It’s time to stop and smell the lavender…

The colour purple isn’t just a movie that earned Oprah Winfrey an Academy Award nomination for best supporting actress in 1985, it’s also a big colour trend in interior design this year, and one that this week’s guest blogger, 38andstilllearning’s Cathy Nolan, couldn’t be happier about…

The colour purple

I don’t know much about interior design – or “good taste” in general – but there’s one thing I do know for sure: I like the colour purple.

I like lying in it (lavender bubble bath), looking at it (what passes for décor in my home) and wearing it (just about everything I own). I’ll even eat it. Juicy grapes, fleshy aubergines, tart blueberries (and blueberry tarts) … yum! Just like Bill Watterson, author of Calvin & Hobbes, I won’t eat any cereal that doesn’t turn the milk purple. I particularly like sitting on it – my favourite reading chair is upholstered in a rich purple hue. You can get your hands on a similar furnishing touch from Grafton Everest – check out the ‘Elvis’ chair that forms part of the Decorator Range, it’s as comfortable as its name is cool.

“So”, you ask, “why purple?” Well, it’s the colour of creativity, imagination, royalty, mystery, spirituality and, when it comes to interior design, apparently it’s the choice of leaders – if you believe the colour theorists. And, plainly put, it’s pretty. When hubby-to-be presented me with a delicate tanzanite engagement ring, he left me with little choice but to say “yes”. I simply had to have the ring!

And, as sound and scent are evocative, so is colour. Purple’s palette of hues and tones takes me back to special places, people and occasions. Lilac will forever remind of my beautiful lace wedding dress. Periwinkle is the colour I chose to paint the bedroom walls in my first home-of-my-own. My beautiful black Spaniel Maxixe had a violet collar. Amethyst, mauve, mulberry … all of these shades have memories attached.

And there’s purple in my future too. In the words of English poet Jenny Joseph:
“When I am an old woman I shall wear purple
With a red hat which doesn’t go and doesn’t suit me
And I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer gloves
And satin sandals, and say we’ve no money for butter”

Oh gosh wait, I already do all these things … except for the brandy. Bubbly is a much better accompaniment to my purple satin sandals.