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DESIGNER DEBBIE FIELDS FLAVORS HER GREENWICH COLONIAL WITH ZESTY COLORS

Olive. Peach. Raspberry. Cream. When Debbie Fields describes a room she's decorated it sounds deliciously edible. In fact, the Greenwich-based interior designer uses color in the same way a master chef blends flavors and textures: A satiny sweetness balances a jolt of spice while a rich, savory note offsets a bite of citrus.

The effect of Fields's palette is best seen in her own home, where she says she feels compelled to go bold. "I'm a designer. I use my home to show clients it's okay to be a few steps out of the box with color," says Fields, who was born and bred in New York and moved to her first home outside of Manhattan just three years ago, about the time she launched her business, Designs by Deborah. Newly married, she and husband Howard Fields acquired a picturesque Connecticut classic—an early 1900s side hall Colonial with wide, welcoming porches and a white picket fence lined with yellow roses.

Inside, though, the style moves from quintessentially Colonial toward a look "between traditional and modern," says the designer, who chose a mix of classically constructed furnishings from Swaim, Baker and Henredon along with European antiques and streamlined Danish pieces. But no matter whose home she finds herself working in, she insists on rooms that work. "I'm so over form taking precedent over function," Fields says firmly.