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In 1774 an illiterate, pious and fervent young woman from Manchester England, led a handful of followers to the New World to seek religious freedom and freedom from persecution. Her name was Ann Lee and she founded a new Protestant sect that later became known as The Shakers. In their day, there were thousands of Shakers and many communities throughout NY and New England. Now there are 3. That's 3 people not communities. They lived communally and prided themselves on their hard work and piousness. The Shakers became known for their magnificent design of objects: Shaker furniture, baskets and boxes are highly collectible.  Even today, Shaker is one of the most popular kitchen cabinet styles. Cindy Dickinson, Education Director  at Shaker Hancock Village in the Berkshires of MA, joins me for a conversation about the Shakers. We dive into the Shaker colors, how they were used and what makes them so arresting. 

Tobi Saunders, owner of 1837 Color & Design, is a trained Architect and Color Consultant. At her company she specifies exterior color and materials for production builders around the county. These builders create large developments of single family and sometimes multi-family residences throughout the US with the predominance of construction happening in the Southern states where population shifts continue to aggregate. Keeping regionality, budget and variety at the forefront of her mind, Tobi uses principles of color theory, wielding her colorful wand to improve the look and feel of new communities in the making.

When you think of Scandinavian design the look of a colorless winter day comes to mind - think pale grey, white and perhaps washed out blue.  But this is a modern-day invention. Dagny Thurmann-Moe, the founder of Koi Colour & Design Studio designs exteriors, interiors, products, and CMF strategies for brands seeking a stronger identity through color, materials, and finishes. Dagny is known for challenging the idea of “timeless” design — instead creating time-bound and aesthetically sustainable environments that reflect culture, history, and human needs. She is the fearless proponent of bringing color back into Norwegian interiors and exteriors and is leading the campaign to add pinks, terracottas, greens and yellows back onto the urban cityscape like it was 400 years ago.  Check out her TedX talk on the topic and tune in to hear a true polymath talk about using color. 

"Mexico is not beige!" is a defining quote from one of Mexico's hottest new designers. Maye Ruiz is an interior designer, creative director of Maye Estudio, and one of the designers selected for the AD100 México & Latin America list, which recognizes the most influential designers and architects in the region. Her work stands out for its bold exploration of color, materiality, and visual storytelling, creating spaces that blend tradition, modernity, and a unique chromatic palette. Maye has built a career spanning residential, commercial, and hospitality design, always embracing color as a powerful tool for spatial transformation. Her design process is deeply influenced by color psychology, craftsmanship, and cultural context, resulting in interiors that tell stories and evoke identity. Based in San Miguel de Allende, that colorful and unique city, Maye's home, a Unesco Historic site, is the perfect backdrop for the ground breaking work she is doing. Check out her work on https://www.letstalkpaintcolor.com

If you've never walked into an interior which caused your jaw to drop then you haven't witnessed the overwhelming effect a built environment can have. There are few of these places extant and even fewer here in the United States. I'm lucky to live just a few miles from one - the hilltop home of the Hudson River School painter Frederic Church, Olana. Perched on a mountaintop overlooking the Hudson River, it's sited facing southwest to take in the views of the Catskill Mountains to the west and the winding path of the river down towards NYC. Olana is a sight to behold. Church was the most famous painter in America in the late 19th century. His massive paintings of the natural world wooed critics and the masses alike. Olana was his masterpiece. 250 acres of woodlands, lakes and carriage roads with a house unlike any built before. Its design was wrested from his imagination after trips to the Middle East. Exotic doesn't even begin to describe it. Its architecture and interior colors are unique. You've never seen a home as colorful as this. It shouldn't work, yet it does. Until you get the opportunity to visit Olana listen in. It's the next best thing.

We welcome back former co-host Amy Woolf to discuss the 2025 Colors of the Year and other design trends percolating right now. Which interior colors are the rage, what exterior paint colors are the most popular and what's new in furnishings and decor.  

Imagine the tagline for a new paint company "Paint your walls with rock instead of plastic." If that doesn't pique your interest I don't know what would. Meet Maya Crowne and Price Latimer, the entrepreneurs who conceived of a safe, plastic free interior house paint made from natural materials with minerals for pigmentation. It's a fascinating story about two women who never dreamed they would become paint manufacturers one day trying to change the way the world paints, one can at a time.

Think about the skills needed to create a paint color which matches a cat's fur coat. Now think about those needed to  transform the look of a big city transit hub. That describes the color chops of Architectural Color Consultant, Eve Ashcraft. She came to NYC after attending RISD and with her unique color skills became the creator of Martha Stewart's original paint line as well as the color-guru of Moynihan Train Hall in NYC. Through the decades, her prowess in the field and her client base grew to include esteemed commercial clients and countless residential home owners. Meet Eve and hear about her journey through the world of color.

What do Barbra Streisand, The LA Dodgers and Larry David have in common with one of America's most revered companies? Did you guess? They were all born in Brooklyn! In 1883 The Moore Brothers released their first coatings product and the paint world hasn't been the same since.  Benjamin Moore's products and colors are perceived as the pinnacle of good taste and quality.  Their color lines have expanded over the years to include almost 3500 colors adding a world of choice which delights and sometimes  overwhelms. My guest today is Andrea Magno, the Director of Color Marketing and Design at Benjamin Moore and it was my great pleasure to be able to go straight to the source to ask those questions we designers have been itching to. It's a free-wheeling and fun conversation which covers many topics all related to their fabulous range of paint hues.

While this episode began as an interview based on a book about kitchens, it became something much more -  A treatise about how we live in our homes, how to make a kitchen your own in ways which acknowledge who you are, how you live and what you love.  Sophie Donelson is a former Editor-in- Chief of House Beautiful Magazine. She is a design journalist, speaker, and strategist whose work celebrates the connection between people and their homes. Her 2023 book Uncommon Kitchens: A Revolutionary Approach to the Most Popular Room in the House is where our conversation starts. Sophie's humanistic and forgiving approach to design resonates. Packed with helpful ideas about how to consider your kitchen design she showcases tens of unique kitchens created by designers for themselves and their clients and by others as well.  When a conversation veers towards describing some colors as "the squeeze of lemon on a fishy pasta", compares matching  upper and lower kitchen cabinets to attaching one's blouse to their underwear and compares the size of some kitchen islands to Escalades you know you're in for a ride.

Think about  jazz, communism,  Dracula and wallpaper. Any commonalities? Tune into this episode to hear how they all converge.  My guest is Stefan Ormenisan, the founder and creative director of one of the most unique lifestyle brands, Mind the Gap. Conceived in Transylvania and sold all over the world, MTG offers wallpapers and textile patterns spun from tales of folklore and global cultures. Their products are a color lover's dream. Learn how this amazing company got off the ground and became who they are today. When a company's leader talks about connecting with people's souls, you know you're onto a stunningly singular business ethos. 

Ever walk into an art museum and find yourself just as mesmerized and transported by the color of the exhibition walls as you were by the art? Well, that wouldn't have been the ultimate goal of the exhibit designers but it does speak to the power of wall paint color, even in a museum setting.  My guest in this episode is Kathleen Morris, the Director of Collections and Exhibitions at The Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, MA and the Curator of Decorative Arts there, as well. Kathy shares her decades of experience helming a team of staff and freelance professionals whose jobs it is to create the ultimate museum experience. One of her most powerful tools is wall color. Learn what factors they consider when choosing wall colors for an exihibit, what colors often work well with which kind of art and hear how the public reacts to their choices.  It's a fascinating conversation and one which should send you high tailing it to the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute.

Think there's nothing more to a color than whether it's blue, red or green? If so, hold onto your hat.  On this, the first episode of our new interview based format, Architectural Color Consultant Amy Krane introduces our listeners to trained Color Consultant and Interior Designer,  Ellen Divers, who has spent the better part of the last decade studying how humans perceive color. Her findings  will change the way you choose colors for your space forever.

There are so many functional and aesthetic factors to consider when designing color for non-residential interiors. Your color choices must support a range of branding, comfort, productivity, and /or way finding goals, to name a few. Tens, hundreds or thousands of people may be users of this space and the color decision makers can be a plurality of people. Done well you can soothe an anxious patient, inspire a creative maker or focus a leader. The list goes on... All achieved by the thoughtful and educated application of good color. 

Is the modern farmhouse style exterior a trend or is it more entrenched in our collective mind as the epitome of what "home" is now? What are the architectural elements that define the modern farmhouse? Why did it come about and can we use those elements on other exterior house styles? We discuss this and more. The modern farmhouse. Are you yay or nay?