Primary Colors

About a year ago, I went on a strict color diet of black, brown and pale gray, with a smattering of gold to add some pizazzle dazzle. I have to say this house was looking pretty svelte until Ike came along. Now it's been fattened up by red, yellow and blue plastic, and I swear the living room alone has gained 20 pounds. Apparently babies aren't really into drabby neutrals. Who knew? Thankfully the decorating world now says, Hey -- it's ok to binge on primary colors.

Maison Francaise

And guess what? You don't even have to resort to building your home out of kiddie colored Legos to get the look (because if that were the case, I'd already be 50 steps ahead). Remember the slew of Roy Lichtenstein inspired interiors I presented for your consideration? Well, now get ready for a burst of Bauhaus brights.

Richard Powers

Marie Claire Italia

Those crazy Bauhaus dudes were all about form, function, and screaming color -- but no fussy, frilly pants color shall be allowed. Green is about as crazy as party animals Gropius, Van der Rohe and Corbusier, were willing to get, because it's all about heading back to basics. So sit back, strap up, and put your goggles on. We're going on a grand tour.

Met Home

M Design Interiors

A Mondrian inspired kitchen from Apartment Therapy

Met Home

Ngoc Minh Ngo

OWI

Elle Decor

Steve Giralt

No source, but check out that Arteluce lamp.

New York Times

M Design Interiors

Well, dudes? What do you think? Are you ready to inject some hot primary color into your home? Just be careful, because Danger! It's ok to be bold, but with such strong colors, it's all too easy to go overboard. Like, way overboard. Simple shapes and small doses are the best bet for keeping your visual weight under control.

Don't be a color glutton.

More Yves Klein Sightings

Maybe it's because my first decorating debacle was painting our living room Blue Tequila, but blue is not my favorite color. I know I'm in the minority, and I'm sure I'll have many opportunities to revisit that statement since turquoise is Pantone's color for the year, but for now I'm sticking to my story. Blue is sentimental. Flat. Candace Olsen. It just leaves me cold. There are exceptions to my personal ban on blue, though: Kelly Wearstler's Avalon Hotel, Raina's Newburyport Blue bedroom, and anything International Yves Klein Blue.

Brown Davis

Those of you who have been reading this blog forever know I am OBSESSED with Yves Klein and his badass blue. Everyone else can read these posts I wrote 800 million years ago here and here and here. It's because IYKB is otherwordly. Klein Blue's super special combination of pigments vibrate with an intensity that most skimpy, wimpy blues lack. Would I paint my entire home IYKB? Well, no. I want to visit outer space, not live there.

Christoph Theurer

A little touch of IYKB here and there would make me an intergalactic tourist, and that suits me just fine. I especially love Yves Klein's modern reinterpretation of classical sculptures, which are perennial favorites of well heeled collectors.

OWI

Look expensive? That would be because they are HELLACIOUSLY expensive. Guess what's also expensive?

Architectural Digest

A lucite coffee table chock full of Yves Klein Blue pixie dust. Oh, and this fancy pad belongs to Kevin Roberts, the CEO of Saatchi and Saatchi, so YES. The globe is also an Yves Klein piece, because homedude is crazyballs rich, that's why.

Cote Maison via Lampshade

Chicago Home Mag

1st Dibs has one for $24,000. Come on, you know you want it...

Of course nothing tops the rarity of Klein's Anthropometres paintings, since they represent the imprint of an experience and are not reproducible. In other words, Klein greased up some sexy babes with IYKB paint and drug them around a piece of paper. I smell an art project coming on...

Walso Fernandez

Aaron Hom

An Yves Klein poster is really more in my price point.

Living Etc

Perhaps the best thing about IYKB is that it's just a color -- maybe Pantone 286, to be exact? Steal from the best. Get some shockingly blue paint and start spreading the sexy. Even that damn cardboard deer head looks better in Klein Blue.

OWI

Amanda Nisbet

Studio Ilse

Damian Russell

Or if you're a fancy beast, they make blue upholstery, too.

1st Dib owner Michael Bruno's Apartment

Greg Natale

Amie Weitzman

Cote Maison

And of course, sometimes just a dab will do you.

Whew, dudes, did you see all those pictures? This post was a labor of love. As in, I literally feel like I just squeezed out a giant blue baby. But my obsession with IYKB deserved the full treatment, so I'm just going to pat and coo and love this big blue spawn, because he's such a handsome boy. Yes he is. Now, go forth and paint something Klein Blue. Make mama proud.

You Down With OCDD? (Yeah, You Know Me)

If you're anything like me, you have Obsessive Compulsive Decorating Disorder (OCDD). It is characterized by a marked need to see EVERY example of whatever thing is currently occupying your mental space -- be it paint colors, couches, rugs, lamps, chairs, etc., followed by an overwhelming sense of analysis paralysis, and culminating in a rushed selection, because you just need to BUY something, dammit. Currently this disease is forcing me to shop for a new couch, a new white paint color, and new wallpaper, but in the end I will probably just buy some dumb thrift store tchotchke to abate my compulsion, since none of those big purchases/projects are logical if The Hunny and I actually want to move in the new year. Or, I will just screw logic, and buy something big and cheap that I hate next month. Last night, Karly emailed to tell me that I have 674 Craigslist postings bookmarked. I thought to myself, "Ha, I've likely deleted more than twice that many." So, let's see... that makes over 2000 postings that have caught my gimlet eye in the last year.

I think I have a problem, people. But I'm pretty sure it's not my fault.

(via Weather Sealed)

Just look at the history of Crayola colors. At the turn of the (last) century, there were only eight colors. EIGHT. Period. In the last 100 years, the choices have exponentially multiplied, so that I can't even count all the tiny little bars to tell you how many colors there are now. See there? The choices are uncountable. The variations and combinations thereof -- innumerable. And those are just stupid crayons. Imagine how many sofas, white paint colors, and wallpaper patterns, there are today.

Maybe I should time travel back to 1903, with its eight-color palette, and order my sofa from the Sears Roebuck catalog, whitewash the woodwork, and wallpaper... with the Sears Roebuck catalog. Which would be fine, except for one tiny detail.

There's no Craigslist.