Purple Wins

There are some of you out there thinking of adding purple to your color scheme. It's a great color and on trend right now. If painting the walls, I prefer grayed down purples for adult rooms and love lavender for a little girls room. If your room gets a lot of light the color you pick will get washed out a bit so you can go a bit deeper or brighter. Just sample your colors and be sure to view the colors not just during the day but at night too. One great way to sample color is not just on the wall but to paint a 3-d object, like a cardboard box and leave it in the middle of the room. This way you get a better feel for the color and how the lighting in your room will alter the color at different times. The transition from day to evening shouldn't be jolting, unless that's what you're going for!

If you want to paint with purple the first thing you need to decide is if you want a warm purple or a cool purple. Purples on the cool side have more blue and on the warm side, more red. You need to think about how you want to feel when you're in the room and also consider what is in the room that is definitely staying. When you pick warm or cool be sure that one or the other takes a larger percentage and it's not 50/50 cool and warm.


Color schemes with purple include using it's complementary color yellow, which will give a big impact or for a subtler look try using purple with grays and silvers. Purple with green is also pretty, think of beautiful Irises and pansies.

Nature knows color best so try picking your palette from nature. I love the virbrant purples in the Iris watercolor by Jana.
You could get your whole palette from this painting. I might suggest the lighter purples to white with a hint of purple for the walls and adding some yellow, green and deeper purple accents.





If you're going with a light and neutral wall color then you can really have a field day with your accessories and add some brighter purples that you wouldn't necessarily want on the walls.

Below are some purples I like from Benjamin Moore-





Below is a room with Pratt and Lambert's color 'Admiral' and trimmed with 'Seed Pearl' both from their muted colors collections.


Here is the same room in Pratt and Lambert's ' Coronation' and trimmed with 'Balsa"

Color by the Bay

After a long rainy weekend the sun is out again. ; ) Yesterday my son and I set out for a walk around the neighborhood to enjoy the gorgeous blooms and colorful landscape. I took my camera with me. Here he is making a wish. ; )



I took a few pics to show off the beautiful colors , including magnolia blossoms, daffodils, birch trees and cherry blossoms etc. For those of you in cooler climates, this is proof that spring is near!


(I'm an amateur photographer but some of these turned out well enough. I hope you enjoy them. ; ) )







I so love where I live and feel fortunate to have had the experience of being here for my 10th year now


Yum. Does anyone want some fresh rosemary?

99K House Competition

If you haven't yet checked out the finalists for the 99k house competition, you can see them and learn all about the contest here The homes are all 3 bedrooms, 1.5 to 2 baths, up to 1400 square feet (max ) and they must utilize green building practices. I wonder which one will win. They're all fantastic!

Great Reading Corners

I love cozy little reading corners or nooks. Here are a couple for inspiration.

Bringing Nature In

We've had a lucky break in the weather and for the past week or so it's been sunny, warm and gorgeous. We're not into the clear just yet but the great weather has got me daydreaming about this years garden and what I might do differently than last year. In the meanwhile I found some great photos on flickr.com and googleimages.com to inspire your indoor green thumb. Why not try an terrarium garden with moss, creeping fig or jade. Here is a great article with all the how to information to get you going.

Below are some beautiful succulents. They're easy to grow, make for interesting indoor arrangements and are great in outdoor rock gardens or used as edging on a pathway.

Black and White

On trend and always striking is the crisp and classic pairing of black and white. Any 3rd color can be added to this scheme and look fabulous. Above we see black and white living monogamously and also teamed up with a soft blue and some glamorous gold, all beautiful.

Greens

I just love the color green and am so happy to see it's popularity continue into 2008. Here are 3 bathrooms decorated with green.

Below more lovely rooms decorated in greens found on MSNLifestyles.com. I love the porch with the white walls and green trim. So fresh.






And below are some some artwork samples I made for a young girls room in greens and pinks.

More Golden Finds

Nothing is more glamorous than gold! These porcelain stoneware tiles from Iris Ceramica are oh so beautiful and are finished with pure gold.
Below is tile from Iris Cermica's metal line