Color Ideas for Walls and Decor

Summer is a time for vacations, and also for projects. Maybe you’re thinking about painting, but want to do something a little out of the ordinary. We’ve got a few ideas. TOP ROW: 1. You may have heard of painting the ceiling, but here, painting the ceiling and a single wall elevates the walls and ceiling into floating panes of color. Hus & Hem via Plenty of Colour. 2.

I lived with buttery yellow living room walls for several years and loved them; somehow they took the edge off even the chilliest Chicago morning. If you are considering adding this bit of subtle sunshiney warmth to your home, look no further – here is a palette of perfect pale yellows and creams. One is sure to suit your personal taste; some a bit brighter, some warmer, some more neutral, all pretty.1. Farrow & Ball: Pale Hound 712. Benjamin Moore: Little Dipper Classic Colors 3243.

It is generally believed that around 1 out of 255 women and 1 out of 12 men may have some degree of color blindness. When you consider the importance color plays in the products we buy, our aesthetic tastes, and the design decisions we make when we decorate, it’s quite intriguing to consider that many of us may not perceive colors in the same way.

From deep charcoal to dusty white, gray is a versatile option for color in the kitchen. It’s a refreshing take on neutral that’s slightly off the beaten path for kitchen colors and can be taken to a level of dramatic sexiness, if you so desire…The quality of light in your space will affect the color, and placement will influence the overall aesthetic. This collection of interiors showcases a few succssful options for those thinking of going gray in the kitchen.

Here’s a great example of how paint and new cabinet hardware can easily and inexpensively upgrade a kitchen. The family over at Keeping It Cozy made over their kitchen with these upgrades, and a few other finishing touches to make the space look bright and brand new — with a budget of only $1000!

When Andi, Dean and their building neighbors decided to re-paint the faded exterior of their Victorian home, it quickly became apparent that the process was not for amateurs. Located in the Alamo Square neighborhood of San Francisco, not far from the famous painted ladies, their building is over a century old.

No, it’s not new. It’s not even particularly newsworthy. But I find myself drawn to rooms with this popular black and white offset striped rug. For something so modern and graphic, the rug is surprisingly versatile.It gives formal antique-filled rooms some punch and brightness. It serves as a neutral backdrop for more modern rooms. How can something with such a busy pattern suit so many styles?

When Lee moved into his apartment rental, the kitchen was stark white and sterile. Check out what some color and black and white self adhesive floor tiles can do…With the help of a hair dryer, he removed the old, cracked vinyl tiles, and replaced them with Armstrong self adhesive floor tiles (cost $90). By positioning them at an angle, he created a diamond pattern that helps to distracts the eye from the railroad apartment’s “long & skinny” shape.

Imagine if you will, a room with some pretty bold stripes on a sloped ceiling and a standard IKEA bunk bed, both in cool shades. Some time later a big, bold, red carpet is added to the mix and suddenly it’s time for a makeover. Are you curious to see what they do with the stripes in the new and improved room?They kept them! Well, they kept the idea of them, they actually painted over them in hot hues that go with the new rug. And the IKEA bunk bed got a nice clean white wash.

This before & after project is a great example of how a good imagination is often the key to a great makeover. Kind of makes me feel better about all that daydreaming I did during algebra class.This makeover was featured on Sunset, and I love that this plant stand wound up costing $3.19, the cost of the Rust-Oleum Painter’s Touch spray paint in Sun Yellow. If you needed to buy a pot, the project would cost a bit more, but still far less than a wrought iron planter.

Some folks are gifted when it comes to choosing colors. Then there are the rest of us. I have a basement shelf full of little tester paint cans because I never can quite nail down that perfect shade I have in my head. Heaven help me if I need to choose a complementing accent color to boot, then all is surely lost. So when I see pictures of rooms with three or four daring but perfect colors, I am in awe and at a total loss as to how to achieve such a look. Thankfully, help has arrived.

I’m sure some of you understand: often, keeping up with my blogroll feels like a full-time job. With so many great sites out there (and only so many hours in the day), isn’t in nice when you find one that always delivers? A blogger who leaves you feeling not just inspired, but smarter, too? For me, Maria Killam does just that.I discovered Maria’s blog Colour Me Happy about two years ago, when I was first considering a career change into interior design.

Pillowcases, duvet covers, sheets, and bed spreads can all be ruined with a conspicuous stain. It’s unfortunate when perfectly good, intact bedding is cast away because of a spot here and there, or because of general dinginess. Rather than buying new, dye your bedding instead! It’s a great way to cover stains or update a color. Either way, it’ll prolong the life of something you already own and be cost effective to boot.

When it comes to color, I’m a middle of the road person. While I admire people who go for the gusto with four walls of bright, bold color, I’m more in tune with moderated uses. Accent walls deliver a robust dose of color with less work, more flexibility and require slightly less color confidence. In other words, they’re perfect for lazy, timid, commitment phobes like me.

Painting a room is one of the least expensive ways to change things up in your home but the color you choose can be one of the most important decisions. Why? Because color can have a strong effect on your mood, emotions and behaviors.If you’re undecided, or in the midst of picking a color for a room, it can’t hurt to take the quizzes below to help find out which color is right for you.1. Pratt and Lambert Color Personality QuizThis was my favorite of the three quizzes.

Can you guess the most popular color in the entire world? Dulux Paints conducted a survey and found that 42 percent of males and 30 percent of females have the same favorite color. Find out which colors are the world’s favorite and the least liked. The most popular color in the world is blue. The second favorite colors are red and green, followed by orange, brown and purple. Yellow is the least favorite color, preferred by only five percent of people.

Name: Alex Fulton Location: Sumner Beach — Christchurch, New Zealand Size: 180 square meters Years Lived In: 5 years this Christmas. A few weeks back I practically spit my drink all over myself trying to get shouts of exclamation out when stumbled upon this home in New Zealand. Although I would have loved to have flown there to photograph it myself, we called in the big guns (aka Li’l Magoolie). This home is so packed with color, you might actually need to sit down.

Name: Dana & SteveLocation: Grant Park — Atlanta, GASize: 1500 square feetYears lived in: 2 — ownedYou wouldn’t know by looking at it, but two years ago this home was an empty foreclosure that was in a sad state. It needed a full overhaul of the electrical system, plumbing, and HVAC, but despite the upgrades in store, they set a date of one month to have the place move in ready.

Ceilings are called the fifth wall for a reason. Along with offering ample design opportunity, a fresh coat of ceiling paint can quickly transform the ambience of an entire room. So to inspire your ceiling painting endeavors, we rounded up seven rooms, all from Apartment Therapy home tours, that will make you want to paint your ceiling ASAP. Looking for an unexpected way to modernize a home with old architectural bones and vintage decor vibes?

Marie-Antoinette is best known for being detested, for so perfectly representing the sins of the French ancien régime that she was beheaded. But she is also famous for her role as Neo-Classical tastemaker. In her public and private interiors as well as the portraits she commissioned, we can see a palette of colors fit for a queen.

The trouble with writing an online column is that it never goes away — it doesn’t become puppy litter or fish wrap the way a newspaper column does, it’s out there in the ether for the rest of time. Words come back to haunt you. I find my old points of view being quoted verbatim from earlier stages of my development; case in point:I started a series of “best-of” posts a few years ago— best red, best yellow, best brown (where did that idea go?

Name: Gene, Heidi and Baby WyethLocation: Downtown — Brooklyn, New YorkSize: 1,285 square feetYears Lived In: 2½ years Gene recently shared his home through a House Call Gene’s Graphics & Color: Geometric Art Collection — and I couldn’t wait to share more! A perfect kick-off to our Art, Craft & Collection month, this Brooklyn family’s loft is oozing with exciting art and Gene shared one of the most extensive resource lists (including all the art!

The Torment of Saint Anthony, MichelangeloUnveiled last year at the Met — a painting ascribed to Michelangelo and one of only four known to be of his hand. According to The New York Times announcement, one of the telltale characteristics distinguishing his authorship was the palette, which suddenly made me appreciate the Sistine Chapel more, but now I’m running before my horse to market…Michelangelo painted The Torment of St.

Name: Coastal Fog AC-1Brand: Benjamin Moore Why would anyone with a color column write so frequently about gray? I think it’s important to point out the subtle beauty of a seemingly random neutral as an element within a larger design scheme. When used deliberately it can be an essential component in a smartly colorful room.Coastal Fog is perhaps what my friend Benjamin would call French gray, or a warm gray like wet cement.

I confess…years ago, Apartment Therapy posted an image my business card on the internet (above), and I still get emails about the color “blue” I used. That color wasn’t blue at all, but Benjamin Moore’s Knoxville Gray, a mysterious and amorphous neutral that changes color throughout the day — greenish at night, bluish in the morning and more solidly gray in full sun.

Faux malachite — who knew? The idea for this grew so organically I can’t even remember what the original impetus was, but I think the architect was intrigued by the stone’s jade green color. I see as per an article in the latest Elle Décor that gemstones are the dernier cri, so I count ourselves as prescient on this point.My father was a geological engineer and had semi-precious stones laying all over the house, so things like the pattern of agate are in my blood.

It’s been said that the human eye can perceive an average of 3 million colors, with some highly sensitive or artistic types able to detect 7 million. Yet, I’ve noticed over the years that every decorator with whom I’ve worked gravitates to the same 25 colors repeatedly, which is how specific color palettes, or color languages, are born. Allow me to introduce my own.For example, I have what I’ll call a “Chamberlain Palette” regarding my watercolors and oils.

With the city festooned in red and green for the holiday season, it seemed like an appropriate time to wonder how these colors came to be associated with Christmas, how blue and white became the official colors of Hanukkah, and what symbolism black, green, and red have during Kwanzaa. The Christmastime significance of the color green is partly related to the evergreen tree, seen as a symbol of Christ’s resurrection and eternal life.

Here's how to make this bold, cheerful color work for you.

Name: Silver Fox 2108-50Brand: Benjamin MooreClose friends of mine have a brownstone in Brooklyn — they are both artists unafraid to be decoratively daring, and have invested every room in the house with a unique color.The overall palette of their home reminds me of that in The Winslow Boy.Silver Fox is one of those wet cement colors that looks like a warm grey on the wall, but comes off of a brown page in a fan deck.

To All ColorTherapy PostsLast week, I was grumpily dispatched to Aronson’s Floor Covering on a bit of nonsense, which quickly turned into a meeting with good fortune. Therein, I was reacquainted with the KT paint line and a year-old desire to write about the Villa Savoye outside of Paris…The architect Le Corbusier developed two color palettes over the course of his career, one in the 1930s and one in the 1950s. The first was reactive and was made as a purging of bourgeois taste.

To All ColorTherapy PostsName: Indian Rhubarb NA63, Artist’s Studio VM157Brand: Ralph Lauren No 1980’s film retrospective would be complete without a screening of “9 1/2 Weeks.” Gauzy, against-the-light photography, MTV soundtracks and fast editing all helped define the era as well as director Adrian Lyne’s career.

To All ColorTherapy PostsNames: Benjamin Moore True Pink 2003-40, Split Pea 2146-30, Passion Blue 2053-50, Spring Azalea 2077-40; Ralph Lauren Bold Orange IB63, Beach yellow IB71The Umbrellas of Cherbourg is one of the most romantic movies about young love ever made. Each shot is an explosion of color in pop-art pastels–a color language that exaggerates the storybook quality of this romantic fantasy.