The Wanderer
Things brought back from places, arranged without ceremony. Turquoise was the stone put on travellers for safe return long before it was decorative, and Jupiter has always been the planet of going further than sensible.
What balances it
Sea and sand can float away. One dark wood or a black-framed window holds an airy room down.
Bedroom
A bedroom built around a window. The palette is light and air, and it needs a real source of both to be more than a colour scheme.
- Walls
- Warm sand, not white. Sandstone is the ground the blues sit on, and turquoise walls read as a swimming pool.
- Bedding
- White or pale sand. Keep the blue off the bed.
- Turquoise
- A blanket at the foot, a lamp, a ceramic. Bright and small.
- Weave
- Rattan, jute, baskets, something woven on the wall. Texture is what keeps this from looking like a hotel by the sea.
Light
Daylight, as much as the window gives, then warm lamps after dark.
Where it goes wrong
Things brought back from places are the heart of this room and also what tips it into a display. Group them on one surface rather than spreading them, and the room stays a bedroom.
Living room
Turquoise was put on travellers for safe return long before it was decorative. The living-room version is a room that feels like an open window, which means the air has to move.
- Walls
- Sand or chalk. The colour comes from the textiles.
- Aquamarine
- The pale blue, on curtains or one large soft piece. Pale blue at scale reads as space rather than as colour.
- Chrysocolla
- The deep sea-green, small and saturated. A cushion, a vase, the inside of a shelf.
- Furniture
- Rattan, cane, light wood. Low and open rather than heavy.
Light
Bright by day, and keep the window itself uncluttered. This palette is largely about what you can see through.
Where it goes wrong
A cross breeze needs two openings, not one. If the room has a single window, a door propped open on the far side of it does more for the feel of this palette than anything you can buy.