What is your company name?
Susan E. Brown Interior Design and Aurora Decorative Finishes

What's your favorite design tip?
Complementary design elements play off each other beautifully. To create energy and depth within a space, add opposites – such as blue with orange – or a smooth object next to a textured one.

What color did you choose and why?
We have always been attracted to the color orange. Orange is often a scary color for people to use in their homes, but used appropriately, it can be very pleasant. When orange is combined with its complementary color blue, it creates an olive or brown. This trio has always reminded us of nature – sun, sky, water, and earth. We like to create rooms that are warm and inviting, and by starting with a color such as orange, we can’t lose.

What’s your vision for the space?
Our vision for this space is to use the color orange as a start to a room that is beckoning you to enter, put your feet up, and relax. We will be using orange combined with small proportions of its complement blue in conjunction with natural and elemental materials. Together, these elements will carry your eye throughout the room connecting items through color, texture, or material. We believe good interior design doesn’t slap you across the face, but instead penetrates the senses like a cup of hot cocoa after a cold winter day. 

Who are your ACC show artist picks and why are you featuring those particular objects?
Color, material, and form were our priorities. We chose items that included hues from the orange and blue families, whether added to the piece or a natural occurrence of the material. We wanted materials that were elemental in nature with a resulting piece that reminds the viewer of the outdoors, animal, and plant life. 

Clockwise from left: Angela Sample, Louis Andrew, Mark Fischer, Matthew Nafranowicz, and Robert Matthews