This is a sample graphic that I send to my virtual clients for color placement. These graphics are easy to follow and are not overwhelming with fancy design jargon and hefty prices. For 2019, I have a $250 promo for *most homes. Contact me at DecoratingbyDonna@mac.com if interested.
Just like family members, we all don’t get a long and that goes for colors too. Yea I know that sounds silly but it’s true! I’m working on some virtual color palettes this week and the homeowner has carpeting, tile and trim throughout the home that has a pink undertone.
Sure he can paint the trim but he’s will he change the tile and carpeting just to get the warm color palette he wants?
If there are two hues that look HORRIBLE together it’s yellows and pinks. By this I mean tile in the home homes that have pink undertones and a warm paint that may go with it.
This type of tile is dreaded to work with! Why? Because 9/10 the client wants a warm or coastal color palette and those colors will not work with this tile. Most of the time grays with pink undertones are chosen and the walls take on a chocolate milk appearance.
Look at the kitchen cabinets. They have a yellow undertone. Now look at flooring in the kitchen, it has a pink undertone. See? They do not get along.
What are the options here?
OPTION 1 – Mauves? Cool grays and blues? Off whites and creams?
OPTION 2 – choose a warm color palette that the client wanted and have it clash with the carpeting that “may” be replaced someday OR choose a color palette that ties in all the tile and pinky undertones and have the house not look the best it can be.
Oh WHY ARE THESE PINK TONES CHOSEN FOR HOMES???????
The featured color in this graphic is pink. It’s a soft pink, not too much like bubble gum, not too peachy, not like a baby’s room – just right. This is one of the colors associated with the heart chakra and no wonder I’m naturally drawn to it, it’s the color of my office as well so it surrounds me, always. If you find it’s too much for your walls, try it on the ceiling.
Adding my 2¢ here, try come pink in your home, just a little, and see how it feels for you 💗
The other day a return virtual client had asked me for color for her two bathrooms. She previously bought a coastal color a palette and wanted to update her bathrooms. Here are a few colors I suggested for her to try.
White Bead-board will be in this room with all the coastal decor to tie it in. These colors are light, bright and perfect for a small first floor bathroom or even the master bath. For the lighter colors here, think about taking the color right up to the ceiling for some added coziness!
The Elements are a crucial aspect of our well being. To know them is to be healthy in mind, body and Spirit. They represent SO much and now for my winter season, Water is the focus.
Just bought this tapestry today. Why do I love this? As I mentioned I’m tapping into the Water Element (winter element) and these colors, although I’m not a fan of blue, resonated with me. Water is all about our ability to change and grow. Like water that flows over the rocks in a stream, it enables us to get over obstacles. THIS is why this element is so awesome!
This is a tapestry that you can put just about anywhere in your home. You can hang it on the wall, on your bed or over the back of your sofa. If you do any live posts or meetings and need a background screen, this is a great idea as well and the reason I bought this.
I will be using it today! Join me on Facebook and do a search for my CLOSED group called Angel Huggers. You’ll see it there!
Color doesn’t have to be amazing or the latest and greatest trend. Your neighbor doesn’t have to like, or your Mother-In-Law and it’s even ok if your friends say “WTH????” It’s what YOU like and it’s how color makes YOU feel. It’s about the memory that you get when you see it. That’s what color is and that’s what should be in your home.
With a new year comes new beginnings, goals, desires and journeys. When it comes to adding something new to the home, there can be hesitation because change can be scary. I’m going to list four things that you can consider changing in your home for 2019. Will you try at least one?
1 – CEILING COLOR. Who says that ceilings have to be white? The 5th wall, aka the ceiling, is a great place to try a light color. Now don’t go crazy here especially if you have a low ceiling. Here are come colors to consider. Now before your turn your nose up at these colors, just imagine the warmness they would add to any room. Be sure to hold the colors upside down when viewing, just like you’d see them on the ceiling.
The other day I had a client who sent me an email asking for a color palette designed for resale. He had a 3500 square foot McMansion, the kids were out and it was time to downsize. This client oddly still had the original contractors beige in his home and it so needed to be changed. Having that same beige color throughout the house could really hurt his potential sales.
Since it was a virtual design, I set it up this way so he could see the entire color palette at first glance.
Master Bedroom: This was a large room and I went with a blue, still a very favorable color for the master bedroom. Keeping in mind that there are usually two people, traditionally male and female, so the color here had to be pleasing for both. Blue is the #1 color that men prefer and this one, is not too masculine so she will like it as well.
Master Bathroom: Now here is the space where I cater more so towards her. The master bath in this particular home was very large and had a tile in it that was hard to coordinate a blue with. The natural progress here would be to use a color that matched the bedroom of course but had to be a little warmer to blend in with the tile. The two colors of the master bed and bathroom look gorgeous together.
Bedrooms: While we are still on the upper floor of this home, I chose the same color for the remaining three bedrooms. It’s not a beige and it’s not a yellow. This color is light, bright and just a great “happy” color which is what we want for resale. It will also go with most furniture and decors.
BONUS / PLAYROOM: The bonus room can be used for so many things from a media room to a playroom so here, a color has to be chosen to be quite flexible. This warm green will do the trick.
OPEN FOYER: As we move downstairs, many homes have open foyers that go from the front door and shares space with the second floor. This color HAS to blend with ALL colors of the home for this reason alone. Plus is should remain fairly light since it covers some much area in the home. Once of the only places I’d tolerate a light, warm gray in the home.
KITCHEN / LIVNG ROOM: I don’t like to have a ton of colors in my color palettes for the home. Who wants to buy a dozen gallons of colors for their home? I try to reuse between 6-7 colors throughout the house and this is fine because each color looks different depending on the room it’s in. Having said that, I used the master bathroom color in the main part of this open concept floor plan and it looked awesome!
TRIM: This is one color that I use almost 100% of the time for trim and ceiling color. I VERY rarely use white. This soft white (it’s a Sherwin Williams color) is so warming and really makes the home feel so nice!
Everything changes, it has too. With change comes growth and if we’re not changing, we’re not growing. As 2018 ends I look back at all the posts about color and design from the year and I get excited for what’s to come for 2019. Wow there was a lot about Coastal colors, gray and Holistic colors. This is good! Will it change for 2019? Not sure sure, this seems to be a fairly strong direction for most people and for so many reasons. Coastal colors are still so very likable, there is an interesting love/hate relationship with gray and Holistic colors are coming in hot and heavy because people just want to feel good and color my friends, is an easy tool to accomplish that!
2018 was a great year in color and my focus was and is on Holistic colors, colors that heal the mind body and spirit. What the heck is that you ask? Let me outline my plan for 2019 and hopefully you’ll love it because I’m crazy excited about it!
What’s in store for this blog:
1 – First off, I want to give this blog a more journal or diary appeal. I love to write, grammar errors and all but it is what it is. My focus is to talk about color and I do the best I can. Having said that, I’ll try to write a little just about every day. Some posts will be my thoughts for the day or large posts about color. The thing is to continue to write and dive deep into color and how it connects with us. I want to chat about things that we don’t see on other blogs so if you want to read about a certain topic, let me know.
2 – Elements. There’s more to a color blog than just talking about color. I’m going to chat more about the four main Elements, fire, air, water and earth and how these elements relate to color and our lives. This is really going to be a big focus for me and I started doing it a bit last year but didn’t follow through as I wanted to. Life is all about timing and I guess the timing was not right for it last year. I’m not into Feng Shui but the Elements have tons to do with that and how the home feels. When it boils down to it, we all want our home not only to look good but to feel good as well.
3 – Speaking about “feelings” I came out of my Spiritual closet here recently in the post From Color To The Cosmos! Coming Out Of My Closet so I’ll be tapping into more Spiritual posts (not religious, there is a big difference) and that will be totally fun! It will certainly bring in an interesting twist to color and the home. Intrigued? I bet! I will be writing about Chakras and how these little energy centers in our body are key to feeling good and being who we are. It’s a big subject, totally fun and yes it has LOTS to do with color!
4 – Virtual Color, this probably should have been closer to the top of this post because it’s my #1 focus and has been for years. 99% of my clients are virtual. What does that mean? It means that when I design color palettes for my clients, I do not go into their home, I deliver customized color palettes right to their computers via email. It’s a crazy, easy, fun and very affordable way to get color for your home I can’t even think about why a designer would want to or need to go INTO a home at this point. Times are changing friends and there were times when I just got creeped out big time when in clients home. Like I started mentioning here, I’m highly intuitive and that means that I’m hyper sensitive and can pick up, see and feel way beyond the norm. You can find out more about my gifts on my other blog Angel Hug 2:34. This really comes in handy for virtual design work. I’ve had so many clients say to me “wow Donna the colors are perfect! It’s like you were right in my head!” Lol, well, I kinda was 😉
5 – Pricing. Since I work from a home office there is no overhead or people who work with me. It’s just me, myself and I, all three of us. This is a the way I was able to offer a $200 Virtual Promo for the entire year! It was hugely successful but the price will change a bit for 2019 to $250. The difference is that $200 was for a certain size home and $250 will be for ANY size home. This is a good deal!
6 – I’ll be cleaning up this blog a bit and changing the categories and removing some tags just to tidy up a bit. If you’re looking for something specific, use the SEARCH box and it will get your to the posts you are looking for.
Well I hope you are excited about these changes as I am. In a nutshell, it’s going to be more of a color journal here so stick with me as I talk about my world, #FromColorToTheCosmos – my hashtag 🙂
Are you ready for a colorful 2019? Well before you get your paint brush in hand, let’s recap some color insights that we learned in 2018. I listed some interesting facts about color that you might enjoy. I so look forward to new color shifts, new ways and places to add accent colors to the home and breaking away from trends all together and tapping into our intuitive colorful selves! Let’s begin!
Color was awesome for 2018 but will be way better in 2019. We’re tapping into self and how we feel. Let’s take a look at some color insights before we begin 2019
