Suddenly, it dawned on me. I still live in a blonde world. All those wonderful camel, taupe, beige and gold shades that suited me when I was a blonde continue to surround me at home. True, they’re my “comfort” colors (my husband’s, too, as we both veer to the warm, nurturing palettes, tossing in a little red/rust or deep forest green when we absolutely need it.) Nature’s shades. English countryside landscape shades. We love them.

Now I had to ask – do they love us?  Okay, do they love me? I asked it for the first time in my bedroom. There I was getting dressed in about six shades of silver, and feeling pretty darn good about it, when I looked around.  My bedroom wasn’t dressed in silver. Ahhh, the bedroom. The place where we all want to look as alluring and attractive as we can. Fleeting thought – should I buy a sexy silvery nightgown? Nope. Would clash with my ivory/candlelight sheets. Ohhhh, that’s the problem. My mind raced over my bed. Sheets – wrong! Comforter – wrong!  Bedspread and shams – all wrong, wrong, wrong. Bedskirt – OMG – it’s a shade called Desert Sand!  How wrong could things be? I glanced at the walls. They were still awaiting their light toffee vanilla paint job. Maybe I wasn’t too late.  Maybe I could start there. . . a nice pale gray?  What about a deep, sophisticated charcoal? Very Calvin Klein. Very cool.

Wait a minute.  I’m a warm-color gal. Cool shades give me the creeps. I mean, I can wear them, but how would I feel living in them every day?  Gloomy? Or beautiful? I thought I better call in an expert. Someone who knows color. Knows the effect of color on the psyche. Knows interior design and feng shui, too.

Diantha Harris, who is a professional member of the American Society of Interior Designers, Feng Shui Institute International, International Academy of Colour Therapeutics, and on the faculty of Feng Shui Institute of America as their color expert, was the perfect choice. I felt she could teach me not only how to incorporate cooler color into the home, but how to co-exist happily with it as well.

Her advice? “Don’t be so worried about what makes your hair look good, but rather, what makes your soul feel good.” She says we know intrinsically what colors support us emotionally, although these can change over time. Much like Picasso, we can go through a “blue period,” a “pink period,” a “purple period,” for instance. We don’t tend to lock ourselves into one color range, although we are drawn to certain underlying hues. These hues can be blue-based, yellow-based or red-based.  Once we understand the hues that work for us, we can broaden our color choices.  Example: we can find yellow-based silvers and grays, and that gives us the warmth our soul is searching for.

How can you find a red-based gray or even white?  I asked her about the paint that was on my walls – it’s a white, called Navajo White. Does the Indian name suggest it is a red-based white? “Yes,” Diantha said, knowing that color very well. Hmmmm. Who knew? I like the reds, the warms, but didn’t know my white paint had some red in it.  Doesn’t look red (or even pink), but there’s the underlying hue that can’t be seen. “Go to a paint store, and collect swatches,” she suggested, “you’ll see how white has an infinite range of underlying hues.”

I was beginning to warm up to this idea.  I could have warm-based cools. But I wanted to know why we’re attracted to certain hues in the first place. “Color is a vibration,” Diantha informed me. “Every hue has its own unique vibration. Color is a living thing, it’s like liquid light.” So what do these “vibrations” do? Something very specific, it seems. Cool colors generally slow down body processes, they lower the heart rate, the metabolism, they tend to make us calmer, sometimes even lethargic, and they tend to expand the feeling of time. Warm colors, on the other hand, speed everything up, including our appetites! “That’s why so many restaurants use red in their décor,” she said. The very vibration of color does different things to the body, mentally, emotionally, physically, and spiritually. Every color has an effect. The key is being aware of how color impacts you.

I must be on a fast-track to something if I would rather exist in a world of warm colors. A world where color can telescope time. But can you deliberately reduce the speed limit of the vibrations? If you “cool” down, do you calm down? Would I, in fact, be happier calming down? “No,” said Diantha, “you would probably feel depressed, isolated and listless because these colors do not feed you.” Okay, but there are other colors that work well with gray hair. Maybe I don’t have to go to icy cools.  “What about aqua?” I asked Diantha. “Aqua and peach are called universal colors, because they do seem to work for most people,” she said, “but again, it depends on the underlying hue. Is it a warm aqua with some yellow in it, or a cool aqua, with more blue in it? You’ll respond to one more than the other. It’s about your metabolism, your emotional center, your spiritual path.”

She doesn’t advise painting your walls any color that doesn’t resonate with your spirit, but if the color can’t be changed, accessories, artwork and upholstery come to the rescue. “Flowers are great,” she said, because you can change them whenever you need to change the vibrations, and it’s certainly cheaper than a whole room makeover.” Start with simple things, experiment with hues until you feel you have the right emotional support.

There are times when you can’t change your color environment. As in offices, cubicles, even the inside of your car. That’s why Diantha created color sprays. It sounds a little out-there, but I’ve tried them, and they do bring a sense of calming or energizing, healing or happiness. They’re amazing. You close your eyes, breathe in, and something really expands your senses. Not a perfume, not a “room spray,” they’re based on botanicals and flower essences that capture the vibration inherent in color.

I guess you can “go gray” in your home décor if you play it by the hue. But, suddenly, I didn’t want to anymore. Maybe it’s okay if I re-do the bed in warmer platinums (instead of cool grays). Maybe I’ll accessorize with silver vases and wonderful (creamy) white calla lilies. Maybe I’ll add a touch of aqua. I’ll make a few changes, but I don’t think I’m going to live in a blonde world either – not when there are so many colors out there, so many beautiful, spirit-lifting colors.

If you’d like to find out more, I recommend Diantha’s book, Simply Color, which explains how to use color to your benefit in your daily life.  All around you. You can find it at her website, www.lifepotentials.net, as well as a variety of wonderful topics in her newsletter, archived on the site.