The Dreamer
She sleeps with the curtains open. Everything in the room is soft-edged and slightly reflective, and the whole place changes character between morning and evening, which is the point. The Moon rules Cancer, and rooms like this are built around the going and coming of light.
What balances it
Everything here is pale and reflective. One matt, dark, absorbing thing is what keeps the room on the ground.
Bedroom
A room built around the going and coming of light. It is one room in the morning and a different one at dusk, and that is what it is for rather than a fault to correct.
- Walls
- Moonstone, an off-white with grey and a trace of blue in it. It takes up whatever the sky is doing.
- Bedding
- White, layered, with a little sheen. Cotton sateen or washed silk, because this palette is about how light comes off a surface.
- Blue lace agate
- The pale blue, on a throw or the curtains, which is where the room gets its colour at midday.
- Smoky quartz
- One grounding brown. A wood bedside, a leather strap, a dark frame.
Light
Leave the curtains open if the outside allows it. Morning light on the face is the strongest signal your body clock takes, and this palette is built to carry it in.
Where it goes wrong
Open curtains only work when the outside is dark. A streetlight at the window is a different proposition, and blackout plus a dawn lamp on a timer gives you the same signal on your own schedule.
Living room
Pale, reflective and soft-edged, which is a room that changes all day. It needs one thing that stays the same.
- Walls
- Chalk or the palest grey, in a finish with a little sheen.
- Soft pieces
- Cream and mother of pearl, layered in three or four textures rather than one. Pale on pale only works when the surfaces differ.
- A mirror
- One large one, placed to catch the window rather than to face the sofa. The Moon rules this palette, and a mirror is how a room borrows light.
- Smoky brown
- The table, or the floor. Something matt and dark to hold the rest down.
Light
Daylight first, then warm and low. A cool bulb turns this whole palette grey.
Where it goes wrong
A mirror opposite a window doubles the daylight. A mirror opposite a seat doubles the traffic. Point it at whichever you want more of.