Name: Chris & Kendra
Location: Santa Ana, CA
Type of Home:Live/Work Loft Townhome

What inspired you to use color? We want our home to reflect our love of art and design, finding a current way to showcase our midcentury modern and pop art influences. There is a misperception that contemporary spaces are cold and unlivable, but we prove that with the use of color and natural materials (stainless steel, walnut, flokati rug, teak wood, and concrete-look corian), a modern interior can be warm and comfortable. We want visitors to be surprised at every turn (not unlike Gehry designs), giving them a new view from every living space. We painted accent colors on key walls, so that every vantage would include more than one color field. From any room, you see multiple color planes, kind of like a Mondrian painting in 3-D. We left the largest walls white to leave big areas for our growing art collection, and so we could feel like we live in an art gallery!

The Color Cure: How long have you lived in your home?
Gigi: Since mid February 2011 (six months)

The Color Cure: When did you overhaul the space?
Gigi: Immediately!

The Color Cure: How long did it take?
Gigi: It is always a work in progress, I find goodies in thrift stores or on craigslist, but it took two days to paint the room (we can only paint while the baby is asleep or napping) and another two weeks to paint the table and chairs.

The Color Cure: Where did you find your color and design inspiration?
Gigi: I usually do keyword searches on Google Images and Apartment Therapy. I believe my search was for “dark blue dining room.” This picture from the Elements of Style was my starting place. I loved the jute rug and the dark blue. It looked classic but included natural elements, too. Then, Young House Love painted the inside of their dining room cabinets a dark color which showcased their white ceramics and I was sold. We have built-ins on the other walls where I did this as well.