Color dilemma: decorating assistance and color assistance sought!
You all know that I'm basically a visual creature. I suck down lovely pictures at a great rate, I love to play with my beautiful plants, walk in nature, flip through manga just to see the art, and pick my clothes for fabric or color fairly frequently.
My new house came with some nicely painted walls (rich red, pretty gray, soft cream, soft green) and, unfortunately, a weird brown and yellow room. The brown and yellow room is, unfortunately for me, my bedroom. It isn't going to be painted. But I need it to be better. One problem was lack of light. It's a huge room and there was bad light. It's better now. I bought five lamps.
However, what I'm thinking about is the walls and the bed. The walls, as I said, are not going to repainted. I'll make some art to slap up, but what concerns me here is the bed. My current quilts either clash miserably or are too warm. I want to redo my room in a simple way, so I'm going to make myself a new quilt.
I live in quilt country and I'm a self-taught quilter (what a shock, I know) and I fancy that I'm pretty good at it. My favorite quilt style, and my own natural quilting style, is the Gee's Bend style. (Aren't they freaking amazing?!?!) I like to lay long panels of fabric together and create big patches or long long strips. My beloved black and flannel quilt is this style and the quilt I sent to my brother is also this style. So are Pookie's quilts.
The problem is this. I don't have any idea what colors to use. I just don't mix bright yellow ochre, soft cool brown, and shiny white together. Ever. It's not in my nature. I don't know what to do with it, especially since it's surrounded by a much lighter than I'm used to sort of wood. See below:
Yes, it's really shiny and weird yellow.
Here's the wall with the wood, you can see how cool/gray/red/muted the brown is against the floor and door:
Yes, that's Pookie fur wafting along on the floor. Moving right along.
What I need is help. Helllllp! I want a couple three or four colors to put together. They don't have to be patterns, they will probably be either bali prints or washes or simple flat colors. They just need to go together and make the brown walls STOP OPPRESSING ME.
Because they really do. I walk into my bedroom and I want to walk right back out again. I have the softest and most wonderful sheets, a great mattress, and nice clean soft scents, and yet I hate spending time in there, even to read or sleep. It's the colors. I realized that I kept tossing clothes on the floor in order to spice things up. Not good.
But I never use bright yellow ochre except for hair. And if I use it, I don't use flat soft brown. And never with white. But! I now need to make some kind of color grouping that will bring those colors together in a way that is harmonious and restful, welcoming and warm, and not awful. I'll settle for not awful.
Here's my favorite fabric store, Hancock's Of Paducah's plain cottons or some Bali fabrics. Or you could use one of those palette things like Color Lovers.
All ideas are welcome!!
My new house came with some nicely painted walls (rich red, pretty gray, soft cream, soft green) and, unfortunately, a weird brown and yellow room. The brown and yellow room is, unfortunately for me, my bedroom. It isn't going to be painted. But I need it to be better. One problem was lack of light. It's a huge room and there was bad light. It's better now. I bought five lamps.
However, what I'm thinking about is the walls and the bed. The walls, as I said, are not going to repainted. I'll make some art to slap up, but what concerns me here is the bed. My current quilts either clash miserably or are too warm. I want to redo my room in a simple way, so I'm going to make myself a new quilt.
I live in quilt country and I'm a self-taught quilter (what a shock, I know) and I fancy that I'm pretty good at it. My favorite quilt style, and my own natural quilting style, is the Gee's Bend style. (Aren't they freaking amazing?!?!) I like to lay long panels of fabric together and create big patches or long long strips. My beloved black and flannel quilt is this style and the quilt I sent to my brother is also this style. So are Pookie's quilts.
The problem is this. I don't have any idea what colors to use. I just don't mix bright yellow ochre, soft cool brown, and shiny white together. Ever. It's not in my nature. I don't know what to do with it, especially since it's surrounded by a much lighter than I'm used to sort of wood. See below:
Yes, it's really shiny and weird yellow.
Here's the wall with the wood, you can see how cool/gray/red/muted the brown is against the floor and door:
Yes, that's Pookie fur wafting along on the floor. Moving right along.
What I need is help. Helllllp! I want a couple three or four colors to put together. They don't have to be patterns, they will probably be either bali prints or washes or simple flat colors. They just need to go together and make the brown walls STOP OPPRESSING ME.
Because they really do. I walk into my bedroom and I want to walk right back out again. I have the softest and most wonderful sheets, a great mattress, and nice clean soft scents, and yet I hate spending time in there, even to read or sleep. It's the colors. I realized that I kept tossing clothes on the floor in order to spice things up. Not good.
But I never use bright yellow ochre except for hair. And if I use it, I don't use flat soft brown. And never with white. But! I now need to make some kind of color grouping that will bring those colors together in a way that is harmonious and restful, welcoming and warm, and not awful. I'll settle for not awful.
Here's my favorite fabric store, Hancock's Of Paducah's plain cottons or some Bali fabrics. Or you could use one of those palette things like Color Lovers.
All ideas are welcome!!