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Confidence With Color with Kelly Gale Amen
Color is king when it comes to creating memorable rooms. A sure hand with this magical force can imbue interiors with any wished-for mood, from dramatic to demure, romantic to rocking. Sure is one of the many talents of kelly Amen, a maestro at orchestrating color (as well as design’s other tools) for ultimate pleasure and impact.
Interior design begins with color and the reflection of light from that color,” says Houston, Texas, interior designer Kelly Amen. His shimmering hues, exotic glazes, and daringly tinted ceilings create sophisticated backdrops for family antiues, fine contemporary art, and his own custom-designed furnishings.
“For me, the excitement comes from working with surprising and playful hues that represent an unusual juxtaposition,” Amen continues. “If you stick with the laws of nature – light, the colors of the earth – rather than someone else’s rules, you can never go wrong.” In Amen-designed environments, walls are layered with greens suggesting a shadowy forest, or textured with a melding of plum and lavender to pay homage to the passing of the seasons. Pearl tints glaze gold ceilings, and amber and ivory washes heighten the drama of aubergine.
“I can’t say exactly why such combinations work,” Amen says. “I see and feel colors and the energy they create together.” This seeing and feeling, along with an independent spirit, has its roots in Amen’s Oklahoma childhood and artistic talents. “I can’t remember when I wasn’t arranging and rearranging,” Amen recalls. “My mother tells the story of how I first started moving her flower vases around when I was a small child. I never stopped.”
With such an early interest in decorating and art, Amen studied interior design at the University of Oklahoma and made the deliberate choice to work for an upscale Houston department store. “I chose not to work for an independent designer because I didn’t want to be influenced by someone else’s viewpoint,” he says. by 1974, he had established his own design studio, with clients who appreciated his penchant for bold color and experimentation. Amen’s free design spirit has been balanced with an educated eye for art and fine antiques. “One of the most interesting aspects of design is that I don’t have the reverence that can stifle so much of the creative process,” he explains.
“I’ve never had anyone tell me I couldn’t, shouldn’t, or might not.” Instead, Amen works with clients as he refines the interchange of color and texture and the deft mix of traditional versus contemporary that are his career constants. The stunning, striking results are sometimes serious, sometimes whimsically flirtatious.
“The stimulation of design is there will always be surprises in any project,” he adds. “The best elements of design to my mind are the beautiful mistakes that just happen and are exactly right. The process is one of boldly jumping in and going where the project leads you.”
For Amen, the process begins with color in everchanging hues, tints, and techniques. “Color is life to me; color inspires me.Once my clients live with color, they find it almost impossible to live without it. Taking that first bold step can be very unnerving, but painting a room is the least expensive thing you can do. And the more layers you put on, the more luxurious it becomes. People worry too much about matching colors in design. I don’t think you can ever match – light and sun are always changing – but you can successfully blend or massage colors.”
What Amen does exceptionally well is create wholehouse color schemes for his clients. Sometimes, he works totally from scratch; other times he starts with clients’ rugs, art, or upholstered furniture. “For every house I do, I begin with about two hundred colors I put on a table, and I pick from there,” the designer explains. I find I need that many for the choices I want.” From the palettes of several favorite paint companies, Amen edits down to about 70 choices, then to about 30 favored shades for the custom finishs he tends to use in most of his projects.
“Then I walk through the house and start my placement on the walls and ceilings,” he explains. “I’m open to what will work. Color gives you the ability to not hurry into the possession of objects. When a home is beautifully painted and the shell is beautiful, you can take your time to find the right furniture and art.”
Just as he doesn’t limit himself to numbers of colors, neither does Amen impose restrictions on paint finishes or decorative treatments. “One of the things I most like to do with a color is to choose one wonderful, rich dramatic shade and then have it applied in matte, eggshell, gloss, and glaze finishes in the same room – from walls and built-ins to the ceiling and trim. The mix always seems incredible as light hits the finishes from different vantage points.”
Coloring the ceiling is an Amen signature of which he is justly proud. “The ceiling is one-sixth of the space of a room,” he says. “To me, it’s criminal to leave it unappointed. I go beyond doing a tint of the wall color to choosing a color and a glaze that are beautiful in their own right.” With so much saturated color in a room, the designer finds visual relief in the trims. “The crispness and contrast of the woodwork against layers of paint on the wall and ceiling are always interesting,” he continues. “I enjoy the effect of painting all the woodwork in a house either white or a neutral and glazing it either ecru or beige. The consistency of the woodwork throughout the house is one of those design quirks that I find stimulating. It’s a unifying technique.”
Also unifying is Amen’s use of mirrors – as wall treatment, backdrops for built-inss, or beautifully framed art. “Mirroring is fabulous because people become the art,” the designer says. “Mirrored surfaces help you do something wonderful in transitional spaces such as foyers or halls. I enjoy the effect of art or a framed mirror hung over a mirrored wall. And one of my favorite ways is to leave a window undressed or barely dressed and double the light with a mirrored wall that accents windows or window seats.”
From these backdrops, which he calls the shells of interiors, Amen moves seamlessly to the furnishings. He often works with family antiques, frequently pairing them with his own custom-designed pieces. And with his interest in art, he uses Houston artists to create painted designs of flowers, animals, and even insects for silk chair or sofa coverings. “Thisis a great way to cover those inevitable spots on upholstery when a family lives in their house,” he says. “I like something a client said: ‘The trace of human beings has never been alarming to me.”
Recycling is another of Amen’s talents. He encourages clients to save old draperies or upholstery that can be recycled for sofa or floor pillows. “Elements of our past lives should be carried into each new transition as our lives change and we adjust to new situations,” he adds.
But what the designer calls integration of the old and new, past and present, also means careful refinement of elements. “I encourage my clients toward a minimalism with their accessories. Filling bookshelves with books you don’t read or cluttering the coffee table with five hundred things is frankly a nuisance. And who wants to bother with that much inventory in life? Besides, if you pick only the best, or pick what you love to live with every day, you can integrate any period or style into your home. That’s a Kelly Amen rule. And I don’t make many rules.”
Although he helps clients choose art and accessories with discernment, a Kelly Amen-designed home isn’t truly finished. “Interior design is an evolution,” he says. “It never stops. When you quit adding one little element of change, a room dies. A room should be like a beautiful, classic dress that you keep changing with your accessories.”
TRADITIONAL HOME SIGNATURE STYLE is a 192-page hardcover book filled with beautiful and stunning interiors created by eight of our favorite interior designers. Readers of Traditional Home have a special, one-time-only opportunity to order Signature Style at the retail price, $39.95, and have it shipped to their homes at no extra cost. To order a copy or get more information, cal 800/517-4386. Books will be shipped in mid-September.
