A case of colour blindness: when the decorating plan fails

For my kitchen I was thinking red hot chilli peppers—energizing, warm hues of orange and red—the colours of central America. Orange is optimism and rejuvenation, but it can also be hostility and anger.

Benjamin Moore's Redstone 2009-10 is a fantastic colour, but in my small, sun-filled kitchen, with my existing cupboards, countertops and floor, it is ghastly.

I wanted to feel like dancing when I entered the kitchen, and I do, but it's also just too bright and, frankly, hurts my eyes.

Colour impacts our inner world both psychologically and physically and the brain rejects what it cannot organize or understand. The colour in my kitchen isn't harmonious, with festive orange beside honey-stained wood cabinets and speckled black and beige granite countertops. The brain reads it as chaotic, creating discordance instead of harmony. Orange stimulates but in this situation it simply overwhelms the brain.

I will repaint but until then, I'm dancing and cooking with chaotic red hot chilli peppers.

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