Every year, we host Room for Color, a contest looking for the most beautiful, colorful room in the world (the 2011 competition begins next week!) and our readers send us in entries filled with pics of their own wonderful rooms. But, along with the photos, they also share their advice, ideas and tips to help the rest of us successfully add color to our homes. I took a look back at our 2010 entries and gathered some inspiring images and real life advice...
Advice from the entry shown above the jump, our 2010 winning room, Joshua's Vintage Primary: Be bold! ...But make decisions carefully. Take paint chips home so you can see what the color looks like in the actual space and lighting conditions. Keep your furniture neutral and add color through accessories. It will allow you to keep your furniture longer and change the look of your room later. Fabric is an easy, way to make a big impact, personalize your space and create a cozy, welcoming atmosphere. Don't be matchy-matchy; mixing colors, textures and patterns adds a sense of excitement and fun.
Christopher's "Chocolate, Cream & Orange" Room: Have no fear! I was looking for a masculine color that would contrast with the cream rug and furnishings and work with the orange and metal accents and decided upon Benjamin Moore Marshlands.
Tim's "Yellow, Grey, Blue" Living Room: Pick the color combination you love and play with the different shades of these colors, either on wall, or fabrics for drapes and pillows, or area rug. Be bold on elements that are easy to change. That way, you can change the feel of your room easily over different seasons without big financial commitment. One trick I used for myself is to do pillows with different designs on both sides. When it's time to change from summer to fall, just turn the pillow around!
Annalea's "Keep On The Sunny Side" Room: I like to vary up the shades used to make a room feel more authentic and layered. Instead of matching the exact color, play with different tones and levels of saturation. I wanted a wall color that would liven up the house during dreary Illinois winters, but could also serve as a neutral against many other colors. I tend to collect reds - from vintage finds to handmade goodies - and I loved the way they look against yellow. From there, I went with greens and blues to balance it all out. (And because it is just so darn pretty.) This space also needed to be livable for our young family of five. We wanted it to be vibrant and welcoming. It was done frugally and is easily adaptable.
Melanie's "The Chinoiserie Incident" Bedroom: Try everything and edit carefully. This room started with the wallpaper. The aqua and peacock are super gorgeous but the pattern is so bold it needed a strong compliment to provide balance. Orange was a natural choice. Keeping everything else simple was imperative. Black and white furniture and accessories help to ground the space.
Jen's "Motley Missoni" Bathroom: Any color can look sophisticated if you balance it with smart neutrals. Most people respond well to contrasts. I knew I wanted to paint or draw a pattern on the largest wall, but I was conflicted over the direction in which to go. I'm usually most attracted to patterns that are very repetitive and geometric, but the lopsided angles of this 110 year old building would have made for a lopsided pattern. Fortunately, I came across an amazing Missoni print, and I decided to use that as my inspiration.
David's "Robin's Egg Refresh" Bedroom: Be monolithic with color. If you're going to use a bold and saturated color, don't wimp out and paint just one wall. Carry around scraps of things that have colors you like when you go paint shopping. Bring home chips or sample jars and try out several choices before spending a lot of money on paint.
Jenn's "Vintage Natural" Bathroom: The age of my home meant that I wanted the bathroom to reflect the same aesthetic, so I chose a vintage-looking gray, and paired it against the vibrant green in the wallpaper, anchored by the freshness of the white. Most importantly, you have to know who you are before you can know what color - or how much color - you can live with. For me, less is more.
Jacquie's "New Orleans" Kitchen: Pay attention to the values of the colors. Our kitchen is basically a primary triad color scheme of bright yellow trim, soft yellow walls, red/orange cabinets with light aqua blue doors.
Joi's "Color Me Happy" Room: I was inspired by the eclecticism of my favorite Domino magazine spreads! I used to be afraid to use color, but started paying close attention to my favorite photos and realized they ALL used color. I used these same pictures as inspirations for my own home and I soon fell in love with mixing all of my favorite hues. Go with your gut! If you like a color, use it. Forget the rules about matchy-matchy color schemes. Color evokes emotion and mixing your favorites can only make you even happier. : )
We're hoping you will take inspiration from the 2010 entrants above and share your most beautiful, colorful room with us this year. The 2011 Room for Color contest launches next week - stay tuned for all the details on how to enter, prizes and more!
Images: As linked above / all via Room for Color 2010
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I'm trying to pick new interior colors for my house right now. My biggest issue is the woodwork. I wouldn't dare paint it, but can't figure out what will look best. I love dark, bold jewel toned colors but it also makes my home very dark. In all of these examples, no one has original woodwork. Good advice though.
I love (love, love) the New Orlean's kitchen. The retro table/chairs (but bar height?) is so awesome, I would love to find something like that for my kitchen eat-in place.
A fantastic neutral I am currently rediscovering is gray. I just painted my living room in Behr Premium "Silver Screen" and it is gorgeous in the eggshell. The walls look almost grey-blue in daylight and in the evening take on a silvery sheen. I am in love with the color.
That last room is pretty brilliant--absolutely adore the chevron curtains.
Also, first thought on the "always keep on the sunny side" room: it reminds me of Fluttershy. There, I said it. >_>
To jaimemariel and your post about looking for paint colors that work with woodwork, I've always found that teal blues hues and the browns of the woodwork look lovely together. I was never a big fan of teal or turquoise until I paired it in a traditional home with original unpainted woodwork... I thought it looked stunning!!!
Jenn's Motley Missoni bathroom has given me inspiration!!!!
@jaimemariel - We have original hardwood in 100 year old house. Our walls are shades of soft greens and cream. Earthy colors look very nice with hardwood.
The Motley Missoni bathroom was wonderful the first time around - still wonderful!
You can absolutely do jewel tones in a room with woodwork, just keep the walls neutral! Go darker with the curtains, pillows, couches, etc.
Agree - that Missoni-inspired wall is great!
Great post! Joi's room seriously makes me want to go home and start over.
And we have a winner! Number one is teal done beautifully. Everything works so well!
@jaimemariel check out this tour:
http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/sf/jenny-and-cristinas-rustic-modern-apartment-house-tour-106867
Love the vintage bathroom. The bedrooms with the dark turquoise-y blues are too dark for my taste. I like the yellow living room but not the yellow with all the pink (the "Look on the sunny side" kitchen). Guess I like lighter colors in my own home, as it's dark here in the Boston area much of the time.
Love the hand basin in Jenn's bathroom, not a fan of the stack of books beside the toilet.
I was inspired by last year's contest to paint my living room Benjamin Moore Blue Spa - the robin's egg blue pictured in the bedroom above. Keep the colorful rooms coming!
And a scary example I just saw: www.svd.se/bostad/hemmahos/hemma-hos-trendspanaren-stefan-nilsson_6538595.svd
I painted my living room the color of the first picture after seeing it 6 months ago - I love it!
Re: natural woodwork: we have used various tones of sagey greens and golds and it really brings out the beauty of the wood.
@omnombiscuits FTW!
I've always loved colour, but I'm a person that does neutrals for furniture. BUT, I am also in love with gray right now. We've just painted over the nasty pink-fleshy beige that the previous owners painted in EVERY ROOM (except the bathroom, which is the most boring and passive pale blue) with a light stone gray and hits of bold greens--lime and a fabulous colour by BM: Bonsai.
So is this contest really about paint (being sponsored by a paint company, I believe) and someone with neutral walls but colorful furniture and stuff should not bother to enter?
LUV the dark charcoal. What color paint is it? I want to do my lr dar(a LOT of light) but everybody says not to.
When you find a colour you like, paint it on a large piece of heavy paper. I use lining paper. To get a sheet of paper large enough you could join two or more lengths together. The more intense/bright/dark your colour the larger the sheet you need. Putting your paint sample on paper means you are able to move it round your room. Lining paper wins out over flimsier kinds because it is heavy enough to take the paint and won't tear. A large sample of the paint colour will give you a much better idea of what it will look like on the wall. Different parts of a room receive different amounts of light, so you need to be able to move your sample round. It's important to see how a paint colour will look in the corners. A small chip, or even A4-sized sample simply isn't the same. Also, some samples are difficult to cover successfully if you put them on the wall. Trust me!
Paint 2 large pieces of paper - I use watercolor paper, which is rigid and not smooth - and tape them together to form a corner. This let's you see how the color looks when it reflects against itself. Move it around. Also paint the inside of a shoe box, to see reflections more intensely.
I am about to paint and have just had an expensive experience with Benjamin Moore. The same colors in Aura are different than the colors in the regular paint. Aura and regular paint are different color systems. And the samples can be different than both, not to mention the paper sample. If you try to mix 2 BM colors to get your dream color, they better use the same base or the computer will be unable to match the color.
I am ending up with Melon Popsicle, which will go on all walls of a 900 sq foot loft. I hope they will look like the golden walls of Rome.
Wow all of these apartments are decorated amazingly. I actually just painted my rental home recently and was completely clueless. I just had a friend of mine pick colors out. She was talking about all these fancy “feelings” certain colors brought you. It was crazy. But I actually looked it up later and it’s really cool how different colors can affect your mood.
I write blogs for an apartment search and wrote a similar blog to this after I painted the house, it discusses the different feelings colors give you:
http://apartments.cazoodle.com/blog/2011/09/28/choosing-paint-colors-may-have-a-deeper-meaning/