A book recently came out all about color. It's a beautiful book written by Joann and Arielle Echstut called the Secret Language of Color, and of course, every chapter deals with an individual color. I am planning on buying it and displaying it with the other 576 books I have on my coffee table about home décor. But red seems to have its own special category. For example, the majority of flags in the world contain red. Or red is the international color for stop. Red is the color of good luck; that's why a roulette wheel has red slots on it. Brides in India and Japan wear red wedding dresses. But best of all, red is one of the top two colors for ALL people. What's not to like??? (BTW, most of this paragraph is one big Useless Factoid of the Week....)
Then why is there this perception that red is a bad color for our homes??? Maybe if you are one of those people when you were young that had furniture upholstered in a red damask fabric, kept clean from your sweaty little hands and the pets' dirty paws by lovely slipcovers made of clear plastic, then red might not be your favorite upholstery color. Maybe you live in a place that has vampires and you are adverse to that neck-biting, blood sucking thing they do? Maybe you read Anne Rice books late at night?? Or have you seen too many Freddie Kruger movies?? Maybe you drank that Starbucks coffee that had carmine in it and were repulsed that you were actually drinking the proverbial "bug juice"??
Yep, that stuff in most anything and most everything red is made from a bug called Dactylopius coccus, a dweller of the prickly pear cactus. Its technical name is cochineal. It's found in meat, sausages, and red marinade, fruit preparations, jams, gelatin desserts, juice beverages, non-carbonated soft-drinks, baked goods, confections, icings, toppings and dairy products. The Aztecs were the first to harvest it. Then the Spanish, after coming over and giving the native peoples a bunch of nasty diseases, figured out how to export it and many a fortune was made from drying and mashing up these little bugs. And of course, with the way Mom Nature does stuff, they only use female bugs. If you are feeling sorry for the bugs, think about this: all the other red dyes are pretty much carcinogenic. I'm sticking with the bugs.
You cannot know how much I really want to post here a wonderful little red pillow for everyone to see that I have for sale in my Esty store. But this blog is not about me... oh wait, it is MY blog... so here are a few fun red hot items for your home.
Believe it or not, this is a photograph of a red vase. I love the gerbera daisies in it. And you can't beat the name of the company... at least if you are a woman... LipstickGraphics. Photographer Peter Gravina has some great black and white if you are interested in that as well. Here is the link https://www.etsy.com/listing/126465425/red-gerber-daisies-in-red-vase-color?ref=sr_gallery_7&ga_search_query=red+vase&ga_ship_to=US&ga_ref=auto2&ga_explicit_scope=1&ga_search_type=handmade&ga_view_type=gallery
If you really like red and want folks to be wowed in your entrance way, check out this wonderful console table from the WoodWork Man, Phillip Bennett. He has a lot of what one would call Shabby Chic pieces. Great looking workmanship.
https://www.etsy.com/listing/93051329/console-table-handcrafted-shabby-red?ref=shop_home_active_13
And last but not least, something fun from Hammock Boutique is this red hammock chair. This is such great summertime fun!! The shop also uses indigenous Mayan women to weave their products.https://www.etsy.com/listing/179905891/red-chair-hammock-with-tassels-handwoven?ref=shop_home_feat_1
Well, pretty soon I will be seeing red if I don't get to cocktail hour. It's 5:00 somewhere.......
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