Along the East Coast, we’re making the painful transition from chilly days and gilded foliage to frostbitten days and total darkness after 4 p.m. Our interiors (and mindsets) may need some adjustments to persevere during the long winter, so I turned to Colin King, master of moody interiors, for tips on fending off seasonal depression indoors. Outside of his monumental contributions to the design world (and this very magazine), his Substack has led me to reconsider the role of potted plants, the necessity of tiny tables, and the beauty of a messy arrangement. While some of it might be obvious—light a candle, play some jazz, wrap yourself in any and all cashmere—he enlightened me to more niche design points for the cold weather while we talked texture, palette, and layering lamplight.
Architectural Digest: When you’re thinking about a space feeling less sad or more alive in the dark months, what are the first three design moves you make?
Colin King: It’s so controversial, but I love the moodiness of winter. The sun’s lower, so you start experiencing light in your apartment a lot differently. I have a fireplace in my new place, so I’m always lighting fires. I just want to have everything cozy in arm’s reach. So that looks like a throw, like a blanket. There’s a tablecloth from the Vincent Van Duysen and Zara Home collab that is maybe the size of a football field, and it becomes my cozy blanket. Last Christmas, I went to Copenhagen for the first time, and I really had to lean into that darkness—like having breakfast by candlelight, dinner by candlelight, there’s a romance to it that I really got into. And then: music. I’m such a music person. Being able to hide Sonos or whatever system that you have is a skill set of its own. Also tea, slippers.
Do you have any favorite house slippers?
Mine are so embarrassing. They’re Uggs.
How do you replicate the sense of light doing the work when sunlight is sparse?
I think sunlight can be overrated. Reflective surfaces, whether it’s something lacquer or metal, or even a mirror do a lot of work there. I think there are luminous things that you can place throughout your apartment to capitalize on the natural light that you do get. I really like to let the room inform what it wants to be. My bedroom in my loft had no natural light, so I painted it a deep reddish brown, super dark and cozy, and it felt transportive, like you were upstate in a cabin. Painting small rooms dark actually makes them feel bigger. Really try listening to the space, how it feels.
