Faded shade shines anew

In my house, the colour palette is neutral: the walls are pale linen, the sofa is light brown, the rugs are natural sisal and the dishes are white.

I find neutrals calming, tasteful and restful. And the perfect backdrop for anything and everything, all seasons of the year, whether the shade is taupe, tan, ecru, almond, cream or ivory. Or lavender.

Once considered old-fashioned, best left for the baby's room, lavender has, of late, become a go-to colour for walls, ceilings, fabrics and furniture, showing up in magazines, catalogues, show houses and designers' portfolios.

"It's gone beyond the sweet old lady thing," said Washington designer Whitney Stewart. "It's something new and fresh that we can use in the same way as the beiges."

This season, Crate and Barrel is selling lavender stemware. Pottery Barn's summer paint palette includes a shade of lavender. And, last autumn on the fashion runway, from where interior design often takes its cues, a pale lavender wedding gown appeared among a sea of white and ivory.

Many people have a misconception about neutrals, designers say. Neutral does not have to mean shades of beige. It is a background colour that does not call attention to itself but allows everything around it to stand out.

New pairing

The wide spectrum of lavenders — tending towards pink, blue, grey or white — can adapt to almost any colour or design style. Paired with warm, dark wood finishes, lavender can seem cool and refined. Near a cool, pale green, lavender comes across as warm and lively. "It can pick up the qualities of any colour," said Chicago designer Anne Coyle.

"There's no colour that it can't mix with. Lavender is the new neutral." Coyle says lavender is always her first choice — and it is the colour of the walls in her home furnishings store in the Bucktown neighbourhood of Chicago. Despite a rotating stock of items in a mix of colours and styles, she says, nothing ever looks bad with the lavender walls. She likes the colour with black and white, brown, grey, celadon (green), mustard yellow, contemporary furniture and antiques. "It's like grey but more racy, more fun,'' she said.

"It's like the crazy aunt of grey."

Stewart recently used a taupey lavender as the principal colour in the living room of a client's Georgetown home.

Jeannie Tower, a Washington feng shui consultant, says the colour not only looks beautiful, but can make you feel good, too. "It's a nesting colour," Tower said. "You want an environment that's calm, surrounded by things that inspire you. Lavender will do that."

Designer tips: Modernity is a new hue

"Lavender is really pretty in a modern room with a grey or taupe colour," says Sarah Wessel, of Washington.

She prefers lavender wallpaper and fabrics to paint, which she feels can look cold and she likes to pair lavender walls with a celadon ceiling and would take a chance with orange: "Kind of crazy, but kind of fun".

"Go really pale or really deep," says Chicago designer Anne Coyle. "Avoid midrange because it tends to look childish." She likes it with modern and antique furnishings, gold frames and dark wood. It pairs beautifully with brown, celadon, grey, mustardy yellows and black and white.

"It's a happy colour," says New York's Mario Buatta. "It's a beautiful background for women's complexions — particularly brunettes." He thinks it pairs well with blue and white fabrics, apricot, pink and green apple.

Be careful with yellows, he cautions, and red can be "a little touchy". He offers this paint recipe for the timid: three parts Lavender Ice, one part Polar White (both from Benjamin Moore). And to women whose men will not consider lavender, this advice: "Most men aren't aware of the colour of the room they are in ... Just don't tell them it is lavender."

Lavender "lends itself to gem colours", such as garnet, sapphire and certain topazes, Washington designer Whitney Stewart says.

She likes to use it with cream and off-white, grey, brown, dusty pink and taupe and midnight blue and white.

"The best shades are those that have been paled-down, dirtied, weathered," says London designer and author Stephanie Hoppen. "This makes them sophisticated rather than sweet; stylish and never cloying — and far from dull."

Her choice for colour companions: amethyst and other darker shades of lavender, creamy colours, all the brown shades and lime green accents.

"Lavender looks great with platinum, silver and greige, but can also be a fantastic ground for a more exotic colour adventure when spiced with saffron, magenta and beet juice," e-mailed New York designer Jamie Drake.

He would pair it with black and white and with dark, antique brown furniture.