Hue Are You? with Angela Todd — Bridget Beari Designs

A weekly blog series exploring different creatives' views on color and its use in interiors, art and design. We will dive deep into their obsessions with color. How and why they use color. You will get to know their stories and you may even gather some tips for using color in your own home. What is better than learning from the experts!

Designer Spotlight: Angela Todd

Angela is an interior designer from Portland Oregon who has been designing magnificent interiors in the Northwest since 2007. She believes that every project has its own style, challenges, and framework. Her strength is her ability to create a space with function and beauty, one which is designed within a realistic timeline and budget. She is a live wire full of creativity, passion, drive, and enthusiasm and we can’t wait to share with you her views on color!

Here we go …..

Susan Jamieson: What one color represents your design style?

Angela Todd: I see it as a combination of colors. I am always looking for a multi-colored item like a fabric, a piece or art or even dishware to inspire a project. I ideally like a palette to be grounded in both warm and cool colors. I like rooms best when they have this play of colors on each side of the color wheel.

SJ: Do you use color as a dominant role in your designs or as an accent?

AT: A color palette is the first thing I decide when I begin a project. I feel the colors to use. I don’t know if that is unique to me or not. I think whether to use color as a dominant role or an accent depends on the personality of the client and/or the intended personality of the space.

SJ: How do you feel about matching colors in a room?

AT: I am a fan of bending the rules always and often. I don’t particularly like matching because it can feel contrived, elementary, and planned.

SJ: What color represents your personality?

AT: I am confident and bold like red. I am focused and genuine like blue. I am happy and jovial like orange. I am grounded like green, and I am focused like black. I don’t mean to avoid the question, but truly a multi-colored palette represents me best.

SJ: What color comes to mind when you talk about:

Your Favorite City .......Orange. I went to Quebec City by chance when Mirage Floors invited me to tour their wood manufacturing facility. The city is fortressed and full of amazing history and stone homes from the 17th century. The restaurants and cuisine were unique and memorable, the people were lovely, and the stories of the city and architecture left me promising myself to come back.

The House You Grew Up In .........Blue. My Mom had great taste and could accessorize well, but we had all these things that were just for looks and off limits to use. For example, we had a living room with white carpet that we only used at Christmas and for adult parties. We solely used our dinner china for Sunday dinners and holidays. We had towels and soap in the powder room we couldn’t use. This attitude shaped me. I believe in livable luxury. If you live there, you of all people who enter deserve luxury, so bring out the china, buy the quality towels and say no to the white carpet.

Last Fabulous Dinner You Had ........Gold. Clyde’s is a steakhouse in Portland in East Portland. I kept hearing they had great steak. The exterior of the building doesn’t give you faith. Inside the dining area is surprisingly beautiful. It was the best steak I have ever had in Portland. It is a hidden gem.

Your Favorite Flower .......Pink. Dahlias, and anything that looks good in a bouquet!

Your Favorite Season ......Green. Springtime. It reminds me of renewal, rebirth, second chances and hope.

Your Favorite Art ......Multi-Color.

I think what often makes art special is a story associated with the piece. I have an oil painting of the Columbia River Gorge in my bedroom. A friend who was great at many creative pursuits painted it. I attended a gallery opening for his work 17 years ago and bought it on the spot. It was out of my comfort zone at the time, but it spoke to me. The colors are complex, oranges, pinks, golds, blues, greens and neutrals of the landscape. Secondly, I have watercolor print of blue boy and pink lady that my Grandma Margaret always had in her bathroom. I remember seeing them often as a little girl in her bathroom in Michigan and later in Florida where she retired. Today they hang in my master bathroom above the toilet as they did hers. They are probably dime store items, but they mean a lot to me.

Your Favorite Room in Your Home .....Black and White.

The nook in my kitchen was formerly the back porch of my 1916 foursquare home. It faces east and is full of sunlight each morning. It is magical. As I look at what I love about homes I design, it is generally the room with challenges in architecture, the quirky, or the unusual. Those become the best spaces because they aren’t predictable

Your Favorite Beauty Product ....Multi-colored like the containers!

I have been using Drunk Elephant skincare for a few months and it is truly amazing!

Your Favorite Article of Clothing ......Blue.

This time of the year my garden boots. I slip them on each morning and walk my garden, while I do light weeding and think about my to do list for the day.

SJ: Name a color you never use?

AT: I can’t use Burgundy. I can hardly spell it, let alone use it. Well maybe I could use it, but I wouldn’t call it burgundy.

SJ: Name a color you use frequently?

AT: I think there is green in every project I have ever completed, but it isn’t always obvious at a glance.

SJ: If you could pick a name for a color what would it be?

AT: How about Portland? It would be a complex shade of green!

SJ: Do you have a pet? What color reminds you of him/her? Do you have a nickname for this pet?

AT: Sugar is my English cream and I associate her with Pink like her cute little nose. Finnegan, who I regularly call Finn, is my red golden retriever and he favors blue.

SJ: What is the Now Neutral?

AT: Remember A-E-I-O-U and sometimes Y? Green is like that for me. Black, White, Gray, Chocolate, Cream and sometimes Green.

SJ: What is your prediction for the next big color trend?

AT: I see saturated jewel tones in the purple and red family and hot accents of ochre yellow coming into trend. However, I am still enthusiastically enjoying blushes of pink. So let’s wait a while shall we?

SJ: What are the best color combinations?

AT: It depends on the mood you want to convey. From my perspective, complementary colors give an energy to a space. While monochromatic rooms are serene and peaceful, and analogous color schemes tend to feel restful. However, I feel like almost any mood can be achieved with any color combination if I you dial up or down the values of the colors. It is a lot like how the sky changes throughout the day and night. Dawn breaking, high noon, sunset and twilight all have multiple colors in the atmosphere, but the mood is totally different because of the value and saturation of the colors.

SJ: Best advise when it comes to picking paint colors?

AT:

1) In the most successfully designed spaces the color on the wall isn’t the first thing you notice. It is the supporting cast.

2) Colors change based on what is surrounding them. This includes other colors, wood tones, and natural and artificial light.

3) Don’t pick your paint color first. It should be one of your last decisions.

4) When in doubt call someone who has picked a paint color hundreds of times more than you.

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