What color says "comforting" to you?

How can color elicit so many reactions? Some people see neutrals as relaxing and beautiful. Others really need saturated tones to feel at ease and pleased. A color that makes one person nauseous makes another happy inside. Go figure.

Director, playwright and screenwriter John Patrick Shanley is featured in a NYT article, talking all about his obsession with color- especially green.

It's interesting to read his take on a particular green he selected for the office setting in the film Doubt. "[The audience] has to want to be there," he states.

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And here I was, thinking that sickly color was selected to add tension and a sense of discomfort to the underlying theme of the movie!

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I did, however, understand his additional rationale for the color use,

"I realized that these people [nuns, etc] who dressed entirely in black with touches of white so that you can take a bold color as a background and they will pop out of that environment the way the Dutch masters did in a Rembrandt, rather than get lost in the background."(source)

Over the years, Shanley has lived in a series of apartments, each with a varying shade of green. "You can see my evolution as a human being through the greens, as I was getting closer and closer to being centered,” he explains. It's quite dramatic-shall we take a look?

The latest iteration of green, Benjamin Moore's Peppermint Leaf, coats his living room/office/hangout for his teenage sons.
Just off his living room/office space, these striped stairs lead you up to the bedrooms.Why not have some fun with transition spaces! How playful and whimsical these stripes are.
Very active and movement oriented.

His kitchen is a mustardy yellow with blue-veined counter tops and a green backsplash. Way to go for bringing in some contrast through warms and cools!

This bright orange (looks red to me in this photo) dining room used to be an enclosed porch, now revamped to resemble a treehouse. Certainly snazzier than any treehouse I've ever encountered! I wonder what color children would select for their tree space, if given the opportunity. Those readers with kids of tree-house-building age, will you ask them what color they'd paint the interior, and report back to us with your findings?

Gorgeous turquoise bedroom balanced by distressed, warm shutters and yellow-green sofa. Love it. High impact, for sure. But maybe not the most calming of colors...

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He selected pink for the bathroom because he feels bathrooms are feminine spaces. Do you agree?

Of course, this director can't take all the credit. He did have Randy Florke, an interior designer/editor/realtor, help him select colors for his current home.

So, what do you think: does Shanley's color palette make you grimace or grin?