Name: Camellia
Location: Portland
Type: 3 bedroom home, owned
Why I use color:
To create a space that is personal. I've moved every few years my whole life and enjoy making a new dwelling feel like home using colorful accents. I also use color to make a space feel open and comfortable; I love white walls and lots of light, but adding color can actually make a space feel larger.
2 good color tips:
1. If you use whites, creams, and natural materials (unbleached cotton or wool, pottery with clear glazes, woods with all different finishes) for your canvas, you can encorporate more colors without overwhelming the space. By using textiles, plants, artwork and objects to add color, you can allow your palette more freedom to change and evolve over time than if you start out by painting the whole room a strong color.
2. You can create continuity in a mixed palette by echoing shapes and textures, not just hues. For example, the orange stripe in the bedspread echos the orange stripe in the small Margot Thompson painting, while the texture of the plant on the wooden dresser echoes the black texture in the same painting.
2 good color resources:
1. Artists like Wayne Thiebaud, Ad Reinhardt, and Alexander Calder.
2. Mediterranean tiles. Much of the color in this room comes from the palette used in our Ketuba (Jewish marriage contract, hanging over our dresser), which was calligraphed by my mother-in-law with a border taken from a book of Persian tiles.
© 2009 Apartment Therapy
Simple. Clean. My only thought would be bring in a little more color on the windows - I hate bare windows. Otherwise love it.
Can you tell us about your platform bed?
Ok, so your bedroom is clean. And there are some plants. It's also not interesting.
I like how your place looks so very clean and fresh, and the effect of your missmatched night tables. I think some curtains would make it nicer.
olar
you have some nice pieces and great place to start--
i would just take your approach further like taking one of those colors from the ketuba and painting it onto the entire wall behind your bed-- or getting some textiles like sheers for your windows that would create a dialogue with other color in the room. some texture would be nice too.
I love the choice of color on your pillowcases and the way I normally wouldn't match it up to that bedspread with colorful striped bedspread. It simply adds enough color to brighten your room. I see what you mean by echoing shapes and textures. I love this room and what you've done with it.
okay, this room has so much potential. i love the bare windows and this room has great natural lighting. i love the wood flooring and the platform bed. but when we are talking about color and i look around the room i just don't feel that there was much thought put into a color palette. it kind of looks thrown together. i vote no jsut because of the lack of effort.
I like this a lot, as is.
Thank you for the possitive comments. It's great to hear people's ideas.
Szig: The platform bed is homemade, with 2x12 boards as the supports and a particle board platform. There are additional 2x12 Xs under the bed to keep the platform from sagging.
Olar: the bedside tables are both craigslist finds, and the cream colored one is a hospital cabinet. We love steel industrial furniture, and they were amazing bargains.
I'm surprised about the comments that the room is uninterseting and shows a lack of effort, because in fact a lot of thought was put into our choices. However, I'm realizing that I should have used a close-up for one of my pics, as a lot of the interest is in the details.
One of my favorite aspects of the way this room was put together was the successful combination of different styles of furniture in a way that works visually, but is also economical. I want this room to be a finalist so that we can see those additional up-close photos that would highlight
the details that I'm sure are quite alluring and interesting.
I like the scale changes through-out the room, too.
I really like this room – it resonates. I get the sense that everything is in the “right” place. Not that it is put away, but that it is placed in the correct place for the room. I suspect the room feels more colourful than the photographs reflect. I also appreciated that Camelia provided meaningful answers to the questions. I agree with Margaret when she says that additional photos would likely reflect Camelia’s use of colour.
Oh, that stripe, that stripe. So sweet.
I like the bedspread. But I can only shrug my shoulders at this one.
spacious, tasteful, cozy!
I love the colors and the way the light plays with the colors. Personally, I like more touchy-feely texture -- they would soften the room. However, that is a matter of taste, and may actually conflict with the industrial details you have going. Perhaps a flokati rug, sheer, voluminous, too-long drapes pooled on the floor, stuff like that would make it more cozy as a bedroom.
One of my favorites so far! Spare but lively -- the colors feel thoughtfully chosen, and I love the eclectic, uncluttered blend of accents and furniture.
hey....that is soooooo awesome. LOVE IT!! only thing i recommend is more plants and flowers in the picture. You have a lot of them why not show them off?
Looks sooooooo familiar. ?!
While I love the airiness, and the bedspread, I think some color must have gotten lost in photography or my monitor, because I see soft white and wood everywhere but the bed. And certainly I have no vendetta against soft white, but, um, its not exciting.
I'd love to see one of the soft colors from the bedspread go up on one of the walls. If you're set on white walls, maybe just a stripe of color? Or drapes.
But I like your color scheme, I would just drop the white back from 80% to more like 60%
I like the color fun on the bed. I wish there was more color in the room.
is that bedside table an old typewriter stand? i use one of those as a laptop desk.
yes... and,
for two Cancerians, add touchy-feely! a little something to fall onto and relax into, like a few big pillows - maybe round and soft or satiny - even a tasteful bit of feaux fur if not too corny but cushy and lush & plush
ya think? wink!
haha, dease
LOVE those colors. maybe stain bed frame or paint a soft sheen color?
Nice.
lastly... something or things to bring the eye upward even subtly - a soft colored textile - fabric - or framed work of art when able/available
something glass... OOH, I think i'm wanting to add a couple of things of special beauty. they will come, yes? not to cluter but to uplift the spirit even yet further into the realms heaven :)
wish i had something to send. a sculpure? hm. dunno - just, maybe somthing(s) special. ?? a big glass vase is what i picture.
oops, on second observe, your bed frame is of well-chosen wood. maybe just a sheer sheen - laquer or whatever - to protect it and highlight the highlights.
Hi I just wanted to say that the place looks very bright and freesh and also, I wanted to ask you were did you purchase the lamp that is on the left bedside table of the picture (the white goose neck lamp) I really like it.thanks.
Luis:
The lamp was from Target! You can't really see it in the picture but the button is orange.
irksomecushion:
Yes, it is a typewriter stand. Steel with formica top.
susie: You're totally right. We should have shown the plants off more.
Josie:
You are right, the photo doesn't show the color well. I photographed the room on a very grey day; I should have waited for a sunny one. The smallest pillow looks whitish in the photo but is in fact a light yellow, and the cabinet that looks whitish is actually cream colored. Many of the colors, also, are too small to show up in the photo, like the bright colors in the ketuba, the colors on the tea tins that house the plants, the button on the lamp, etc; or could not be included since we only get two photos (there are paintings and scrolls on the east and west walls, and the ceiling is cream colored to make it feel higher.) I think that photography was an issue for many entries; I think our eyes naturally correct the colors in a photo of a room we're accustomed to, so that we don't even notice that our photos don't successfully convey our space to someone who's never seen it.
Even though most people here don't seem to agree, I still don't feel the need to paint a whole wall a bold color or add colorful drapes. It seems to me that many entries in this contest are being condemned for not having enough color, but I feel that color use should be judged based on *how* color is used, not how *much*. Also, I think that the skillful use of color in a home encompasses how you choose to use your entire palette--whites, creams, greys, browns, etc--not just the bold, vibrant hues. In our bedroom, we wanted the room to feel as light and spacious as possible, and we wanted the room to look simple and natural. We also wanted the color in the room to be dynamic rather than static; we can change the pillowcases when we are tired of yellow and orange, or use a different bedspread, or hang different paintings (Unfortunately, the walls with the paintings and Taiwanese scroll don't show in the photos). And we wanted to marry different styles and patterns harmoniously by tying them together with color, texture, and scalar relationships.
The way we used color achieves these goals, so I still vote INSTA-FINALIST!
I would explain my "no way" vote... but, Josie has already said it perfectly.
Just perfect as is! Peaceful, simple, and clean. I voted tops pour vous! (: