Hasta La Ideas

For interior designer Jamie Drake, known for his decidedly unbeige aesthetic, the global economic crisis is no reason to retreat to a neutral palette. “I don’t think this is a time to flee color,” Drake told The New York Observer‘s Max Abelson in a recent interview. “I’ve been predicting a move away from fully saturated colors—the intense citrus orange, the intense chartreuse green—to more pastelized colors, to colors that are a little more springlike fresh. And I think that’s perfectly appropriate in a time when, you know what, you need a little optimism, and especially in your home.”

Drake notes that the recession has “majorly affected” the interior design industry, and while clients haven’t halted in-progress projects, “We’re all concerned about what will come down the road in six to nine months to a year, when projects that are currently in the works are completed.” How are his clients tightening their Hermès belts? “A client a year, year and a half ago, who was considering a high-six-figure desk—which did end up selling at that time, not to my client—we’re now looking at a desk in the low five figures.” Recession or not, Drake likes to mix it up: “What I find exciting is working on different things,” he said. “If I worked on the same thing day in and day out I would fall asleep, go into a Rumpelstiltskin 100-year nap. Was it Rumpelstiltskin who went into a 100-year nap? Somebody took a 100-year nap.”

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