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!Hue Are You?
Designer Spotlight: Cheryl Kees Clendenon
Owner and lead designer and saucy critic of the status quo, Cheryl Kees Clendenon has been an influential presence in the design industry for over 18 years. Her sharp wit, bold opinions, innovative designs and attention to detail has earned her national recognition and more design awards than any firm on the Gulf Coast. Cheryl and her firm have been published in over 60 consumer magazines and books. Cheryl approaches each project from big to small with the same detail-oriented and fresh, unpredictable design aesthetic that has garnered her national attention. Clients, ranging from San Diego to the New Jersey shore and all along the Gulf Coast, respect her confident and innovative solutions to the most challenging of design parameters as well as her outspoken irreverence.
In her spare time she also authors an influential design blog chronicling the daily drama of a working designer along with info on products she loves, designs she hates and a “tell it like it is” look at being a small business owner all while dispensing valuable design and project management knowledge that she has accumulated over her many years in the industry. Cheryl is wife to Randy and mom to Mackenzie and Libby. She resides on beautiful Pensacola Beach, Florida with her husband and impossibly adorable Aussie shepherds, Luna & Sailor Mae.
I love it when a designer loves color. Here we go with Cheryl's view on color: Susan Jamieson: What one color represents your design style?
Cheryl Kees Clendenon: This is hard! I cannot claim one color but a type of color- saturated. If had to pick one I think ( this month) it would be a deep mulberry raisin laced with a bit of blush to make it unexpected.
SJ: Do you use color as a dominant role in your designs or as an accent?
CKC: Absolutely and we are known for it. Our shop is a riot of color amongst many shops in town that are white, beige and gray. But not a wild crazy riot of color- much more sophisticated.
SJ: How do you feel about matching colors in a room?
CKC: What does match mean? :) We do not match hardly ever unless going for a monochromatic color story. Wethrive on mixing unusual hues together and making it work. In fact, this is my favorite part of my work.
SJ: What color represents your personality?
CKC: Depends on the day, the hour, the minute. I am a chameleon- high strung, crazy creative type that sleeps very little. But if had to choose one color it would be a deep green but I wear mostly black.
SJ: What color comes to mind when you talk about:
Your favorite City ....... Seagreen- Pensacola’s coast is this color on a clear day
The House You Grew Up In ......... Beige- apartment blah
Last Fabulous Dinner You Had ........
Green- i love some veggiesYour favorite Flower ....... A
hhh a tropical bouquet of coral reds for sure
Your favorite season ...... we don't have seasons on the coast but for sure my fave is summer- and that color would be golden like sand in the sunlight
Your Favorite Art ...... That is easy- a mid century wood cut by now deceased artist Carol Summers- big blocks of color- deep aubergine, coral red, bright blue and some darker shades- but the aubergine is what I associate it with.
Your Favorite Room in Your Home ..... The “undining room” where the Summers art lives- along with a citron velvet sofa and floral water color drapes and phenomenal sari bak bak wall covering. this color cue would be blush even though it is only in a pillow.
Your Favorite Beauty product ....Black for mascara
Your Favorite Article of Clothing ...... Distressed charcoal and gray- my old cowboy boots
SJ: Name a color you never use?
CKC: I will use just about all of them in the right setting but am not a “smokers yellow” fan- you know the color white gets in a smokers home- ugh. A cross between fleshly yellow and smokers yellow.
SJ: Name a color you use frequently?
CKC: Purple shades, persimmon
SJ: If you could pick a name for a color what would it be?
CKC: Smokers yellow- only because everyone knows what that would be and yuck.
SJ: Do you have a pet? What color reminds you of him/her? Do you have a nickname for this pet?
CKC: Sailor Mae- our shop dog. She is a tricolor aussie and love the brown on her nose!
SJ: What is the Now Neutral?
CKC: Deep aubergine for us or a raisin brown with slight red undertones- Painted a guest house this and is fab with deep green trim
SJ: What is your prediction for the next big color trend?
CKC: More saturated colors in unexpected combinations because I want it to be so. No more match-y match-y unless uber traditional which we are not.
SJ: What are the best color combinations?
CKC: Well this depends on the texture of what you are choosing! But always the unexpected ones. vintage wine with a light teal, french gray, and a deep blue.
SJ: Best advice when it comes to picking paint colors?
CKC: I call these My Paint Color 411:
1. always look at paint it in different locations in the room2. Do not be afraid to buy samples- big investment- get the samples3. never allow the colors you are considering to be next to each other4. do not color match ever- it is not the same- use the brand. 5. The easy way to see undertones is have a pure white piece of paper and look at it next to that- short and sweet but with a trained eye it works6. get a good education in art history- this is my background and it has been the biggest contributor to the way I see things in layers 7. do not use fleshy beige or smokers yellow- ever8. Buy the good paint- it is worth it9. paint your ceilings almost always10. it is a myth that your house will look good in the same colors you like to wear- not the same in any way!
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