This Lively Texas Home Has Every Color of the Rainbow

Friends who visit Genie and Randy Norris’s house often walk in and say, “It’s so happy!” — and that’s exactly what Genie was going for. As the owner of a color consulting firm called ColorGenie, she spends most of her time thinking about how to infuse bold palettes into clients’ homes. Her biggest project to date is her own: a remodel of her 4,500-square-foot house in Austin, Texas. “It was really important to me that we not go out and buy a lot of new stuff,” she says. Except paint. She bought plenty of that, using her textile collection as color inspiration. “I spread paint chips out like a beautiful flowchart, then just adjusted and tweaked as you would a quilt pattern.” In the end she used 60 paints throughout the house. Look around, then pick up some tips for bringing happy hues into your own home.

Working with CG&S Design-Build, Genie and Randy completely updated the 1979 Craftsman, opening the layout and creating fun nooks for Genie to fill with thrifted, vintage and handmade treasures. The anything-goes palette starts here with the pink front door (Loveable by Sherwin-Williams) and mossy green porch trim (Winding Vines by Benjamin Moore).

“Why wouldn’t you use your favorite color on kitchen cabinets?!” asks Genie, who picked a turquoise that reminds her of the ocean (Composed by Sherwin-Williams). She chose a cherry red Bertazzoni oven that pops next to the blue, then used a runner she has owned for a decade to tie it all together. The watermelon art is a roadside sign from the 1930s.

"The colors may look like they were chosen randomly, but I put so much thought into each selection," says Genie. This quilt from the 1970s served as the color inspiration for the whole main floor.