By ALANA PERKINS

Special to Weekend Living

Colour has found a voice and a home in Jane Hall.

Sitting in her East Toronto apartment swathed in vivid Moulin Rouge draperies and rich Indian sequined silk fabrics fashioned into cushions and bedding, the renowned painter explains her personal and professional preference for saturated tints and dramatic, textured furniture she creates.

" I'm an artist with a passion for colour. The image comes second," says Hall who made the natural leap into making and selling custom home furnishings two months ago.
She and her partner in business and life, Ian Levack, opened their Pape Ave. showroom, `Jane Hall The Voice of Color,' where people flocked to see Hall's oneof-a-kind art, hand painted furniture and accessories.

Show no fear. In a colour-shy home decor world, Hall shows no fear. Colour rules and she credits an emerging demand from the city's ethnic cultures for her wild success. It is an untapped market that few home designers cater to as Hall markets popular bedding accessories such as throws sewn from silk East Indian wedding shawls and saris.

" People are afraid of colour and they often chicken out and choose beige," says Hall, who defies decorating traditions.
She uses dark colours in small spaces. "There is no such thing as a dark colour, just deep ones," is her motto.

In her apartment, Hall's favourite room for reading is the second floor sitting area which boasts walls painted a colour called Ruby Lips and a floor covered by a plush rug created and licensed by Levack. The store sells the rug collection he designed based on artifacts from the Order of St. Benedict.

The couple met at a fashion show two years ago and quickly recognized each other as soul mates. Almost overnight, Hall moved into Levack's high ceiling flat with its deep windows reminiscent of European architecture and a balcony overlooking Toronto
rooftops. There are the "comforting city sounds" of streetcars outside. The location is minutes from their eye-catching showroom with its mirror ball and displays resembling movie sets. Hall paints canvases in the window to traffic-stopping crowds.

Hall and Levack's front door bears no number or identifying sign. The couple prefer an anonymous sanctuary. Visitors liked their hand painted furniture and artwork so much, they bought it right off the apartment walls. That's how the showroom was conceived. The spontaneous buying still happens as evidenced by the empty picture hooks.
A tufted chair in the couple's bedroom is a prized treasure they found in a store in Elora and hand painted the name into the chair's upholstery.

Two years ago, the couple staged a 10-day decorating blitz producing a multicoloured approach with deep yellow tones bathing the living room and midnight blues contrasting the kitchen whites. Seeing the roomswithin-rooms view, is like looking down a kaleidoscope. Wall tones are surprisingly harmonious as the couple proves in their residential decorating business which employs Pittsburgh paint colours.

" `How do you live with so much colour' is often people's reaction," says Levack. "My response is, `How do you cope with the white walls?"'
It's been 25 years since Hall debuted as a Toronto designer, making handpainted jewellery and clothing. She's famous for her dramatic canvases and behind-the-scenes designs from dinnerware to dining room wallpapers.

Her murals adorn the Second Cup coffee shops and illustrate a design skill sought after by corporations. Whether business or professional, Hall likes to counter life's ugliness. As a single mother raising three, now-grown-up children, Hall is fully aware, "it's not an equally, weighted word."

This outlook explains her political volunteer efforts and fundraising for charity and a need to create beautiful surroundings wherever she goes.