Pain-tfully Challenged

Before we can tackle going BEYOND the colored walls, we have to take a minute and talk about THE color of the walls.  When you are ready to paint and pick a color, does your wall look like this……

Are you about to pull your hair out from the 15 shades of brown that are plastered across your living room?  Or perhaps the 16^th shade in your hair after mixing 13 and 14 together.  If you are so cross eyed from picking paint colors because you want something different, that you end up choosing the safest beige in safe-ville…..then this post is for you.  The easiest way to pick a paint color is to find something you love and work off of that.

Today we are going to use my inspiration photo, I have put it on a brown wall. I would say a good 7 out of 10 of you are thinking, “Yes, that looks fantastic, its neutral and goes with everything.” This is partially true….but it is also predictable and quite frankly doesn’t compliment this picture as well as it could.

The idea that a neutral is a brownish or beige tone is a thing of the past. There are so many tones of COLOR that can be considered a neutral. PLEASE!, I’m begging you to bring more color into your life. My general rule of thumb is to pick a color you like, and then chose a tone that tends to be a grayer version of the color. This will give you a neutral with a lot more depth and …..da da dunn…COLOR!!  I will demonstrate below.

First, let’s start by talking about this print and why I find it to be inspirational. It’s amazing to me that so much vibrant, yet natural color can be found on something as delicate as the underside of a flower. It’s the juxtaposition of a soft white daisy with a bright vivacious blue. It brings a peace and calmness yet a reminder of a spring day where life is blooming all around you. If I had a blank canvas of a room with no other elements to contend with, I would choose a color that kept the serenity of this print.    

Here are a few tones that I consider soft neutrals….

I can imagine these colors in my bedroom at a beach house, this print sitting over my refreshingly white (and made) bed. French doors opposite the bed, opened to a balcony and white sheers blowing softly in the wind. Can you picture it? Me too…… But you don’t have to have a beach house to get that feeling everyday of your life. Your balcony can overlook a back yard or a pool. You don’t even have to have a balcony. Use what you have and create what you want.

What if you were adventurous and ACTUALLY decided to choose a color with some substance, for instance a green or gold? Most of you might chose to go with these……

I know I know, It looked good on a swatch, and the sample on the wall showed promise but when you got it on a full blown wall it screamed at you.  These colors aren't actually that bad, but certainly a little louder then I might enjoy. The problem is, nothing that is 1”x1” with a plethora of other colors around it, is going to give you a sense of what it will look like on your wall. And while pasting these colors on the wall or painting swatches that are 12”x12” might help, you still have to think about how it would read over a larger space.  Colors with gray tones, have a tendency to help give you color… beautiful and vibrant color….. without the headache.  Look how a little bit of gray can change your perspective.

Now can’t you imagine how beautiful these spaces can be? Can you picture yourself sipping a nice refreshing glass of lemonade on a Saturday morning in the spring? You have so many options out there and yet all of these remain comfortably neutral.

Happy Painting!    

Beyond The Colored Walls

There is nothing more peacefully organized, then a well designed space in your home. From wall color and furniture to the tiniest little detail of the tint of a photo on your wall, all of this becomes part of the perfect room.

To me the design of a space is like unwrapping a birthday gift. First you see the beautifully wrapped box perched upon your lap. Little by little as you open, you begin to notice what is hidden behind the crisply folder corners. Eventually, and not too soon, the entire gift is laid out before you as fawn over the present someone so carefully picked out.  You should treat your spaces in your home the exact same way….waiting to pass judgment until all has been revealed.  

The purpose of this blog is to invite you into my world of design and inspiration and ask you to look Beyond the Colored Walls to find the perfect elements to complete your space. A room is not just a paint color; not just accessories. It’s not just about the art on the wall…or it could be ALL about the art on the wall.  It could be designed around a piece of furniture or that incredible throw pillow you found at Peir1. It can be functional, peaceful, and elegant and many other adjectives I can pull out of my pocket. There are so many things a space can be.  BUT no matter what, every piece that goes into your space is important, even if it’s secondary.

I hope that you will follow me as I discuss topics that I have come across in my time as a designer. These are things the average homeowners face every day when they stare at their blank canvas of a wall with 25 different Sherwin Williams’s samples of blue painted in 1x1 squares on the wall and no clue which one looks right in the light. I don’t know if I will solve all of the color and design challenged but I hope to share some tricks of the trade to make the interior design of your space a tiny bit simpler.

I would like to leave you with a picture of something that inspires me. You’re probably thinking to yourself, what does this have to do with designing a space? The reality is, it has EVERYTHING to do with designing a space. Inspiration is everywhere, something as simple as color can reinvent a space. What I wouldn’t give to have a beach house and this exact color scheme dressing my bedroom.