Design doesn’t always hang on where you live; it also hinges on the history. Both will affect your styles, colors, and preferences more than you know. If you grew up in the same area, this will make perfect sense. If you moved from another town, or country, it will drive you slightly crazy.
I’ve been fiddling with a post on what defines California design and realized I didn’t have time to write a book – the state is so large and has so many regional differences, it alone could be divided into another dozen states.So I thought I’d write a post on color and regional design, and then as I delved in, it really grew into this – how our regional pasts infuse our present, even if we’re not aware of it.
So, in order to talk about what makes your corner of the world unique and how it influences color and style choices, I should talk about my little corner of the world. Make sense? Because what seems "normal" here is going to seem pretty wild to other places in the world...
Welcome to Northern California
Both the climate and the scenery here are similar to Tuscany – I live close to Napa Valley, so the similarities are even more pronounced – warm all year round, a bit of rain for a couple months in the winter, and then summer again. (Except for this year – yuck.)
This area of Alta California was once a province of Spain and then again a territory of Mexico in the 1700s. Less than 200 years ago, this was an area of rancheros with well-to-do Spanish families, Mexicans, native Americans, and very few American pioneers – the wagon trains hadn’t made their collective rush to this area until the early 1800s. The Gold Rush of 1848 – 1855 brought the big rush of immigrants, including Chinese, Russians, and Italians. (As a side-note to understand what that means today, it’s tough finding good German butchers, or French patisseries, but I can always find home-made raviolis like that. *snaps*)
The colors of the land are wheat-yellow and a mixture of greens that are darker than sage, lighter than avocado-skin, and yellow-green like a half-ripened lemon. Cypress trees grow next to pines, olive trees, palms and eucalyptus.
So what does that mean for colors that people select?
Because there’s so much light, there’s a strong preference for rich warm woods, for vanillas and creams instead of bright whites, for golds and terracotta tones, and for cool tiles when the temperatures reach over 100 F (38C).
People moving to this area expecting all modern are surprised. (It’s coming. I’m not talking about the new immigrant base of younger people who are used to traveling the world and bringing back what they’re seeing.) We jokingly refer to as California Eccentric – Japanese with Italian, Mexican with Greek.
From the golds, browns, and terracottas of this:

To the grain/peach tones/stainless of this:

And the warm tones of this:

Even our cool choices have a hint of warmth, more red-based than blue or green:
Where are you going with this?
Darned if I know. *scratching head* Oh, wait. There was a point: All these things - history, climate, and tradition hold more power than you think. If you move into an area that you’re only going to be a short time, don't go wild, especially if you're thinking of short term and then resale. It's hard to fight perceived value and "what's always been done."
I once saw a show where the couple had done a stunning contemporary kitchen in their home – DIY, sleek steel gray cabinets, concrete counters, great lighting. The only problem was this was South Carolina. When the homeowners went to sell, the general viewpoint of potential buyers was, “Ewww....” (Perhaps I paraphrased, but not by much.) It would not sell until they remodeled the kitchen.
If you’re going to stay in the home, then make it yours; otherwise, spend some time getting to know the region.
What's in your neck of the woods that we might find exotic or unusual?