Decorating With Color - Don't be afraid!

Yesterday I said that in today's decorating world, anything goes. Granted, there are trends that will make us look back and remember the decade, but we are not as restricted as the "mauve and country blue", "hunter and burgundy", or "avocado green and harvest gold" of the past. Here are a few examples of rooms exploding with color that I found while browsing the Better Homes and Gardens website. I think just about every color of the rainbow can be found among these pictures.

First is the classic white room with beautiful punches of color. In this case, the choice of white for the walls certainly isn't due to a fear of color. It makes for a soothing neutral backdrop against the bright bursts of color. One important thing to note, and what makes these walls work, is that they are not the only white in the room. Too often, homeowners choose to leave their walls white, but then do not repeat that white anywhere else in the room. White works, and can be stunning, but you must repeat it throughout the room.

This room is nearly the exact opposite of the first one. Every single corner is bursting with bright color. Repeating the colors throughout the room is what makes it feel more soothing and less like a jumbled rainbow.

This room demonstrates more restraint, even through the bold color. The palate stays in the warm tones of orange, yellow, and red, and again are repeated throughout the room. A small splash of aqua blue adds interest and a cool contrast.

Compared to the warmth of the previous room, this one is cool and airy. It has a monochromatic feel with it's shades of bluish lavender in light, medium, and dark hues. This is a great choice for a room that gets a lot of sun and heat throughout the day.

This room's ultra urban industrial style is well balance with rich jewel tones. The cool lavender brown walls are warmed up with punches of bold red and orange.

So what do we learn from these pictures? Don't be afraid to use color! Find your favorites and balance throughout the room through repetition and pairing them with classic neutrals.

Prioritizing

When you are overwhelmed with an entire new house to decorate, the task can be quite daunting. It is easy to stand slack-jawed at the mountain of boxes and not be able to decide where to begin or what to open first. If you are not careful, you can end up bouncing around from box to box and room to room like a ball in a pinball machine. I have done this many times. You don't get a higher decorating score for how many obstacles you can bounce off of.

This time I am trying to go about things in a more organized, logical fashion. Yes, that implies that there was, in fact a last time, that wasn't so organized or logical. 3 years ago when we built our previous house, Jason and I went out and bought everything imaginable BEFORE we so much as stepped foot into the finished house. Yes, we were there every day and really got to know the house as it was being built, but that's no substitute for actually living there. You can't truly know what your house will need until you spend more time in it, get to know it, let it tell you what it needs.

Sounds crazy, right? It's not. It was the first house we had ever lived in that had higher ceilings and open spaces. Lack of experience in these two areas alone was enough to knock me down before I ever began. Nothing I bought fit the space. The house ended up with a cluttered, out of scale feeling from the lack of balance. If you have a big space, you cannot just put more little things in it to fill it up. And no, even though it's what I've done to compensate, you can't just fill up the empty spaces with more greenery. I have enough greenery to put Michael's to shame.

So priority number one should be to get to know your house first. Some very wise friends of mine have recommended that I make sure to do that this time. And I'm so GLAD! It has already made me realize that there were things I thought I'd have to change, that I really ended up liking once I spent time here. And things that I will change, I'm taking the time to make those decisions so that I only have to make them once.

The next priority for me was to pick the most important room in the house and complete it from top to bottom. I was trying to decide if I wanted to work a little bit at a time in each room, or one room at a time. I decided that I feel as if I am making more progress when I finish a room. Yes, my mattresses are still lying on the floor, and no, there's nothing on any of the main living walls. But my son's room is completely finished. A huge priority. I wanted to help his transition into his new house.

Then working on the guest room was next. Why the guest room? Partly because it is on the same side of the house as Conner's room, so we painted them at the same time to cut down on how much he would be exposed to fumes. Also partly because I had the most pieces for that room. Lastly because we live away from our families and that's where they stay when they come. Just because it looks like we live on the inside of a toy box doesn't mean that guests have to feel that way. I want them to be comfortable.

My priorities may make no sense to anyone else and that's okay. You need to come up with the priorities that work best for make sense for you. In the meantime, if I want to enjoy a little peace, I walk into the guest room, close the door, and take five minutes in the tranquility of a completed space.

Back Again and Decorating Avidly!

It seems that all plans to decorate anything came to a screeching halt last December 30 when my son joined our lives and became part of my decorating team. I say he became part of because he altered my home in such a vast and unimaginable way. Suddenly I felt a camaraderie with all those women who said that they couldn't get a thing done now that they had kids. My naive thoughts were "so just do it when the kid is sleeping"! Well....then God blessed me with a child who never slept. This was just to spite the fact I always had that preconceived notion that all babies sleep all the time. Not mine. He definitely cried, ate, and pooped far more than he ever slept!

But now he's 8 months old and much more independent, so mommy can find herself again. However when I say "find herself" I mean literally. We moved a week ago and my life is crazier than it has ever been. I will never find anything, ever! At least once a day I find myself saying my new favorite mantra, "I knew I put it in a box that with with such and such and had something or other written on the front". Then I spend an hour looking for this wonderful missing piece of our lives that has disappeared somewhere in the very long 5 mile move up the street. Why do we have to pack so well we we are not moving very far, anyway?

But my favorite is when I am asked where something might be. I have 2 or 3 answers of logical places the missing item might actually be. If I am the one who asks "did anyone see" then I get a response very much like I just asked for the 3rd character to make an appearance in the second act of William Shakespeare's The Tempest!

I will be decorating again. I have to make the new house my own. I will be doing this at the whim of my children: 8mo old Conner, 32 year old Jason, who is really my husband but is more like keeping after a child, and 3 fur kids (cats) Mabel, Max, and Matty. I will post pics and advice as I am able. It's going to be fun! And as always feel free to give me any advice/criticisms (as long as you love what I am doing!) and overall discussion. If there is something you want to know more about, please let me know!

And we're off!

Room Colors

Understand that colors behave in three basic ways : active, passive, and neutral , and you can easily match every room’s colors to your personal desires and taste and to the room’s purpose. Light colors are expansive and airy, they make rooms seem larger and brighter. Dark colors are sophisticated and warm; they give large rooms a more intimate appearance.

Now let’s find more about some colors.

Red raises a room’s energy level. It’s a good choice when you want to stir up excitement, particularly at night. In the living room or dining room, red draws people together and stimulates conversation. In an entryway, it creates a strong first impression. Red has been shown to raise bloodpressure, speed respiration and heart rate. It is usually considered too stimulating for bedrooms, but if you’re only in the room after dark, you’ll be seeing it mostly by lamplight, when the color will appear muted, rich, and elegant. Red, the most intense, pumps the adrenaline like no other hue.

Crimson can make some people feel irritable. With red invoking feels of rage and hostility is a color that should be avoided as the main color of a room. Sitting for long periods of time in a room this color will likely breakdown any peace and harmony you are striving to create in your home. Ancient cultures used the color red to stimulate the body and mind and to increase circulation.

Yellow captures the joy of sunshine and communicates happiness. It’s perfect for kitchens, dining rooms, and bathrooms, where happy color is energizing and uplifting. In halls, entries, and small spaces, yellow can feel expansive and welcoming.Yellow although is a cheery color is not a good choice in main color schemes of a room. People are more likely to lose their tempers in a yellow room. Babies also seem to cry more in a yellow room. This color tends to create feeling offrustration and anger in people. This color is the most fatiguing on the eyes.In chromotherapy yellow was believed to stimulate the nerves and purify the body.

Blue brings down blood pressure and slows respiration and heart rate. That’s why it’s considered calming, relaxing, and serene, and is often recommended for bedrooms and bathrooms. Be careful, however: A pastel blue that looks pretty on the paint chip can come across as unpleasantly chilly when it’s on the walls and furnishings, especially in a room that receives little natural light. If you opt for a light blue as the primary color in a room, balance it with warm hues in the furnishingsand fabrics.

To encourage relaxation in the rooms where people gather family rooms, living rooms, large kitchens consider warmer blues, such as periwinkle, or bright blues, such as cerulean or turquoise. Blue is known to have a calming effect when used as the main color of a room. When going with blue go for softer shades of blue. Dark blue has the opposite effect. Dark blue evokes feels of sadness. So refrain from using darker blues in your main color scheme. Stay with the lighter shades of blue to give you and your loved ones a calm effect.

Green is considered the most restful color for the eye. Combining the refreshing quality of blue and the cheerfulness of yellow, green is suited to almost any room in the house. In a kitchen, a sage or medium green cools things down; in a family room or living room, it encourages unwinding but has enough warmth to promote comfort and togetherness. In a bedroom, it’s relaxing and pleasant.Green also has a calming effect when used as a main color for decorating. It is believed to relieve stress by helping people relax. Also believed to help with fertility this is a great choice for the bedroom.

Purple in its darkest values (eggplant, for example) is rich, dramatic, and sophisticated. It’s associated with luxury as well as creativity, and as an accent or secondary color, it gives a scheme depth. Lighter versions of purple, such as lavender and lilac, bring the same restful quality to bedrooms as blue does, but without the risk of feeling chilly.

Orange evokes excitement, enthusiasm and is an energetic color. While not a good idea for a living room or for bedrooms this color is great for an exercise room. It will bring all the emotions out that you need when jumping into your fitness routine.In ancient cultures orange was used to heal the lungs and increase energy levels.

Neutrals (black, gray, white, and brown) are basic to the decorator’s tool kit. All-neutral schemes fall in and out of fashion, but their virtue lies in their flexibility: Add color to liven things up; subtract it to calm things down. Black is best used in small doses as an accent , indeed, some experts maintain that every room needs a touch of black to ground the color scheme and give it depth.

To make the job easier, you can rely on the interior designer’s most important color tool: the color wheel.