28 Electrifying Ways to Use the Color Orange in Your Home
![Homeowner Simon Doonan stands next to the front door. "We have flamboyance, and we’re not inhibited about anything. [Architect] Gray Organschi gave [the house] that intellectual rigor needed to make it beautiful. We were well matched."](https://images2.dwell.com/photos/6063391372700811264/6133456033994792960/original.jpg?auto=format&q=35&w=160)
Homeowner Simon Doonan stands next to the front door. "We have flamboyance, and we’re not inhibited about anything. [Architect] Gray Organschi gave [the house] that intellectual rigor needed to make it beautiful. We were well matched."
Webber + Studio went with a bold, orange hue for these kitchen countertops. Past the front door and a short hallway lies an expansive living, dining, and kitchen space.
In this custom-built London guesthouse kitchen designed by Studiomama, lustrous vertically clad cabinetry achieves additional depth with the addition of the chairs, which were picked up for $15 each at a local market and powder coated in bright orange.
This bach in New Zealand was designed with a combined open-plan kitchen, living room, and dining area, for which homeowner and architect Gerald Parsonson designed a dining table that seats ten. Bare bulbs, open shelves, and bright orange MDF cabinets in the kitchen maintain the low-key vibe.
For a cost-conscious 2,000-square-foot renovation located 30 minutes outside of Austin, Texas, architect Nick Deaver took a look around for inspiration. He spied galvanized metal cladding on the region’s sheds and co-opted the inexpensive, resilient material for his own design. He then applied locally quarried Lueders limestone near the entrance—a warm contrast to the steely facade.
Architect Bill Ryall installed vertical circulation elements, opened an unobstructed 47-foot-long view from front to back, and kept the ceiling beams exposed to create a loft-like environment.
The bright orange frame of this glazed door adds a sense of modern exuberance to the deck off of Francesco Moncada and Mafalda Rangel’s bedroom. The sunny, open space reveals both a Loop chair by Willy Guhl and the tile rooftops of Syracuse, where the water is never far off.
The flooring throughout the interior is maple. A vintage Ercol sofa and arm chair, Eclipse coffee table by Stua, Wide Wale rug by Bev Hisey Textile Design, and Moon floor lamp by Estiluz Spain furnish the living room. "Extensive planning went into ‘aging in place’ forecasting a host of different scenarios about what that meant physically and psychologically," architect Alex Tedesco says. "We did ‘day in the life’ modeling to understand all the various barrier free requirements that might arise."
The kids’ room of the Milford Residence in Portland, Oregon is outfitted with a cheerful orange Case Study daybed from Modernica and a selection of vintage maps and artwork.
Linda Taalman and Alan Koch, of Taalman Koch Architects, completed work on their glass iT House, a lovely, minimal home that tests the limits of living lightly on the land in the desert near Joshua Tree National Park. The bath and basin in the bathroom are by Duravit, and the orange wall is by Three Form.
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Inspired by the sea and sand, Richard and Jackie Willcocks chose blue and orange joinery colors for their 1,140-square-foot prefab. The modular home is by New South Wales company ArchiBlox.
Designed by Atelier Du Pont, this breathtaking property exists in harmony with the surrounding landscape. Oriented in a manner that creates minimal impact on the existing terrain, the house idyllically nestles into nature, with vast views of the encompassing trees and vegetation. Inside, an orange Ligne Roset Sofa provides a comfortable space for rest and relaxation. A triangular window provides a picture of the tree canopy beyond, while drawing in natural light.
The playful aesthetics of Austin Maynard Architects have once again breathed new life into aging building stock—this time with the transformation of a dark and narrow terrace in Melbourne into an open and light-filled home fitted out with sustainable features. Upstairs, the "parents’ retreat" includes a centrally located bathroom "box," seen on the left of the image. The bright orange walkway is perforated to let natural light pass through.
After buying a site overlooking an inlet called Smuggler’s Cove, Gabriel Ramirez asked two architects—Norman Millar, dean of the Woodbury School of Architecture, and Judith Sheine, head of the architecture department at the University of Oregon—to design the house. Boi sconces, which David Weeks designed for Ralph Pucci, illuminate the bedroom in this Sea Ranch residence.
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Designed and built in 1878 for Judge John Murphy, this 4,400-square-foot white structure has, from the outside, the undeniable characteristics of a classic San Francisco Victorian. Stepped back from the street and resting genteelly at the top of a large hill, the house keeps a watchful eye on its neighbors and the city that surrounds it. In the boys’ shared room, Jasper finds plenty of space to scatter toys. An original chandelier provides a reminder of the house’s past while muted orange walls plant it firmly in the present.
The downstairs recreation area of this William Kessler–designed home has plenty of playful features. The lower shag carpeted area features a unique retro sectional sofa that plays with oranges and yellows.
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The Premaydena House by Misho+Associates was designed as a "box within a box," in which two interior structures—an open-plan living space and two en suite bedrooms—sit within an exterior envelope. Inspired by the region’s fiery orange lichen and the indigenous waratah shrub’s bright flowers, the colorful exterior panels are made of heavy-duty galvanized steel to guard from Tasmanian winds, which can reach up to 60 miles per hour.
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