Tea at Trianon: Color Psychology

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Friday, April 10, 2026

Color Psychology

camino rivestito con piastrelle

bagno blu

From Architectural Digest:

The project began with a clear concept: to make color a key component of the space. “We didn’t use color as merely a finish, but as a design element,” explains architect Ciro Scognamiglio of AreaDieci Architetti—alongside Francesca Sannino, he was responsible for the apartment’s reimagined interior design. Instead of tackling the previously modern interior as a neutral box to be repainted, the architect duo created a coherent design strategy in which every vertical surface and piece of furniture participated in a precise system built around color. Cooler tones, which are used throughout this project, evoke tranquility and a sense of spaciousness. The interior firm mainly stuck to this side of the color wheel in their renovation. Now, inside the apartment, light bounces off jewel-like surfaces, and color becomes a tool to connect spaces, not separate them. (Read more.)