Bennison's Fade

Photo courtesy Flickr

I discovered the work of Geoffrey Bennison in the Nineties while leafing through glossy shelter magazines. He designed fabrics in the deep tradition of English country houses. Bennison’s work looks faded when brand new, yet has the structural integrity of textiles undamaged by sun. This aged quality is an asset when refreshing a room that achieved its best some time in the past.

Over time, I have realized that fading blends accumulated furnishings and brings gentle harmony to a collection. Diana Phipps, author of Affordable Splendor, defines a set of pigments that are common to traditional architecture and furnishings. An art supply store will carry color chips for reference. Many of these colors are earth-based, and as such are color-fast and non-toxic.

Learn to recognize chrome yellow, yellow ochre, burnt sienna, raw sienna, burnt umber, raw umber, Vandyke brown, Venetian red, cadmium red, vermilion, alizarin crimson, terre verte, viridian, cobalt blue, ultramarine, Prussian blue, black, and white. White before 1970 was based on lead and slightly yellow. I won’t use toxic pigments, but it makes sense to copy the old effect.

The first time we painted our 1890 house, I chose a period color, a reddish brown. As the color faded and we repainted small areas, I matched the fade. The next time we had the whole structure painted, the color was approaching Venetian red, the original royal purple. I stayed close to the faded color, because by that time the landscaping and interiors had been keyed to the veteran paint. When it’s time to paint again, I’ll push the color back toward a darker shade, to retain the excellent passive solar gain it affords.

A faded atmosphere need not be a sad one. If it’s freshly maintained and accented with white and polished brass, it looks comforting. It is also comforting to know the conservative strategy for interior design: do it right once in the beginning and stick to your guns. It’s a small matter to bring a room up to date with state of the art lighting and new small furnishings like pillows. Over time, the value of classics will make itself apparent, and classics are often the best value as used things.

Spend time looking through glossy shelter magazines from previous decades. Besides their being a hoot, you may find that design of lasting value literally leaps off the page. Sometimes, I find that looking at old products gives me an eye for the insights of good contemporary designers. My great-grandmother’s cut-glass decanter has a profile that could have been designed by Ettore Sottsass for his Memphis collection.

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