“I often triangulate a room’s accent colors. In my living room, the throw pillow chromatically connects to the chair upholstery and my mother’s joyous still life with its saturated hues.”
—Jamie Drake
Designer Jamie Drake On The Influence Of Art + Color In His Work
For designer Jamie Drake, the influence of art and color is deeply personal.
Does the past color the future? For interiors wizard Jamie Drake, long celebrated for fearlessly deploying all things chromatic, the answer is a resounding “yes.”
Drake traces his vibrant design psyche to his art-loving parents. Growing up near New Haven, Connecticut, Drake knew early, “the glory of Louis Kahn’s Yale University Art Gallery, a magical poetry of concrete, circular stair and interlocking triangles”—still among his favorite forms and materials, and the catalyst for his living room’s concrete-inspired Venetian plaster walls. His mother, a Yale Art School student who put down her brushes to raise Drake and his brothers, enlivened the family home with her canvases. Two live in Drake’s residence today. One, “a tree in a forest, heavily manipulated with a palette knife, in blues and greens,” he says influenced his technique for repeating various shades of a color throughout a room. The other, “a still life with a panoply of bright, fresh colors,” factors into his living room’s tonal composition (pictured).
The designer’s early discovery of pots of shiny, intensely colored inks at his father and grandfather’s printing company proved equally formative to his brilliant color ethos, usually implemented atop a foundation of neutrals. His recent New York Kips Bay Decorator Show House space illustrates the enduring appeal of this mix. Starting with “the orangey terracotta of the old brick floor as a base tone,” Drake animated the outdoor area with a coral banquette, along with complementary turquoise and aqua accents which he credits with “injecting invigorating energy.”
Drake’s palettes continue to evolve intuitively. “There are periods of more chromatic intensity,” he explains, “and others that migrate towards more subtle tones.” Always, his goal remains constant: to keep the eye delighted—and dancing.