Kaffe Fassett: There's no such thing as too much color

Kaffe Fassett is one of the world's rock star designers. He has made a career of diving exuberantly into one craft and art form after another — knitting, quilting, needlepoint, patchwork, painting, textile design, tapestry, mosaics, stage sets, costume design, have we forgotten anything? He writes books about his endeavors (with over 40 titles published to date), teaches about color and design, and hosts craft-related television and radio programs. He has assembled museum exhibitions all over the world that consistently break attendance records. His inexhaustible appreciation for color has probably found its way into your life whether you know it or not. That lively sofa pillow, or sweater, or knitting yarn? He probably had something to do with it.

Kaffe was born in San Francisco in 1937 to a distinguished family that had already lived in California for several generations; among their many civic accomplishments they founded the Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento in 1885. While still a child he renamed himself Kaffe after a character in a book about Egypt (preferring it to Frank, the name his parents had given him). In 1964 he moved to England and has lived there ever since, admiring all the ways in which that country's long history has survived in myriad ways into the present.

In his book Glorious Inspiration (1991), Kaffe writes: "One of the common beliefs of many people in these high-tech times is a conviction that they cannot create a colour scheme ... I have never accepted this. ... people are filled with creative ideas that can be wonderfully and personally expressed. ... Good designing follows no rules; remaining open to the unexpected is paramount." We couldn't possibly say it better. By all means, bring more color into your home.