Color Play

Our House Before Painting. Note the horrible beige trim that was EVERYWHERE!

Hallway in Lemon Curd

I’ve got some exciting news! Be sure to tune in tomorrow for my first blog post for Duncan’s I Love to Create! I’m so thrilled to join their prestigious group of bloggers. I’m going to be creating a kid/teen themed project every two weeks and will post every other Thursday. Avalon will be doing a variation to test run the idea so we can say: “Mom Crafted, Kid Approved!”

My husband has been painting our entryway this past week with a little help from my daughter and me. Some of you may recall that he already painted our entryway back in December, but we HATED the color. It was called ‘soft duckling’ and it was horrid. (My sincere apologies to ducklings.) We went back to the drawing board and after much consideration I selected Lemon Curd. My family wasn’t so sure about the color but we all agree now that it’s perfect. You can see the color below this post.

Color is one of my specialties as a designer. I love playing with color and I love surprising and unexpected combinations. The lower floor of our school house features saturated colors. Because it's a 128 year old home with simple architectural details, I've had to decorate keeping that simplicity in mind, so color on the walls has been my way of adding personality. I wanted the colors to be warm, inviting and spicy. It’s a work in progress, but it’s slowly coming together. I selected cool and soothing colors for the upstairs, periwinkle and sky blue. My daughter’s room is a pretty orchid pink she selected.

When we were renovating our retail store, I selected the paint colors carefully. Color is such an emotional thing, I wanted to be sure people felt invited, welcome and wanted to stay and look around. Walking into the store felt like being wrapped up in sunlight and warmth. We painted the outside a Chinese green with the same cinnamon red trim. It was such a great looking storefront, the camera crew from QVC kept shooting it for their promo footage. People would call us to say, "Hey we saw your store on QVC!"

Selecting paint colors is tricky because they never look the same to your eye on the wall as they did on the chip. I usually try to select a color one shade lighter than the one I love on the chip. This is particularly important with saturated colors like we’ve used downstairs. When designing a house, try to think about the flow of one color into another. The yellow, green and blue you see when you enter our house are synergistically balanced. It’s good chi. Rooms should flow into one another and not be disconnected.

Take some risks and be bold. Paint a big section of a wall and live with it for a few weeks. Pick a few colors and have them side by side. I think a home should be a work in progress and should organically unfold room by room. There’s no need to rush because let’s face it, once you’ve painted it you’re going to be living with it for a while! Don’t be afraid of color, it’s the least expensive way to totally change the mood of your décor.

Check in tomorrow for my first Duncan I Love to Create blog! It’s a quick and easy project for tweens and teens to do on those ‘I’m bored’ days. Until next time...craft on with your bad selves.
xoxo
Madge

Elves on Acid Kitchen Details

Grass Green Living Room

Robin's Egg Blue Bathroom

Cinnamon R'orange Zen TV Room

Upstairs Studio Periwinkle Blue Walls

Oroboros Exterior Before

Oroboros Exterior After