With the dawn of a new year, it is always a perfect time to think of life as a fresh white sheet of paper, ready for new scribbles, drawings, thoughts and dreams. Technically a colour without colour, white represents virtue and purity (think of the time-honoured white wedding dress), cleanliness and hygiene (think of the butler’s immaculate white gloves). White is both simple and sophisticated, discreet and daring. White will heighten a sense of space (for example, it is the ideal colour for ceilings) and is particularly reflective. White is the ardent minimalist’s colour of choice and the perfect colour to showcase all other hues.
Snow
What better representation is there of white in nature than fluffy white snow?
While white is typically the minimalist’s colour of choice, and it also provides a clean backdrop for an array of furnishings and objects. Moreover, white perfectly accentuates varied hues, shapes and materials.
White accents frame this minimal house in Monterrey, Mexico, by Spanish architect Alberto Campo Baeza with local firm GLR Arquitectos. Image by Javi Callejas via Dezeen.
Villa Lumi (Lumi is Finnish for snow) in Nummela, Finland, by Avanto Architects. Image by Anders Portman and Martin Sommerschield via Dezeen.
Raumplan House in Aravaca, Madrid, Spain, by architect Alberto Campo Baeza. Image by Javier Callejas via Alberto Campo Baeza.
White Wares
White wares are those furniture pieces, lights and objects (often bravely) presented in white. To the design aficionado (this writer included), such wares are for use by adults only.
‘Got Milk?’ is a long-running slogan promoting milk consumption in the USA. Whoopi Goldberg appears in a 1999 advert sporting the well-known milk mustache. (Bozell Public Relations via Associated Press). Image via Los Angeles Times.
Milk in the winsome CORKY carafe designed by Andreas Engesvik for Muuto. Image via Muuto.
Gerard is a writer, a thinker and a modern-day gentleman living in a modish neighbourhood in south Belfast. Walnut Grey Design is his popular manifesto of good design. From Gerard’s discerning perspective, design should be aesthetic, smart, honest and gratifying. Moreover, it must be for keeps.
A self-confessed urbanite, Gerard is enthralled b[...]
