JR Studio Design Blog

Now that you have mastered Color 101 (see earlier posts…) It is time to tackle the next chapter in our quest for color karma – What do I do with what I know?  Any professor will tell you a foundation is key to understanding how to manipulate the details.  You have the foundation.  You know what color is not a color (…white.) You know the worst color faux-pas (…over coordination.)  Now let’s take a step beyond and find fresh ways to earn your chromatic stripes.

Contrasting Combinations.  High contrast combinations work well if you find your furniture has lost its spark,  It’s like mixing prints in fashion.  Though plaids and stripes may be intriguing by themselves, both of them speak a bit more loudly when they are juxtaposed (albeit in a subtle, sophisticated way…)  Yes interior design CAN be just like fashion. Try contrasting dark dated brown furniture with creamy yellow or faded violet walls and beige furniture with inky blue tones.  Repeat the wall color with a few related accessory pieces in varying shades of the same hue, but don’t try to find perfect matches.  There is beauty to be found in the layered depth of related colors.

Bring the outdoors inside.  Break the boundaries of a room (and extend your visual living space without remodeling…) by using color already peeking in the window, door or skylight. Repeating color seen outside from inside the room creates a dialogue between the spaces with color that feels fresh and familiar. If you live in the city, color cues may come from pale stone siding, rusticated metal and rosy brick otherwise taken for granted but surrounds you nonetheless.  In more natural surroundings, golden grassy fields, leafy emerald canopies or silvered stone paths will leap inside using this approach.  

Tactile surfaces render color in 3 dimensions.  One of the hottest trends for painted finishes is to achieve a tactile surface on your walls that the hand feels while the eye savors its color. Layering painted walls with waxed finishes, applying layers of integral colored plaster, using products like Benjamin Moore’s “Aura” paint with its slick surface, and using subtle low sheen glosses that reflect ambient light will take your walls from plain to complex and add elegance to a room. 

Unify your walls and architecture.  Simply painting trim work, cabinetry and other architectural details  to match the wall color immediately unifies a room’s aesthetic, giving the same air of grace you find when visiting a stately museum. Everything inside the room comes into focus when contrasts vanish between walls and architectural details.  Your furniture will appear to float on its own, providing fresh opportunities to animate your furniture arrangements.  This may be the quickest way to refresh a room using color and you will spend less time prepping and less money on paint supplies, too!

You tell us!  What ways have you found to exercise your color skills.  We’d love to know…share them with us!  Your submissions will be found in our next Color Installment this Spring.

 Photo credit:  jenn_jenn@flickr.com