Summer Color Combo - Gold & Coral

Coral is perhaps *the* color of this summer - and gold gives it a perfect level of sophistication for elegant affairs! This gorgeous color scheme is a great blend of modern and timeless, and would also be beautiful for spring (especially with a lighter coral color) or autumn (thanks to the richness of the gold)!

Tie coral bouquets with gold ribbons or place coral blooms in gold vases. Deck your tables in coral tablecloths accented with gold chivari chairs and gold place settings. And there's no shortage of coral and gold jewelry at your disposal - use coral and gold beads to fill clear vases and adorn your centerpieces and favors with gold and coral ribbons!


I also think this color scheme would be beautiful for a family room or other living space. The coral and gold are so warm and inviting!

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Color of the Week - Lemon Meringue

This week's color is Lemon Meringue - a pale yellow tint!

Because it's so light, Lemon Meringue is more similar to cream or ivory than true yellow, and works as a beautiful neutral with many colors ranging from pastel to highly saturated.

Fun facts about Lemon Meringue:

1. This color is (naturally) named for the uppermost layer of a lemon meringue pie, a dessert typically made with a shortbread crust (on the bottom only), lemon curd filling, and a fluffy meringue topping.


2. In the baking world, meringue is made from whipped egg whites and sugar. It's known for its light, airy texture, and is necessarily a fat-free food, since the presence of even small amounts of fat before the meringue is baked can cause the beaten egg whites to collapse.

3. Lemon Meringue is similar to cream - officially the color of the cream produced by cattle grazing on natural pasture with plants rich in yellow carotenoid pigments.


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"Warm" Color Flowers

Happy May Day!

Two weeks ago, I showed you the difference between "cool" and "warm" colors on the subtractive color wheel. Then, last week, I offered you inspiration with a list of flowers that fall under the "cool" color category. This week, it's all about "warm" flowers - yellows, oranges, reds, and pinks! These colors are abundant in nature's flowers, so it's easy to find just the right tint or shade you're looking for.

Yellow/Cream/White flowers: Daffodil, Daisy, Sunflower, Marigold, Black-Eyed Susan, Monkshood, Camomile, Achillea, Acacia, Barberry, Adonis, Begonia, Bellwort, Buttercup, Carnation, Chrysanthemum, Clover, Dandelion, Frangipani, Laburnum, Lisianthus, Coltsfoot, Jasmine, Coreopsis, Rose, Edelweiss, Tulip, Zinnia, Elderflower, Goldenrod, Freesia, Furze, Narcissus, Kingcup, Hazel Flower, Pansy, Hyacinth, Lady's slipper, Nasturtium, Lily, Marvel-of-Peru, Poppy, Snapdragon, Mayflower, Mimosa, Snowdrop, Star of Bethlehem, Tansy, Witch Hazel, Hellebore

Orange/Coral/Peach flowers: Bird of Paradise, Lily, Tiger Lily, Alstroemeria, Crown Imperial, Butterfly Weed, Chrysanthemum, Dahlia, Rose, Freesia, Gerbera, Hibiscus, Primrose, Maple, Oxeye Daisy, Quince Blossom, Ranunculus, Parrot's Beak, Tulip, Red Monkey Flower

Red flowers: Rose, Poppy, Carnation, Camellia, Hibiscus, Poinsettia, Holly, Clematis, Mallow, Cockscomb, Tulip, Primrose, Zinnia, Chocolate Cosmos, Koki'o, Alstroemeria, Gerbera Daisy, Peony, Ginger, Gladyolis, Anthurium, Mokari Orchids, Anemone, Hypericum Berry, Columbine, Snapdragon, Western Spice Bush, Canna, Purple Smoke Bush, Gazania, Sunrose, Crimson Scabious, Crape Myrtle, Red Lousewort

Pink/Fuschia flowers: Rose, Amaranth, Amaryllis, Foxglove, Cherry blossom, Apple blossom, Almond blossom, Apricot blossom, Peach blossom, Pear blossom, Gladyolis, Camellia, Bachelor Button, Impatiens, Acacia, Gillyflower, Carnation, Tulip, Daphne, Hollyhock, Abutilon, Aloe, Gloxina, Eglantine, Aster, Dew Plant, Rhododendron, Azalea, Chestnut Flower, Phlox, Oleander, Dahlia, Magnolia, Columbine, Fuschia, Orchid, Cosmos, Honeysuckle, Zephyranthes, Cyclamen, Geranium, Myrtle, Ginger Flower, Heather Flower, Petunia, Laurel, Hyacinth, Peony, Sweat Pea, Hydrangea, Iceplant, Sweet William, Zinnia


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I also paint watercolors! Send me an email and let me know if you're interested in purchasing or commissioning a piece! :)

"Cool" Color Flowers

Flowers are great for decorating your home (both inside and out!) every day, as well as for decorating special events! Last week I showed you the difference between "cool" and "warm" colors on the subtractive color wheel. Now, I offer you inspiration with a list of flowers that fall under the "cool" color category.


There are many flowers that come naturally in blue and purple/blue shades. Green and yellow-green flowers are less abundant, though there are some lovely plants that would make for great centerpieces or bouquets even though they're not technically "flowering" plants. Teal flowers, unfortunately, tend not to exist in nature, but many flowers can be dyed to create this popular blue-green color. There are also some beautiful blue-green non-flowering leaves and plants.

Purple/Blue flowers: Iris, Violet, Geranium, Mountain Bluet, Bellfower, Babiana, Aster, Angelface, Lupine, Purple Robe Nierembergia, Petunia, Salvia, Pansy, Skullcap, Tulip, Blue Lithospermum, Lily-of-the-Nile, Lavender, Lilac, Hydrangea, Wisteria, Anemone, Hyacinth, Spring Starflower, Skyflower, Kenilworth Ivy, Longwood Blue, Catmint, Rosemary, Sage, Scabiosa, Alliums, Bindweed, Larkspur, Wolfsbane, Burdock, Carnation, Crocus, Eupatorium, Flax, Periwinkle, Forget-Me-Not, Gentian, Heather Flower, Ipomoea, Jacob's Ladder, Spiderwort, Lobellia, Love-in-the-Mist, Nightshade, Purple Rose, Saffron, Statice, Syringa, Veronica, Euphorbia Black Bird

Green/Yellow-Green flowers: Cymbidium Orchids, Chrysanthemum, Gladiolus, Carnation, Fennel, Sea holly, Forsythia, Hop, Houseleek, Ivy, Mint, Bells of Ireland, Lisianthus, Hypericum, Anthirium, Hydrangea, Amaranthus, Viburnum, Celosia

Blue-Green/Teal flowers: Jade Vine, Roman Wormwood, Mother-of-Thousands, Blue Fescue, Hydrangea, Teal Thistle Flower, Nigella, Daisy, Dyed Carnations, Orchid, Chrysanthemum

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I design custom stationery in whichever color(s) you love! Visit Invites by Andrea to view samples, download a catalogue pdf, or fill out a design request form. Or shoot me an email to ask me your questions or learn more information. 

I also paint watercolors! Send me an email and let me know if you're interested in purchasing or commissioning a piece! :)

Mini Art Class - Defining Color Terms

I talk a lot about primary, secondary, and tertiary colors, as well as warm colors and cool colors, so I wanted to take the opportunity today to give you a visual reference of what I mean when I use these terms.

There are two types of ways to think about color - additive and subtractive. Additive color is the system you probably learned in science class as a kid and deals with the visual light spectrum - when you add all of the colors of the rainbow together, you get white light; if you use a prism to refract these colors, you see individual hues. The primary colors of the additive spectrum are Red, Green, and Blue, which is why your computer monitor uses "RGB" color.

Additive Color

For the purposes of the artwork I create, however, I use the Subtractive color system - the one you probably learned in art class. The subtractive color system is used when mixing paints (or inks on your computer's printer) - when you mix a dab of every color in every paint tube, you get black instead of white.

Subtractive Color

Subtractive color predates modern scientific color theory and has been used in art and art education since the dawn of civilization. In the subtractive color system, the three primary colors are Red, Yellow, and Blue. The secondary colors (Violet (or purple), Orange, and Green), are formed by mixing equal amounts of Red & Blue, Red & Yellow, and Blue & Yellow, respectively.

[Side note: In the 20th centuries, the more versatile CMY (Cyan, Magenta, and Yellow) triad was adopted for the purposes of digital printing (Cyan is sometimes referred to as "process blue" and Magenta is sometimes referred to as "process red") - but artists who use a traditional method (like painting) continue to use the standard RYB color wheel.]

On the color wheel, colors that are exact complements of each other are placed directly opposite. Each primary color's complement is the secondary color created when combining the other two primary colors - so Red's complement is Green (Blue + Yellow), Yellow's complement is Violet (Blue + Red), and Blue's complement is Orange (Red + Yellow).

In between each secondary and primary color is a tertiary color, created by combining the two colors on either side - for example, Blue-Green is (not surprisingly) created by mixing Blue with Green, and Red-Orange is formed from the mixture of Red and Orange. (When naming the tertiary colors, the primary color is always listed first, followed by the secondary color.)

There are six tertiary colors, and each tertiary color also has a complement on the color wheel. Blue-Green and Red-Orange are complements, and lie directly across from each other.

So the color wheel is comprised of twelve colors - three primary colors, three secondary colors, and six tertiary colors. You can draw a line across the color wheel to cut it in half (in between Violet & Red-Violet on one side, and Yellow-Green & Yellow on the other, as I did in the picture above), designating six of those colors to be "cool colors" and the other six to be "warm colors."

The cool colors, therefore, are Violet, Blue-Violet, Blue, Blue-Green, Green, and Yellow-Green. Each of these colors requires the use of Blue to mix the color. For example, Violet is Blue + Red, and Yellow-Green is Yellow + Green (which in turn was created from Yellow + Blue). Blue and all colors similar to it are "cool" colors.

The warm colors are Red-Violet, Red, Red-Orange, Orange, Yellow-Orange, and Yellow. Each of these colors requires the use of either Red or Yellow, because Orange and all colors similar to it are "warm" colors.

You can create tints by adding white to any of the twelve colors on the color wheel, and shades by adding black to those colors. These tints and shades fall into the "warm" and "cool" color categories based on their parent color. For example, Pink is a tint of Red (created from Red + White), and as such, falls into the "warm" color bracket with Red. A dark olive green color would be a shade of Yellow-Green (created from Yellow-Green + Black), and would therefore be included in a list of "cool" colors along with Yellow-Green.

In the image above, I've listed several tints and shades in each category to give you a sampling of the wide range of colors included.

Next week I'm going to start celebrating spring by listing examples of flowers that fall into the warm and cool color categories - so check back soon! :)


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I also paint watercolors! Send me an email and let me know if you're interested in purchasing or commissioning a piece! :)

Color of the Week - Peach

This week's color is Peach - a light orange-yellow tint!

Peach works best when paired with darker, more saturated colors or neutrals. For spring, I particularly like it with pastel purple (you can check out my lavender/salmon pink color scheme from March to see a similar color inspiration board!).

Fun facts about Peach: 
 
1. The first recorded use of the English word peach as a color was in 1588. The name comes from the pale color of the interior flesh of the peach fruit. Like the color aprioct, the color peach is paler than most actual peach fruits and seems to have been formulated primarily to create a pastel palette of colors for interior design. 

2. In 1962, Crayola renamed their "flesh" color "peach" after the civil rights movement pointed out that this color only represented the average color of the flesh of Caucasians.

3. In Chinese culture, the color peach represents immortality. The mythological peach tree of immortality, thought to be on a mountainside in western China, blooms only once every 3,000 years and is a key concept of the Taoist religion.

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Supersize Pastel Inspiration Board

As March draws to an end, I leave you with this - an oversized inspiration board featuring this season's beautiful pastel color palette!

Within this inspiration board are ideas for everything:

- Easter decor (ornate eggs, pastel balloons!)
- Spring fashion (pastel lips, jewelry, clothes, hair!)
- Interior design (a pretty mint green sunroom, and floral wallpaper!)
- Party refreshments (gelato-colored candies and cupcakes!)

- And, of course, spring wedding decor (painted mason jars, bouquets, centerpieces, dresses!)

If you're planning a baby shower, child's birthday party, Easter gathering, or spring wedding, this board is for you. :)

Enjoy!

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Spring Color Combo: Lavender & Salmon Pink

Pastels are always beautiful for spring events, and today's color scheme of lavender and pale salmon is another great example!

Give out fabric satchels of lavender as guest favors at a fancy event like a wedding or dinner party. I just love the small salmon pink pocket tied with twine in the middle of the second row. 

Versatile and calming, this color scheme is also great for everyday fashion, and easily lends itself to makeup (lavender purple eyes and pale pink lips are always classic). These colors would also be gorgeous for a baby shower, baby announcements, or to decorate a child's bedroom or nursery. And don't forget spring holidays. The soft colors and pink accents work great for Valentine's Day and Easter!


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Spring Color Combo: Mint & Coral

Candy-colored pastels are super stylish this season - so why not use this beautiful mint and coral color scheme for your upcoming event? (These colors work for almost any springtime event, from weddings to Valentine's Day and birthday parties!)

These colors work because they're near-complements on the color wheel and because they're both tints (light hues of deep, saturated colors).

Play with a few different shades of coral (from brighter red-orange shades to pale pinks) and tie it all together with the cool consistency of mint green - a classic color with a vintage feel.

This color scheme would also work great for a child's bedroom or nursery!

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Floral Quilted Wall Hangings

This past holiday season I hand-sewed three different "wall hangings" to give out as gifts to my mother, mother-in-law, and grandmother. 

Buy these floral fabrics here: http://www.spoonflower.com/profiles/ideasbyandrea

All of the fabric swatches (except for the solid light green around the edges) were printed at Spoonflower - a website that allows you to upload your own designs to be printed on fabric! The images you see are photographs of flowers that I've taken in the last several years (including pictures of roses and bouquets purchased at supermarkets, the flora around my grandmother's house, and professionally-designed gardens and landscapes in Barcelona, Paris, Southern Italy, Croatia, and Upstate New York). Many of the photographs were slightly altered/desaturated in Photoshop to give them a slightly vintage/aged/faded look. 

All of the photographs have a similar color scheme (shades of light greens, pinks, yellows, whites, purples, and oranges), and are intended to work together as a collection, making them great fabric choices for patchwork projects like these quilt-inspired wall hangings! 

There's no shortage of photographs of the finished project, so keep scrolling down!! :)
 
 

Shameless plug time: Love these wall hangings? Head over to Spoonflower to purchase my fabrics! :)
 

Photo Inspiration: The Colors of the Sea

I hope you've enjoyed this month's photo inspiration color schemes! Today's picture was taken on the Greek coast in 2011. I loved the different blues, greens, and neutral browns that were churned up from the sunlit water rippling over the rocks just offshore!

Why these colors go together: Blue and green are analogous on the color wheel; here they're both not quite the bright, saturated colors we're used to. The blue is darker and grayer, while the green is a little lighter and grayer. Add in two shades of light tan for a great beach-inspired set of neutrals and near-neutrals.

How to use this color scheme: The emphasis on neutrals and ocean colors make this a great color scheme for beach house interiors - or any interior space that you want to give that relaxing beach feeling (bedrooms and bathrooms in particular).

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Photo Inspiration: Purple & Yellow

Today's photo was taken in Positano, Italy - a little town along the Amalfi cost - in 2010. Though I featured a purple and yellow color scheme just last week, this one is different enough in tone to merit a new post. :)

Why these colors go together: This blue-purple is much happier than last week's, which had some grayish undertones. The purple, pale yellow, and pale blue are all fairly pure (color + white, instead of color + gray), giving them that peaceful feeling that all pastel colors share. For the neutral color, I pulled out a green so dark that it's almost black, to give this otherwise pasty color scheme sophistication and depth.

How to use this color scheme: What couldn't you use this color scheme for? The pastels are all classic wedding colors for any time of year (especially the winter, spring, or summer), and here those  traditional colors are given a modern twist with a bit of dark black-green. Use this color scheme for a relaxing living room or bedroom inside your house, a nautical/beach themed room or a nursery.

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Photo Inspiration: Neutral Olives

Today's photo was taken at an outdoor olive market in Thessaloniki, Greece in 2007.

Why these colors go together: They're all so dark that they act as neutrals - you could find any one of these colors (khaki green, gray, navy blue, and rusty brown) on a pair of dress slacks. Furthermore, since they all come from different kinds of olives, they have a common heritage that links them together.

How to use this color scheme: This rich group of neutrals would be great for a sophisticated office or library, although I can also easily imagine it for a modern kitchen or living space in a warehouse-style loft in the city, with concrete floors and stainless steel appliances. Seasonally, it would work best in autumn, when the nights are just starting to get longer and darker and the leaves are changing to rusty reds.

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Photo Inspiration: A Hint of Neon

Today we continue the look at photograph-inspired color schemes that we started last week. This picture was taken in Barcelona's Parc de la Ciutadella in 2010.

Why these colors go together: These tints of blue-violet obviously go together, since they all have the same base color. I particularly love the blueish icy feel of the lightest tint! Then, for a touch of excitement, I pulled out the neon acid-yellow that was created from the sun shining through the background foliage. This acid-yellow goes with the blue-violet shades because yellow is purple's complement on the color wheel - and because it has the same icy feeling as the lighter purple shades.

How to use this color scheme: This funky modern color scheme would be great in a living space decorated with contemporary Ikea-esque furniture, a nursery/child's bedroom (who needs stereotypical pink and blue when you can have blue-violet and acid-yellow??), or a fun, unique event. The icy undertones lend itself obviously to winter weddings, but I think this color scheme could work just as well in any season - the neon yellow is perfect for spring or summer, and the richness of the darkest blue-violet pairs perfectly with the yellow for an autumn wedding, as well.

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Photo Inspiration: Candy Shop

Today's photo was taken inside a large candy store just outside Montpellier in the south of France, which I visited as a high schooler in 2005.

Why these colors go together: The pink and blue colors of the candy wrappers go together because they're both tints (lighter shades) of primary colors - created by adding white to either red or blue. Adding the green (found in the darker candy wrappers on the next shelf up on the left side of the photo) is a great way to relate back to the pink and blue, since green is pink's complement and sits next to blue on the color wheel. For the last color to pull out of this photo, I chose a neutral tan. Neutrals go with everything, and are a great way to add some depth without introducing a fourth eye-popping color.

How to use this color scheme: This color scheme would be great for a winter or spring wedding, since the pink and blue tints have a bit of an icy feel. It would also be ideal for a baby shower or for decorating a nursery, since it features the quintessential "baby" colors of pink and light blue. Perhaps less obvious are other fun choices like valentine's day parties, the interior of bakeries or ice cream shops, or a unique, modern living space.

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Photo Inspiration: Four Bright Colors

For the month of January, I have planned a series of blog posts featuring color schemes pulled from different photographs I've taken. These color schemes could be incorporated into a room of your house, an art project, or event decorations (for birthdays, weddings, you name it!).

Today's photo is one of the many floral pictures of taken of gardens. I just loved the bright, highly saturated colors!

Why these colors go together: The most dominant color in the photograph is that gorgeous kelly green color, and each of the other three picks relate specifically to that green. Yellow is next to green on the color wheel, pink (as a shade of red) is green's complement, and orange is a secondary color (a color created by combining two of the three primary colors of red, yellow and blue) - just like green. Since each of those colors work nicely with green, they also work well with each other!
How to use this color scheme: These bright colors would be great for spring or summer weddings, outdoor events, kid's birthday parties, sunny kitchens or living rooms, and children's bedrooms or playrooms.

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Winter Color Combo: Sky Blue & Light Olive

Blue and green are both on the "cool" side of the color wheel - making this color combo great for winter events!

The light sky blue instantly reminds you of the color of frost, while the olive adds a hint of warmth (since it's green mixed with a bit of yellow or brown) and alludes to the eventually-returning spring. There are a lot of great olive and blue fabrics out there that would make for great tablecloths, and several light green flowers to choose from for decoration (such as cymbidium orchids, mums, lisianthus, gladiolus, hydrangea, and carnations).

Winter is also a great time to use bare tree branches or tree silhouettes (like the neckties pictured in the first row of the above inspiration board). You can carry that theme throughout your wall decor with tree stencils or peel-away wall stickers, and also incorporate tree branches into your reception centerpieces.

This color scheme is also great for interior design, and works best in a calming location, such as a breezy living room, nursery, or relaxing bedroom. :)

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Interior Design: Blue, Gray & Black Woodsy Bedroom

First, if you haven't watched any episodes of ABC's "Once Upon a Time" television series, you're really missing out. I watch quite a bit of (probably too much) television, and Once Upon a Time was easily my favorite show last year. In fact, I would even say that the first season was the absolutely best season of TV I have ever seen.

Besides the intriguing rewrites of familiar fairy tales, there was superb acting, beautiful costumes, and absolutely breathtaking scenery (CGI, of course). But one of my favorite backgrounds of the show was the interior design of the mayor's office. Mayor Regina Mills (trying desperately to hide her true identity as the evil queen and stepmother of Snow White) has an absolutely gorgeous black-and-white office that features, among other things, a really interesting tree-lined wallpaper.

I wanted to incorporate that wallpaper (or something similar) in the master bedroom of my new house, on a single accent wall behind the bed. First, I looked at wallpaper, and was amazed that I was able to find the exact same wallpaper used for the Once Upon a Time set on Anthropologie. Of course I wanted the exact wallpaper, but it would end up being much more expensive than I'd ever planned to spend decorating my bedroom (even for just one wall), and on top of the expense, the instructions for installing the wallpaper seemed way too complicated to do myself (and the reviews of the product agreed with my assessment, encouraging the hiring of a professional to install it).

I decided it would be easier to paint a mural of similar looking trees on the accent wall, and I'm so glad I did. I paid about $10 for the black paint, $10 for a handy paint bucket to pour it in, used an old brush from my art studio, and maybe $5 worth of painter's tape - significantly less than if I'd purchased the wallpaper, which would have been more than $400 for supplies, not including the cost of hiring a professional. Yes, it took a lot of time (I spent several hours on it over the course of five days), but it turned out even better than I expected, and I would spend all that time to do it all over again in a heartbeat.

Okay, enough talk. Here are the pictures I know you're dying to see. :)

First, we painted the other three walls a slightly blue-tinted medium gray, and the accent wall, ceiling, and trim around the whole room a very light gray that looks almost white. Then I measured where I wanted the main tree trunks on the wall and marked them off with painter's tape.

I drew freehand where I wanted all of the branches to go but didn't bother taping off the smaller branches because I knew it would 1) take forever if I did, and 2) waste a lot of tape. I knew I'd be careful painting the smaller branches anyway, and I wanted it to look a little gestural. Plus, I had plenty of extra light gray paint to go over any mistakes at the end (even after we used the same color to paint the staircase to our basement).

And then I painted! I got a (free!) sample of the actual Once Upon a Time wallpaper from Anthropologie and looked to it for guidance on how to add the details to the trees so that they'd look surprisingly realistic from a distance but obviously painted and really interesting up close.

Here's the final result!

 

I painted the shading on the tree trunks and branches on the right because the window (which faces east) was to their left, and I wanted it to seem like the sunlight streaming in the window was hitting the left sides of the trees. :)

Finally, when all the paint was dry, we moved our furniture back into place. Then we picked out a dark blue curtain to match our bedspread (and help block some of that early morning sunshine!) and replaced the old ceiling light/fan (though I took this picture before that last change was made). Voila! A super unique room with an awesome wintery tree mural I'm really proud of that pays homage to a television show my husband and I absolutely adore. What could be better?? :)

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Looking for custom stationery made to match these colors (or whatever other color combinations you're using for your event)? Visit Invites by Andrea to view stationery samples, download a catalogue pdf, or fill out a design request form. Or shoot me an email to ask me your questions or learn more information.

Interior Design: Green & Pink Guest Bedroom

As you may remember from previous blog entries, my husband I recently purchased a house. It's such a big house compared to the apartment we had before (and we still have so little furniture!) that it's definitely going to take awhile to get around to decorating all of the rooms. Two rooms that were high on our list of priorities were our master bedroom - which was painted a glaring salmon-peach color that didn't go with our black bedroom furniture or dark blue bedspread at all - and the guest bedroom. I'll show you pictures of how I decorated our master bedroom in a post tomorrow, but first --

Guest Bedroom:

Before:

Most of our house had been poorly painted by the previous owners - and I'm not just talking about a matter of taste. Even rooms that were painted only one (and not super offensive) color had obvious mistakes at closer inspection. The previous owners clearly didn't know about painter's tape - or were just too lazy to be bothered with it. Globs of green paint were all over the edges of the otherwise white ceiling, half of the white-painted trim had similar green splotches along edges, and there was even evidence of the previous bright blue paint color that was hiding under the newer green. When we went to change light switch and outlet covers, or remove their old curtain rods to put up new ones, there was suddenly bright blue paint visible everywhere that they never repainted.

And then there's the matter of the color green they chose. It wasn't horrible, but it wasn't quite right, either. The shade of green was somewhere between a pale mint/pistachio color and light lime green, which felt a little too pastel for the sophisticated feeling we wanted our grown-up guest room to have.

My husband loves green and pink color schemes, and I agreed that it would be great for our guest room, but the current green paint still had to go. We repainted the entire room (green-splotched white ceiling included) in a slightly darker and infinitely more sophisticated light olive green and found a great pink and green quilt to match. We installed window blinds and put up a white curtain, got a wrought iron bed at wayfair.com, and flanked the new bed with two nightstands from Ikea.

After:

The walls are still pretty bare (and we're still waiting for a wooden dresser and mirror that my in-laws are sending us), but we started to put some finishing touches in already. We hung up some wedding photos on the wall that I'd had matted in almost the same shade of green in amazing foresight last year, I found some nice inexpensive faux olive green flowers at Michael's to decorate one nightstand, and I put my grandma's old wooden hope chest at the foot of the bed.

The idea I had for this room was kind of a sweet homely garden cottage feel. The wooden dresser and chest will be different shades of wood, and I plan to drape at least one crocheted blanket over part of the wooden chest to add more texture to the room. We hung a leafy green wall hook from Pier 1 on the wall opposite the pictures, and I plan to make more art for the room over time that continues the green/pink color scheme and a warm, comfortable garden feeling. It's definitely on it's way!


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I hope you enjoy my interior design advice. I'm a complete amateur when it comes to home decorating, but I've always loved finding new ideas to use color, and I can't wait to make over our new house with some of my own decorating ideas. :)

 
Shameless Plug Time: Love this color combination and my decor ideas? Looking for custom stationery made to match these colors (or whatever other color combinations you're using for your event)? Visit Invites by Andrea to view stationery samples, download a catalogue pdf, or fill out a design request form. Or shoot me an email to ask me your questions or learn more information.

Interior Design Color Schemes #4

Last week, I posted some photographs and showed how I picked out four colors from each image to use as inspiration for creating interior design inspiration color boards. Today, I have two new photographs to show you. :)



Inspirational Photo #7: Positano Flowers

This photograph was taken on the Italian Amalfi coast, in a town called Positano in 2010. These flowers were decorating the al fresco dining area of a beach-side restaurant. Though the magenta flowers and green leaves are the more saturated colors in this photograph, to me it is the two-toned white flowers that are most interesting. I loved the hints of purples and lavenders displayed on their petals.

To keep the emphasis on the pretty shades of purple and magenta, keep the green accents to a minimum, and choose an olive or khaki tint that will act more like a neutral than another jarring color. If your purples and magentas are very dark and saturated, using a lighter green than the one I had in the photograph is probably the best bet. In these examples, the olive green in the top left and right pictures and bottom middle image are used as light-colored accents. They're so light that they're almost the yellow color of early spring grass! To emphasize a darker green, tone down the dark shades of the purple and magenta, or better yet, just pick one of those saturated colors instead of using both.


Inspirational Photo #8: Fruit in Boston

I took this photograph at an outdoor street market in Boston in 2009. I love the dual colors of the fruit. When paired with the bright blue crate they were stacked in, the fruit are the very definition of saturated color.

To translate the saturated colors of the Boston photograph into home decor, remember to utilize accents and include a lot of neutrals. A dark chocolate brown or a fresh white are my favorite neutrals for this orange and yellow color scheme; because the citrus colors are so bold, the blue can even act as a neutral if it's dark enough. Select a navy, and use it either as subdued accents to a bright room, or make it more prominent and tone down the amount of orange and yellow instead. Either way, this color scheme is both modern and fun, and goes great in any contemporary space.





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Don't forget - though these inspiration boards feature home decorating ideas, these color schemes could work just as well for any event! I hope you enjoyed my interior design advice. I'm a complete amateur when it comes to home decorating, but I've always loved finding new ideas to use color, and I can't wait to make over our new house with some of my own decorating ideas. :)




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Shameless Plug Time: Love these color combinations? Looking for custom stationery made to match these colors (or whatever other color combinations you're using for your event)? Visit Invites by Andrea to view more samples, download a catalogue pdf, or fill out a design request form. Or shoot me an email to ask me your questions or learn more information.