Breaking out of the beige box into a vivid world of colour

Washington

FEAR of colour drove homeowners Kendall and Tiffany Coleman into a neutral safety zone. "All the colours in our house were white and light grey," says Tiffany, a closet designer.

"I'm not into crazy, neon colours and didn't think I could live with them," adds Kendall, an accountant.

But the Colemans' renovation of their 1960s house in Reston, Virginia, finished last summer, completely changed their outlook. Now the couple enjoy walls covered in US paint company Benjamin Moore's True Blue in the kitchen, Outrageous Orange in the powder room and Sunflower yellow in the basement. "They make a huge difference in brightening up the interior," says Kendall.

How did the Colemans overcome their chromophobia? "The architect wore us down," says Kendall, referring to Richard Loosle-Ortega of Kube Architecture, a Washington firm known for vividly accented spaces. "Rich did 3D models to show us what the colours would look like. That convin…