Colours are identifiers and locators–personal, national and representational–when used as flags, ties, badges, medals, team and racing colours, uniforms, logos and stripes. They can be internationally recognisable: the yellow shirt of the Tour de France, Oxford Blues. Colours are even present within language to illustrate human emotions, such as pride and commitment in the phrase to “nail one’s colours to the mast.”
In decoration, within a given era and style, colours say just as much about you and your family: who you are, where you are, how you relate to the environment, how interested you are in fashion and culture, your experiences and education, even what you think about colour. That’s why no one else can choose for you and why every single home is different; why no house will ever look the same under different ownerships, and why no one ever recreates their last home in the next space. This is why we re-decorate, re-paint and re-invent, and why it is an endlessly fascinating process.