Yellow and grey are always a quietly elegant combination. This room is designed around a watercolour #17-109 by Mike Smalley. It’s the kind of painting that you love to look at while drinking your coffee in the morning especially in midwinter. It’s sunshine, Brazilian jazz and blue sky. The work is sophisticated and luminous and requires a setting that allows it to shine. Dieter Hessel’s photograph Naples Pier is a perfect foil.
These colours, finishes and furniture really suit a studio apartment where space is at a premium and too much colour and pattern would take up a lot of visual space. Warm white, grey and black are the base colours with accent colours taken from the watercolour. The furniture is light and modern with clean lines. Patterns are graphic but quiet and colour is used with a light touch . An accent wall hung with a subtly patterned wallpaper adds visual interest.
