learned about choosing paint colors was to consider the orientation of the room. I once painted my south-west facing dining room a cheery yellow. It looked like it was on fire during the late afternoon in the summer! Ditto on painting a north-facing room a cool-dark tone; feels like being a cave-dweller. I also consider time of year when choosing a color. The light slants in more in the winter so rooms facing south can actually get more light in the winter.
So much to consider!
Ronlyn on 18 Jul 2007 at 3:58 pm #
our house is white and muted shades of tan (or “sand” & “sierra” and other names that the paint makes come up with for “tan”) *rolling my eyes*
And I can not/will not wear yellow.
It’s very bright, which I love. And lets face it, living in Seattle, I MUST find a way to have a bright abode or I’d be in the dumps for most of the year.
My favorite room of the house (for color anyway) is the 1/2 bath off the master bedroom. It’s the darkest color in the house (and seriously, not all that dark) and it just feels so warm in there.
But the colors I love? Deep dark rich colors. Dark blues and purples, shades of red they make me feel bold and empowered. I’ve noticed that the majority of my wardrobe though is black and grey. No idea why unless it’s the “everything matches those colors” factor.
zambonigirl on 18 Jul 2007 at 4:11 pm #
Putting up squares of color is a good idea to get a feel for the color. Especially since the colors can change according to the light. I don’t know how SuzyQ gets 6″ squares, unless she paints them. Most paint/home improvement stores will sell you a small container of the paint color/s that you’re considering, and it’s easy to make a good square on the wall. Those little tiny chips are nearly impossible to see properly. Even the “off white” ones can end up looking too pink or too yellow once you get a lot of it on the wall.
Brandy on 18 Jul 2007 at 5:00 pm #
Secretly I love color, but in my real life I choose neutral colors for the walls of my home and the color I wear the most of is black. ( I prefer to blend in, as by nature I am an observer. Not to mention painfully shy.)
Judy on 18 Jul 2007 at 6:29 pm #
I never realized that color does dominate my life. My favorite color depends on the day, the mood, and where I am in that point of my life. I used to wear blues all the time, dark, bold or pastels, but it was always blue, then I got into the pink stage of things, but mostly pastel pinks, never got into the other shades. Then i went into my black stage, nothing drastic, just most of my shirts were black. And now, I’m into reds, mostly the darker shades of burgandy, olive greens, mostly fall colors, and anything rich. I guess I’m finally growing into myself…don’t know ::shrug:: As for wall color and room color, my whole house is white. I’ve been meaning to paint my room, but haven’t decided on a color or the theme of it…but I’m steering towards red or purple….an old hollywood feel.
SuzyQ on 18 Jul 2007 at 7:02 pm #
Julia & zambonigirl - I meant a 6″ x 6″ square - not feet! For my living room I ended up taping the sample chips together. The chips I had were 2″ squares so I just taped 3 up by 3 across. It was enough to get a feel for what it would look like on the wall. The local Home Depot would only sell the sample paint in quarts which was just way too much paint for a sample. Benjamin Moore sells the small paint samples which I used for my kitchen. Even then, I only painted about a 6″ square - one on each wall. You’d be surprised how the color can change from wall to wall.
Kelly Ann on 18 Jul 2007 at 7:41 pm #
I love yellow, it’s my favorite color - just about any shade! I wear it, I decorate with it (my kitchen), my next car will be yellow! I also love pinks & I look good in reds & even decorate with a deep poppy color red (my living room) & I love to decorate with tans. I do not wear black or white, I look like death in them. If I wear black pants I have to wear a red shirt! I try not to have any white period (plus I have kids).
My least favorite color is green & orange. Though I appreciate those colors on others or in their house. My dining room is actually green & I do like it. My house sounds like a rainbow, but I swear it isn’t, the colors seem to flow. But I rent so I didn’t pick all of them.
DebMarlowe on 18 Jul 2007 at 7:49 pm #
I’m a green girl! I like to wear it (dark shades) and I have it in several shades in my house. Plus, I live in the boonies and can at any time glance out the window for a multitude of blending greens.
KMB25 on 18 Jul 2007 at 8:00 pm #
I am so into blue–my husband says I now have too much blue in my closet! I love all the different shades though…especially the periwinkles and shades of purple too!
Gannon–I can’t do yellow either…I look jaundiced. ick. I do like pinks though too…although I don’t like to admit it!
~Kim
Karen Hawkins on 19 Jul 2007 at 6:51 am #
Ooooh! Home decorating. I love it. You all have some great color combinations — quite the decorators, I can tell! My house is a work-in-progress, so I need all of the suggestions I can get.
And Suzie! I have an olive/moss green room, too!!! With a deep merlot accent wall. The main pieces of furniture is olive/moss (it’s grouped around the accent wall) and the accent furnishings are a combination of deep, cobalt blue and more merlot. I looove that room and so many people have mentioned how much they love the colors, which is niiice!
Caren Crane on 19 Jul 2007 at 8:06 am #
Ronlyn, I had to laugh about the names they come up with for “tan”. My friend Cindy had the best name ever. She and her family moved a lot when she was young, so she calls all shades of tan and off-white “relocation beige”. I love that term and use it often!