Practically Fabulous Explainer
The Who, What, Why, How & Huh?!
Wondering what Practically Fabulous is all about? Read on..
WHAT?
Practically Fabulous is about colour for joy’s sake. It’s an exploration of the ways colours, patterns and function interact and play together in interior and exterior spaces. My tools of choice are artificial intelligence (AI), human intelligence (mine), and my camera (phone). It’s a space to celebrate playful creativity and to explore answers to this question:
‘What haven’t I seen that might delight me?’
I’m creating little corner of the internet as celebration of spaces and colours that entice and embolden us to create our own uniquely delightful environments, moving away from choices made out of convention or habit.
It’s about WHAT IFs?! & WHY NOTs?! It's about colour for the sake of joy.
WHO?
Hi, I'm Vanessa! Born and bred among the tropical colours of St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands, I’ve lived in 36 homes in 8 countries on 4 continents. My hope is to NOT reach the 40 homes milestone. Given my track record, my hope is likely unrealistic optimism, BUT a life lived without dreams is a life I don’t want to live ;-).
With previous and current careers in international public health and early childhood education, the joyous aesthetics of colour interior design are my most recent professional passion and it continues to be a joy to learn and grow in this field. You can listen to me talk about career change on this podcast interview with fellow teacher, interior designing Substack writer, Hannah Ashe!
HOW?
ABOUT SUBSCRIPTIONS:
I have three subscription options available, and you can choose the one that feels RIGHT for you:
FABULOUS FREE SUBSCRIBER: Continue to support my work by reading and enjoying it.
No cold hard cash involved!
PAYING PATRON SUBSCRIBER: Continue to support my work by reading and enjoying it & become a patron of my creative pursuits with €5.00 of monthly support or €50 of annual support.
What will I do with your hard earned money, you may ask?!…
Use a wee bit of it to purchase Pierre Marcolini chocolates which I will blissfully enjoy while I write and create colourful content for your consuming pleasure!
Put most of it into a digital piggy bank, saving up for the Colour Advisor course from NCS (Natural Colour System®). This course will allow me to create even better colour and interiors delights for you!
Think of this Paying Patron Subscriber option as a scholarship(U.S.)/bursary(UK) contribution, with some high quality chocolate thrown in.
PREMIUM PAYING PATRON SUBSCRIBER: Continue to support my work by reading and enjoying it, and with €150 of annual support select from one of the following 1-to-1 COLOURFUL DESIGN DIALOGUE services:
60 minute video chat with me to talk about any and all things colour, interior design, or AI.
20-minute video chat with me to discuss your residential or commercial interior design project. Within 2 weeks I will send you 2 concept images created using artificial intelligence, each with a colour palette. These images will not be to scale or exact copies of your space, rather they will serve as inspiration for colour palettes and interior style.
2 personalised colour palettes. These can be based on a 20-minute video chat with me or on your responses to a brief questionnaire. These will be emailed to you within 2 weeks after completion of the video chat or questionnaire.
60-minute video chat tutorial with me, to learn tips and tricks of creating interiors images with AI.
HUH?
Here are a few of my previous posts to give you a sense of what is here:
#034. WANTED: A City Called Home
#033. Purple Magic for Kids
#027. Blended Interior Design Styles
WHY?
In 2015, my now husband I and visited the paint department of our local hardware store, to choose a shade of blue for one wall in our newly shared home. We thought it would be an quick and easy errand. Instead, we found ourselves staring at an enormous wall of blue rectangles… hundreds of little blue rectangles, each ever so slightly different from the rectangle directly above and below.
Surprised, but yet undaunted, we starting leafing through the paint sample cards…
“This one? Maybe darker?”
“More greenish maybe. And lighter. Ooo, how about this one?”
“Too dark. This is nice.”
“Hmm, no, too blue.”
“TOO blue? But, we’re looking for blue!”
We quickly realised that we were not up to the task. We retreated to research a new plan of action. Luckily, we found a professional colour tamer who deeply understood those rectangles of 1000s colours. An online interior designer advised the perfect blue, and proceeded to help us transform our entire home into an attractive and colourful sanctuary that we both loved. My obsession with interiors was thus sparked, and that initial blue seed has continued to grow and blossom ever since. I’m now a qualified interior designer myself, and ready to help others demystify those rainbow rectangles!
I humbly and happily invite you into my Practically Fabulous Substack home. I hope my words and images bring much delight, I hope you stay a while and share some of yours too!
- Vanessa :-)