Stephen Gambrel, Architectural Digest

As Valentine's Day approaches and the color red is abundant and all around us I thought I would take a look at some red rooms. Red is a bold and strong color that is associated power, passion, lust, love, even fury and anger. It is an energizing color that excites our emotions. In Eastern cultures red is the color of luck.

It takes a certain personality to be able to pull off a red room - and a red room is certainly not for everyone. Can you do it without feeling overwhelmed? Personally I prefer a darker shade of the color, a wine-colored tone balanced with some neutrals and some deep dark natural wood or black tones. It would not be my color of choice in the bedroom but I would use it in a home office or kitchen - an area of the home that could benefit from the energetic force of the color.

Over a decade ago I had a Merlot colored dining room that was rich with wood and balanced by ivory trims and mouldings. A floor length black and white ticking table cloth was dressed up with a shorter black and white toile tablecloth that sat on top of it. We had cushions made to match - ticking on one side and the toile on the other. It was a gorgeous room but as soon as everyone else started painting their dining rooms in similar colors I had to change mine! My next dining room would be blue, but just between you and me, the red was my favorite!

Interestingly I have chosen below many images of rooms that are high gloss or lacquered - a look that I adore. I did not conscientiously choose the images for this reason!