“The one thing I know about colour and cars is you want to pick something mid-toned because it hides everything,” says interior designer Jane Lockhart, host of the W Network’s Colour Confidential, now in its fifth season.
“That’s the nice thing about having a silver car. I do a lot of downtown driving and I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve been dinged, bumped, hit, banged and touched.”
Lockhart is referring to her own silver 2005 Honda Accord Coupe, which she says is like her purse.
“My car seems to be a place where everything ends up,” she says. “I have my CDs, my sunglasses, all my design tools — everything is in there. It’s like a I feel lost without my car the way many women do without their purses.”
Lockhart admits that, despite being fastidious when it comes to her office at her company, Jane Lockhart Design Communications Inc., she can’t say the same for her Honda.
“People are always shocked when they see the inside of my car.”
Her career in the world of interiors was cemented at a young age when, as Lockhart recalls, at six years old she would draw houses and floor plans and build miniature homes.
“I was always interested in home design. I just didn’t know if I’d do architecture or interior design,” she says.
In fact, after graduating from Ryerson University’s School of Interior Design, Lockhart considered going to the Pasadena School of Design, where, she says, a lot of curriculum focused on car design.
“I was really interested in how cars affected our design aesthetic at that time,” she says.
When it comes to her own dream car, she says: “If I had lots of money and I didn’t care about what happened to my car, I would love a Lexus LS. Or, I would buy an old MGB.”
But for now, Lockhart is perfectly content with her Honda, one of many she’s had over the years.
“It’s reliable and not showy. And I’m not a showy person,” she says. “It’s like my office. I really can’t operate without my car.”
– Heather Buchan is a Toronto-based journalist whohas worked at Homemakers,Canadian Living, Canadian House & Homeand, most recently,Hello! Canada, where she cut her teeth in the world of celebrities.
