USING AN ITEM AS COLOR INSPIRATION IN DECORATING

I get a lot of people asking me how to come up with colors the for the rooms.  How do we make things look good together?  All we really do is try to keep with a similar color palette for a room.  If you are stuck for inspiration for colors, consider choosing a favorite piece you have and look to it for the color cues.  For example, this is a vintage bowl that was given to us by a dear friend years ago as a house warming gift (for the house in the city).  I always liked the design and colors, because it reminded me of Spring.  It was also a favorite of my Mom's.  So, when we were looking to decorate the guest room, I looked at this for design cues. The roses and flowers, the pale pink, the pale yellow, the white, it looked like the perfect choice for colors in that room.  Of course we already had a couple of pieces of furniture that were in a yellow and seemed to match, so it was just a matter of building off of that.  We found things in pale pink, pale yellow, pictures and accessories with flowers on them, even some green color.  It's all coming together now in that room.  When I'm out shopping thrift stores and sales, I think of this piece.

Here is another example, it's an item that we are using for inspiration in the living room.  Since some of our furniture was already brown (the bookcases, etc) and the couches are a pale cream and white, we decided we liked the look of the bright yellow in combination with the brown and white.  It's vibrant and colorful...so now I'm looking for bright yellow pillows, pictures for the walls with white and yellow, and other accessories for the room that take their cues from this vase.  Ironically, the yellow actually reminds me of the Huisache tree flowers that we have on the property I blogged about last month.  I guess that shows there is inspiration in nature as well.

Courtesy of: macys.com

Here is what gave us the color inspiration for the master bedroom.  We were a total blank slate when we thought about the master bedroom color scheme.  We were open to pretty much anything.  Well, we found this comforter set months ago and fell in love with it.  We bought it before the bedroom was even finished being remodeled, and now we are using it to build off of for colors in the room.  Blue, white, and black (the bed frame) will be the main colors.  I'm thinking some of our white milkglass pieces, some cobalt blue glass, maybe some blue, black or whitewashed furniture pieces, and we'll have a finished bedroom. 



Our newest find is a shower curtain for the bathroom that will give us its colors, the towels, the rugs, the accessories, they will all build off the design and color of the shower curtain.  The bottom line is that design inspiration can come from anywhere or anything; a favorite piece of china or ceramic, a linen like a comforter or quilt, maybe a curtain or a rug, or even a favorite painting. Don't be afraid, try it and you may just end up with a room that looks like you had help but in reality, it was all you!

Good luck and have fun!