Seeing green: color is optimistic, healing, calming

Wrenda Goodwyn • special to the Fort Myers News-Press/USA Today Network • June 4, 2022

It’s more than a passing trend.

 We’re seeing lots of green. And it’s no wonder. Green is believed to leave us optimistic and refreshed. It’s thought to have calming properties and it can be healing. And it helps to diffuse anxiety. In today’s stressful world, my take on it is that we need everything that green can bring into our homes. Right?

 It’s no coincidence that Benjamin Moore’s Color of the Year for 2022 is October Mist, a silvery green neutral that anchors a space and allows for other colors such as violet, yellows, blues and corals. And Sherwin Williams went for Evergreen Fog, with a bit of grey and blue in its selection for 2022.

Feng Shui teaches that green encourages new beginnings and renewal. Yes, please.

 It’s an easy color with so many choices from cool sage to bright emeralds and it can be used as a neutral or an accent. It’s no wonder it’s a bit of an obsession right now.

 The good news is that you can incorporate a little green into your decorating scheme without doing a major upheaval in your home. As an Estero-based interior designer, I have seen a noticeable increase in requests from my Southwest Florida clients who want to bring more green into their homes. Especially where the main color is a neutral. And why not? It’s perfect for our lifestyle.

 But like everything to do with your home, before you call the painter, you need a plan. Whether you want a lot of green or a hint here and there in your home, I have a few tips for ways of doing a little green refresh and making it look like you hired a designer to help you!

 ·       Feeling a little tired of gray? Some of the cool sage tones are good alternatives as a neutral color. And if you have gray as a neutral in your home, green is a perfect accent in the right shade. For a nice, neutral green, Benjamin Moore’s Soft Fern and Silken Pine are good options. And if you want to go a little deeper, consider Hancock Green and Hollingsworth Green. Check the recommendations in the chart in this article and with any paint color, please test the color before you paint.

An array of palm fronds, feathery ferns and other tropical foliage enliven this exuberant green botanical wallpaper. Imagined and hand-painted in Schumacher’s New York design studio, this large-scale three-panel set is 12 feet high, allowing it to spread across and up the walls of a room for a tall dose of breezy tropics. Photo Schumacher. www.fschumacher.com

·       If you want to go bold and are ready for a major change, consider painting the kitchen cabinets. If your cabinets are white and you want to keep them that way, think about a green or blue-green glass backsplash. And a powder room is the perfect place for a beautiful emerald green or a dramatic wallcovering in the same shades.

·       For my tastes, green is best not used in a big way. Like for an entire large room.   Consider a green neutral for a bathroom or office but not necessarily for an entire Florida room.

Give the laundry room an unexpected green refresh with Benjamin Moore’s Cedar Green 2034-40, in eggshell. Cabinets: Super White OC-152, Advance, satin. Trim: Super White OC-152, Advance, semi-gloss. Photo Benjamin Moore. www.benjaminmoore.com

·       The color by no means has to be on the walls. There are ceilings. Especially if you have coffered ceilings. Painting them a bold green and adding a beautiful light fixture is just enough drama for a room.

·       Don’t forget the laundry room. It can be the most boring room in the house but try a gorgeous green on the walls and add a little fun art on the walls and everything changes.  A green sofa (I have one in my Florida room) or console or accent table add a lot of color happiness to a room. 

·       If you have white shutters or blinds, pick out a beautiful fabric with greens, blues and corals and have valances made for the windows. 

We love the green shade but this ivy bookshelf light from Ballard Designs is also a unique task light made from a piece of solid marble with a swan neck and brass candle arm. A great (and useful) addition to your bookshelf. Photo: Ballard Designs. www.ballarddesigns.com

·       Just want a little touch of green? Paint the wall behind shelves or bookcases. A rug with blue-greens, a mural on an accent wall, framed botanical prints. Paint your front door. Green lamp shades or glass lamps. And there are always plants which keep our homes healthy and bring nature indoors. You can’t have enough of them!

 Wrenda Goodwyn is a Southwest Florida interior decorator, A.S.I.D. associate and gold member of the Interior Redecorators Network. She helps homeowners throughout Southwest Florida with timeless, affordable ways to create beautiful spaces and solve decorating problems. Her articles appear the first Saturday of each month. For more information, visit her website at spectacularspaces.com. Call her at 239-850-5800 or e-mail wrenda@spectacularspaces.com. For more decorating tips, articles and photos, visit spectacularspaces.com/blog