Not your average colour scheme

Some colour schemes are a dime a dozen and others are just daring and interesting. Today I’m looking at salmon/coral/melon and pink/rose/magenta.

Now I’m not saying I would use these colours in my own home. You can appreciate from afar without committing!  These rooms have just too much colour for my personal style.  I’m attracted to them because they are so vibrant and fresh.  Isn’t it a good thing we don’t all like the same colours?

 How do you feel about these rooms?  If you could transport any of them into your own home would you?

This colour scheme seems to be most popular in bedrooms. 

 Interior Designer Artistic Designs for Living, Tineke Triggs

The white bedding  and accessories work well to balance the hot colours.  White has many uses in decor and acting as a backdrop is just one of them.

You can’t deny that these colours are great for a kid’s room.  I’m really liking the hit of lime green as an accent.

Better Homes and Gardens

This is the subtle version of this scheme.  Just a hint of melon with a deeper pink. Both are tempered with lots of off white.  That seems to be a common thread through most of these rooms.

Phoebe Howard

More vibrant colours against light walls and furniture. The pink is leaning toward purple and there isn’t that much of it. 

Jessica Lagrange

 This room turns it around and focuses on a rich magenta with smaller pops of orange. Do you think the headboard is dramatic enough or would you like to see a big piece of art over it?

Do you fancy one of these?

Living rooms

 Better Homes and Gardens

 Lots of white to play with these two vibrant colours. I’m longing for a little more pattern, perhaps a stripe with a third colour thrown in to replace the pink cushions. 

Here are some choice….

I would go for the purple one. How about you?

 

 While we’re at it what let’s think about the white vase… Hummm…

Choose one.  No matter what pillows you choose there’s a vase that works.

  Can a room be over matched?  YES!

source

Deeper
pink leaning toward red with just hints of orange give a totally
different look.  In this room a neutral tan  in varying values serves as
a backdrop to the vibrant colour. I like the fact that this room is not
too over matched.  Lots of pattern in the pillows.

Simplified Bee®: Sweet, Modern Pink & Orange Nursery Room for Baby…

Go for it !

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What every neutral colour scheme needs

I love serendipitous events that add to my thoughts on an interior decorating topic.  I recently experienced this  as I was preparing to write about neutral colour schemes.  Just like a gift  La Dolce Vita, one of my favourite blogs, appeared  in my inbox with the perfect visuals to support  several of the points I wanted to make.  Paloma always finds the best spaces to present to readers! Check out her blog, you won’t be sorry.

 Making a neutral scheme work requires skill.  Once you  remove colour from the equation you have to make the most of the  other elements of design especially: pattern, texture, value/contrast and form.  Of course the principles of design remain in tact. Every successful space  has  good balance, harmony, emphasis, scale/proportion and rhythm.

Sounds great, but what does that look like in a space?

Check out all takes of this  living room  by Bill Ingram & William McLure of Bill Ingram Architect.

 Quiz time:  Jot down what  you think makes  the space  work.  If you are used to colour being your main decor element you might need to shift gears for a moment to see the beauty in neutral schemes.

Contrast

The first element that jumps out at me is contrast.  You cannot have a successful room without good contrast, even when you have lots of colour.   It’s the same way in art.   I wrote about this  topic in depth here.  You get contrast by manipulating your values from light to dark.  This space goes from black to white and has every conceivable value in between.

Texture


This space also gets an A+ for texture.  Not everyone can have the stone work evident in this space but you might have a stone  or brick fireplace   Check out the wood stacked in the open hearth, the tree stump table and the rough wood planters.   A variety of textiles are used from the subtly textured obviously wool carpet to the white smooth fabric on the drapery and chair.  The knit pillows are perfect by the stone,  nothing like the garter stitch for obvious texture. But the coffee table is the show stopper with its reflective high gloss.  Don’t miss the folded fur throw on the chair.   There is also subtle texture on the frame of the gold chair, the doors of the armoire and the statue.

Pattern


Geometric motifs predominate with diamonds, stripes  and circles repeated around the room.

Form


This can be a hard one if you like everything matched in furniture style.  I think use of a variety of forms make this space.

My own element that every space needs — organic elements 

Imagine this space without the two fig trees.  I rest my case.  You need organic references in every space and this one has it in spades.

Only one thing


If I could change one thing about this space it would be the scale of the artwork between the windows.  Love the art work, but it needs a little breathing space around the edges.  Too much competition with the grids in the window. Sorry, it’s the artist in me.  On the other hand I love the large scale fig trees and they might account for the scale of the art!

True, this space might not be your cup of tea, but it is interesting; it invites the eye to move around and to touch the various elements in the space.

Now it’s your turn…
What are your thoughts on this space?  Could you live here?

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