“I always, always match blooms with the house colour”, I heard a garden designer say not so long ago. In my part of the world, most house facades come in more or less neutral colours. Most commonly there are red/yellow/brown brick facades or rendered ones with white or cream. Red painted wooden facades are part of Sweden’s architectural history. In other parts of the world, colour is a lot more common. I’m not sure why that is, do you? Different temperaments, history, cultural outlooks perhaps? Another factor might be the climate. To me it seems brightly coloured buildings are more often found in warmer latitudes. In a harsh northern European climate with dark winters when nature only offers murky/oatmeal colours, bright house facades look out of place.
Cambridge dictionary defines ‘match’ as: to be similar to or the same as something, or to combine well with someone or something else. I think this leaves the word open to interpretation, “combine well” is surely a subjective matter?
In my mind it’s clearly a lot easier to combine blooms and neutral facades. When a large building has a bright, strong colour it becomes domineering. The constructions shown here with extremely full on yellow and a slightly softer pink coloured facades have been combined with nothing but green vegetation. I think that works well and looks stylish.
The last photo of the cute red cottage is fronted with a flower bed overflowing with blooms in matching reds, but also contrasting blue with pink as a sweet sidekick. Together they provide a clear image of a romantic, traditional garden. It works equally well. So what am I trying to say here? Where architecture lead, gardens will follow? Or that colour matching well is tricky?
