By Carleton Varney- Special to the Palm Beach Daily News

Palm Beach this week survived the winds of Hurricane Dorian, which swept the island with far less destruction than many of us had first feared. How lucky we were!

And I’m sure that if there wasn’t a literal rainbow after the storm, there certainly was a figurative one, as Palm Beachers greeted the day after Dorian with grateful hearts, tempered by concern for those elsewhere who were not nearly so fortunate.

The colors of the rainbow inspire me every day in my decorating career. Greens and aquas always bring cheer into a room and are beautifully complemented by pinks, yellows and reds. Join me as we design a rainbow-inspired family-oriented living room.

The background color we’ll select is aquamarine blue and the color of the trim will be a brilliant white. For a touch of sunshine after the rain, we’ll paint the ceiling a very soft lemon yellow, and for drapery, let’s use white-painted poles with panels of sunshine-yellow fabric trimmed in a rich jungle green.

If our family living room is to be carpeted, we’ll choose a deeper green, more like a palm tree tone. If our room instead has floor with a hard surface, I think we’ll choose a terracotta Mexican tile, with the green grouting.

We’ll lay a zebra-patterned run under a coffee table featuring white and brass. A round table would be my preference, but a rectangular one could also work.

For the sofa, let’s choose a soft pink (very blush looking) and accent the sofa with throw pillows of all the colors of the rainbow. The upholstery for our pull-up lounge chairs could be a lavender nubby fabric. We’ll have to do some shopping for lamps with lavender glass bases with white silk shades. The lamps will be placed on white and brass end tables.

If our room needs a long and high breakfront or television cabinet, let’s find shop for one at a vintage furniture store and paint it the aquamarine blue of the wall color. We’ll accessorize the shelves of the breakfront with books and objects of personal interest (maybe a shell collection or an assemblage of glass objects such as animals, paperweights or figurines).

Our room will most probably need a game table or a card table with four chairs. I like armchairs, and my choice would be an open-back-fretwork design, all painted white with seats of rainbow pink. The card table should also be painted white. For guests’ card-playing comfort, we’ll find a vintage palm tree-shaped standing lamp painted white with a white translucent shade.

The room will need a painting or two. We’ll choose something we love in a rainbow of colors, perhaps a modern-style painting or a landscape photograph — in color, of course — that shows a rainbow popping up over the sea or a mountain.

Yes, a well-designed room can bring a rainbow of color into your home every day.