Drama school: a paint trick that will open up your world

Courtesy of Kevin Isbell

Kevin Isbell is a New York- and L.A.-based designer who is basically a color whisperer. And like all of history’s best whisperers (horse, house, ghost, etc.), he says he listened to what smart people before him whispered—including the master himself, Frank Lloyd Wright. He credits Wright with the idea of playing dark spaces against light. In an interview I did with Kevin in 2016-ish for a Coastal Living color story, he suggested painting transition spaces a deeper shade than adjacent living areas as a way of a) introducing vivid colors without dousing the whole house in them and b) creating the illusion that the larger room is bigger and brighter than it is. So you might, for instance, paint a vestibule, foyer, or hall a brilliant shade of orange, then do a light wallpaper or paint color in the accompanying living area. Kevin’s caveat: it has to flow. Make sure that whatever color you use in the transition space references something in the adjacent room. “Don’t do color for color’s sake,” he says. “There has to be some harmony.”

Follow Kevin at @kevinisbell for more a-ha moments, and pay special attention when he jets off to his husband’s native Italy. Or don’t—depending on how life is treating you at the moment. And check him out in my favorite rooms of 2016.

Thumbnail photo: David Land (@david_a_land)/Courtesy of Kevin Isbell