Color Palettes Made Easy
Need a pleasing color palette for your home decor? Just look around you! From
works of art to stylish scarves, gorgeous color combinations are everywhere.
Choose a colorful piece by an artist or designer, and the work is done for
you.
By Jennifer & Kitty O'Neil
Let a Plate Be Your Palette
Dinnerware is a one-stop shop for pretty
palettes. Plates come in all styles and colors, from casual to formal, so you
can pick out a color story for every room in the house. And you needn't buy a
service for eight. Often you can get a single salad plate or teacup to use as
your mood board.
Accessorize With Color
If you want to freshen up your
kitchen, but you can't afford to change the counters and cabinets, you need to
accessorize. Take your sample plate with you to pick out dishtowels, canisters
and bowls. It may not seem like a big makeover to get bright new spatulas, but
when you put them all together, colorful details make a splash!
Take a Tip From Textiles
Inspiration objects can show
you how to marry colors in ways you might not have considered. Sure, tangy lime,
orange and marigold go well with white (what doesn't?). But who would have
thought that adding ecru, black and charcoal would make such a cool combo?
Make a Modern Mix
When it comes to color in the
dining room, go beyond tablecloths and placemats. Vivid accessories like charger
plates, napkin rings and finger bowls spice up the table with color. Feel free
to mix the colors from your palette in unusual ways. A paprika charger plate
next to a celadon runner is more exciting than going all one color.
Learn From the Masters
The colors of the great
outdoors go together naturally and can be a fertile source for palettes. But
with a world of so many greens and blues out there, how can you possibly decide
which hues to use? Instead of trying to match swatches to blades of grass, let a
painted landscape be your guide. Leave it to the painter to select their vision
of nature's aquamarines, indigos and golds.
Elevate Your Mood
A painting can inspire your
accents as well as your colors. This glassy vase not only brings in the
landscape's blues and greens, but also echoes the reflective pond surface. The
leafy lotus candles float on the counter like the painting's flowering irises.
The wooden soap dish and chestnut bird finish off the look with a nod to the
whimsical flooded birdhouse.
Tap Into a Trend
You can find trendy color
palettes on all kinds of things if you keep an eye out for them. This kooky,
collapsible shopping basket features raspberry with yummy chocolate and touches
of tangerine and turquoise. Delicious! Don't worry about trying to decorate with
the inspiration object, though. Just steal its colors then use the item
elsewhere.
Launch Your Look
To coordinate your colors in a
flash, add one accent that magically combines many of the colors in your scheme.
A throw pillow embroidered in hues from the shopping basket gives this room a
unified look. When you see the colors entwined on the pillow, it makes sense to
have a raspberry basket next to a turquoise table.
Focus on Fashion
A boutique find like a
hand-painted silk scarf not only helps you select colors, it tells you how much
of each color to use. This beautiful scarf has scarlet as the primary color with
forest and olive as secondary colors. Black comes in strong as an accent and
pops of cobalt and periwinkle express artistic flair.
Issue Yourself Artistic License
To make a bold statement with
color, you're going to need a lot of confidence or a great designer piece to
define your color scheme. Trust the artist to show you amazing combinations you
may have never imagined before. Then you can drape a pale purple blanket across
a red duvet with black shams and have no fear.
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