The Code of Color

If there is one thing that Constance Ramos has learned about color, both as an architect and as host of HGTV's "Color Correction," it's that people's preferences are intensely personal. The idea that certain colors make you feel a certain way? "I think that's just a bunch of hooey," she says. "If you ask 20 people on the street, 'What [color] is cozy?' - for one person it might be ice blue, for another person chocolate brown, for another sage green."

On her show and at her firm, the Southern California-based Constance Carrell Design, Inc., Ramos acts more as a guide than a guru when it comes to color, helping homeowners decide not only what shades appeal to them the most but also how to use them so they're not overwhelming or underwhelming. "I've actually had clients crying over color choices," she says. "It's a very emotional thing."

It's one thing to pick out striking hues for your home, but it's quite another to wear them, as Ramos has discovered while promoting the show. Now in her second season of "Color Correction," the 35-year-old Kansas City, Mo., native admits to finding herself outside her own color comfort zone.

For her interview with HomeStyle, she arrived at the Philippe Starck-designed Hudson Hotel in New York wearing a purple, fuchsia and black leopard-print halter dress. Fetching as it was against her dark hair and eyes, she confessed, "I'm not used to wearing colors this bright, but the show has opened this up to me."

She's always been fearless, however, with her use of color in the home. The daughter of architect Chris Ramos, and the fifth of six girls, she describes the walls of her childhood bedroom as, "a cacophony of junior high school scribble."

She regularly drew on them with magic marker, nail polish - even eye shadow. "One day my dad walked in my room and about fainted," she recalls.

Fortunately her premature displays of creativity didn't preclude him from taking her to work at his firm, Ramos Design Consultants. In fact, she became the only one of his children to follow in his footsteps. By age 14, Ramos was drafting tile patterns for one of her father's clients, AMC Theatres.

"Architecture fascinated me, and it came as second nature being around a 60-guy firm," she says. "I felt really lucky I had that introduction."

Some of her early career steps also proved to be more fortuitous than they first appeared. Ramos worked briefly as an actress, appearing in television films on NBC and CBS, and landed on the cheerleading squad for the NFL's Kansas City Chiefs. Additionally, she packed her résumé with set design credits for commercials and music videos. As TV home and garden show hosts go, she's a rare breed, having had previous experience on camera, behind the scenes and in the design field itself.

In 1997 Ramos established her namesake architectural firm in Los Angeles, working primarily on residential projects but also as a consultant to corporations including Mattel and Sony, and to the world-renowned architect I.M. Pei. Serendipity, however, had a part in propelling her to the status of design star.

While attending a party in 2003, she ran into someone who mentioned that ABC had an ad on Craigslist seeking a designer for a new show, "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition."

Within a week of responding to the listing, Ramos says she had the job. The show went on to win an Emmy and became one of ABC's highest-rated series.

"As a designer, I'll always be trying to recreate that experience - and not with Ty [Pennington] screaming with a megaphone in my ear," she says, laughing. To this day, she receives fan mail from around the globe. Her experience on "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" had a profound impact not just on her celebrity, but also on her personal life. She met her husband of two years, J.J. Carrell, through the show after he nominated a friend of his, a widow with nine children, for a makeover. He and Ramos live in the San Diego area.

In her own space, Ramos says she finds herself inspired by the colors of sea, sand and sky, and blue is her favorite color of the moment. But don't even get her started on the idea that turquoise or azure or aquamarine are calming for everyone. "Then all prisons would be blue. All highways would be blue."

Connie's Color Tips

1 To create a serene environment in a room, keep your color palette to a minimum. Use two colors, at most, as the main elements. Also, try to pick colors that are either of the same hue and different intensities, or colors that are analogous, meaning that they're close to each other on the color wheel. Doing so keeps visual stimulus to a minimum and has a calming effect.

2 Always try to find at least one element that ties all of the colors of the room's palette together: a toss pillow, trim, a painting. Having a single element that speaks to the entire palette pulls together the room's composition.

3 Color is affected by light, so you should gauge the amount of natural light that spills into a room when considering the intensity of the hues you'd like to use. More light means that the room can handle more intense color.

4 A deep, rich hue - preferably one that's toned with shades of black - can make a room seem larger, if used correctly. Using a rich color on all of the walls tricks our eyes into seeing them as monolithic - as a single element. If the openings in these walls are expressed with a bold stroke of a contrasting shade, then our eyes read the edges of the room rather than the walls that contain it.

5 A ceiling can be an important color design element - and is often overlooked (no pun intended) in a room's design. A white ceiling reflects all the available light in a room and is a good color choice for spreading light. However, a strong color statement overhead can pack a visual punch. Paint the ceiling the same color as the walls, and the room will seem larger. If you then add a thick crown molding in a contrasting color around the perimeter, the molding will appear to "pop."