  Take colour inspiration from the outside and bring it in. Especially if your room has a great view and big windows. (Ikea) |
This designer is in a bit of a flux as she must choose the final paint colours for her own home. Yes, we are finally at the painting stage, as my husband and I spent the holidays mudding and sanding our freshly drywalled walls.
All of you who have built a new home or renovated an existing structure, understand that when you reach this stage of the construction process you have a sense of completion (only a vague vision) but nonetheless a glimmer of hope that you may actually get to move in one day: That you may actually finish this home with your sanity and marriage intact, a concept that we all have doubted more than once through the construction process. This is an exciting phase but also a stressful one as you must make your colour commitments.
The New Year always brings with it a new palette of hues and this year I am in love with the colour forecast. Grey or mole (if you are not up on your moles, it is a shade that is neither grey nor brown but somewhere in between) is the staple hue.
To a designer, grey has always been a work horse, a solid companion for any palette, the go-with-everything color that we can always rely on to be there for us in our times of need but this year grey or better yet, a shade of mole really comes home.
Look for shades of mole to be available in more than paint. Look for mole inspired bedding, linens, furniture and accessories. Investing in grey or mole shades is a solid idea and one that you will be able to live and decorate with for years to come.
What do you serve with mole and handsome deep shades of grey or charcoal? Just about any shade as it will work brilliantly with all accent hues. But if you want to be on the cutting edge of design try navy or a sexy dark blue such as sapphire.
Go back and review your fall Vogue and look for all the sapphire blues (for us Virgos it’s also our gemstone) greys and blacks on the runways for a little inspiration. This combination looked great on the catwalks and it will look great in your home, especially is you toss in an accent of pea green or eggplant. Remember, you need three colours to complete a palette: 60% your main colour (grey or mole in this case, 30% your secondary hue (perhaps sapphire) and 10% accent (eggplant or pea green perhaps).
Other hot accent shades for ‘08 include regal red inspired purples and even soft pretty pinks. Try mixing up your accents with unexpected twists such as using red with purple or pink and tangerine or sapphire and tangerine together.
What shades am I committing to? Well I have three more days to finalize my selections but here they are: Remember I am building a very modern home with 70% of the walls being glass. My main colour will be a fabulous warm white with my secondary colour being a mole grey accented by sapphire and caramel except in my daughter’s bedroom and bathroom which she wants charcoal and black accented by purple and caramel.
At the office (which is in a separate building) I have paired charcoal grey with red and dark purple and in the guest house I have used charcoal, black, cream and pea green.
What colours will you choose for 08?
