I felt happy, optimistic and excited in the space, but that's not surprising considering 1) I was on a sort-of vacation in 80 degree weather in the middle of winter and 2) turquoise is one of my favorite colors. These were good feelings, no doubt, but on the negative side, the room did lack a sense of sophistication. I definitely was not living in the lap of luxury. And I felt a bit child-like. That can be good...and bad.
Looking around in the morning light, the color still felt bright, fun, playful and energetic. It was definitely a very saturated hue. In my journal I referred to it as "a shot of espresso for the eyes." It was indeed a wake up call.
Overall, I had a positive reaction to the colors chosen for this room. I wrote "I'm a bit invigorated and looking forward to exploring today!" Could that be due in part to my room's colors? Possibly...
The second night I stayed in this room.
It was painted in Rhythm 167, a deep slate blue, and Rhythm 164, an acidic lime green. In this room, as shown, the slate was the dominant color and the green was the accent. Thankfully the distribution was not reversed. This is not a shy green.
My first thought when entering this room was that it worked much better with the denim "headboards." (There was definitely a color-coordination issue for me in the first space.) It also felt more sophisticated. The green had a funky, energetic vibe that complemented the deep blue, and seemed to keep it from getting overly moody.
In this space I felt a little more grown-up than in the turquoise room. It also had more of a hipster-esque quality. Was I cool enough to stay in a space like this? And, unlike the first room, I wasn't instantly taken to a specific place. The turquoise room felt decidedly beach-y. I could assign a locale to those colors. This space, not so much. It definitely had more of a winter-y feel, but if you asked me to describe where it transported me to, I had no answer.
This space definitely had less energy than the turquoise room, too. Although the green was a highly caffeinated color (like the turquoise), there was less of it so there wasn't as much of an energizing effect on me.
Waking up in the space the next morning, I was still struggling to make an association to the color palette. The colors were nice. They were more masculine than the first room, which could be good for some hotel guests, but it wasn't giving me the same jolt of happy energy. Not that I disliked them or anything, I just didn't know what to do with them. The colors did create sort of a cave-like effect, which, coincidentally, could be quite welcoming to guests looking for a respite from the hot desert sun.
Ultimately, I think this room made me a little moody. In my journal I wrote "Initially - thought this room looked really cool. Coordinated well with other materials/elements of the room. But, my emotional response was quite different."
And, here's the third room I stayed in.
The colors used were Digital 182, a very highly saturated yellow, and Urbanage 178, a mid-tone warm gray. The yellow was the dominant color, the grey the accent.
When I first entered this space, it felt very sunshine-y and happy...and definitely bold! It was very light reflective - much more so than the first two rooms. Although this room was treated with two colors like the others, the gray was so soft in comparison to the yellow that it almost completely receded into the shadowed corners of the white ceiling, giving the impression that this was a one color palette.
Although the yellow coordinated technically with the blue denim headboards, the primary color combination was very childlike to me (and not in a good way.) I did, however, love the touch of yellow on the old wooden school chair - almost seemed like an intentional design decision!
This was the one room where I really noticed a huge shift from day to night. In the natural light the yellow felt very energetic. Although I didn't have a strong personal association to the hue, it no doubt created a sense of super-sunshine. At night, it was a different story. In the artificial light, this highly reflective hue almost burned my eyes.
While lying in bed before going to sleep I wrote "Making me feel quite uncomfortable. There is a yellow glow to the room which makes me unsettled. Glad this color is behind the bed so I don't have to look at it!" Ouch!
To be fair, I continued with "There is also pounding in the unit above me. Are there elephants up there?"
I ended the journal entry with "Wow...the more I sit in here, the stronger my reaction is becoming. And I REALLY don't like it."
It's hard to say what was more agitating to me that evening. Was it the yellow? Or the elephants parading in the room upstairs? Was my negative response to the noise heightened by the color of the room? Or was that poor yellow just a victim of bad circumstance? That's the thing about environments. There are so many factors to take into consideration. Color is just one of those factors. Albeit a very important one.
There's no doubt that the rooms' hues played a significant role in my experience at The Ace Hotel. I definitely responded to each of the three rooms differently. There is one thing I wish would have been different about this project, however. I felt it was a missed opportunity to not paint the rooms in their entirety. Being completely surrounded by color in a room is quite different than just being exposed to an accent wall or two, which is essentially what we experienced. Would I have experienced the same feelings in rooms painted entirely in these palettes? Would I still have enjoyed the turquoise room, or would it have been "too much" turquoise? I imagine the spaces would have had a more enclosed feeling, making the cave-like room feel even more cave-like. Great, if that's the effect we are going for.
All in all, this was a really cool experiment to be a part of. I am so curious to know how the experience would change under different circumstances. What if it was a hotter time of year? What if there was no noise in the room above me? What if the rooms were completely painted in the palettes instead of just accent walls? What if the ceilings were painted? What if the entire room decor was coordinated with the paint colors?
So many questions that I think we need to take another trip to Palm Springs to get some answers. Comex, Arkitip and Ace - Thank you so much for the great opportunity. I hope we can do it again sometime.
