Year End Posts - 2012 Color - Red

It's that time of year where I start clearing out all my files in the anticipation of starting fresh in January. I'll be doing one of each of my colors in the color files and probably some other home decor clean-outs as well to end all my 2012 stuff.

After that I'll be doing a round up of "best of" 2012 - best movies, best tv, best music, best books.  Maybe some other bests if I can think of them.

So to start us off in the spirit of Christmas:  RED

Are you dying over his bathroom???  I am.

Love the wallpaper in this powder room

So bold, so great

I love this idea for this lacquered cabinet this sink is on.  The sink is super cool too. 

We didn't see that much red in decor this year.  I was honestly thinking it might make a bit of a comeback.  But I don't think it's quite red's moment yet.  

Taste the Rainbow!

Since I have almost zero time this month for posting, between school and my child's wedding (hopefully, fun photos of that coming up next month, including what I think are some fun wedding ideas!) - I thought maybe instead I would just dump out all my color photo files to give you a full month of color inspiration in all the flavors of the rainbow (given this should only take me about 5 minutes per post).  Normally I space these out, but heck, let's just upload away and see what we've got in files laying dormant.

Maybe you'll see something especially inspiring that will prompt you to do something new or fun in your home.

Today's color:  RED

I predict red to become more and more popular over the next couple of years - in varying shades, from hues bordering on coral to bright shades of all hues and tones!

Here's what I've collected so far this year:

Things to remember about red:  Red looks good in almost any tone.  It looks fabulous paired with white.  You don't need a full room of it for it to have a big impact, sometimes less is more.  It also looks great with black and yellows and blues.

My Red Hot Valentine to You

Valentines it the day I both love and hate all at the same time.

First of all, if you're romantically involved, it might be a day when you get a diamond tennis bracelet and feel incredibly happy even though you know that it's a completely contrived holiday to fuel consumer spending and has next to nothing to do with anything substantive. I mean, who really cares when you're getting some fabulous jewelry right?

On the other had, if you're not getting a diamond tennis bracelet today, you might feel like it's your duty to inform everyone today that it's a meaningless holiday meant only to fuel consumer spending. And make everyone sort of hate you in the process.

It's a holiday fraught with potential doom and gloom as far as I'm concerned.

Have said that, I made sugar cookies with my kids today, and that was fun.

So while I'm of mixed emotions regarding the 'holiday' - I do think I would like to express my love to my dear readers, whoever you are, and wherever you may come from, with a red hot valentine of great red hot design.

So here goes:

This might be my very very fave. I have a small space in my house where I think I an get away with doing something like this and it sooooo inspires me.

This is so spare. I love it thought. Just beautiful and simple design.

I probably could have easily paired this with white images. BUT I have to say I super mucho mucho dig that table. I had a table to similar for a long time, and I totally regret that I gave it up.

Red bedrooms just sometimes look really over the top. But this one strikes a great balance with all the black and white and bedding that doesn't take itself tooooo seriously.

again, a lot of white here. But don't you love that chi chi little chair in their with the bust? That paired with the retro tile and the tent striping shower curtain makes this an incredibly happy bath room.

Yeah, it's a kids room. And maybe I should have saved it for a kids blog entry...BUT, don't you just adore it? I tend to think those crazy huge white polka dots against the red background could work just as well in a lot of other rooms - especially a grown up bedroom.

I currently have a room in my house which needs a door. And a closet which needs a door too. And as soon as I saw this I thought: Hey! Maybe this is a viable and inexpensive alternative until I can afford the doors I really want! So I really like the solution to a design problem a lot of people face. I mean, if I have two of these dilemma's myself, other people must have this problem too!

Happy Happy.

:)

Can this outfit be a room?

an this outfit be a room? (or what your taste in fashion might mean to your home decor)

One of my favorite features in the old (now defunct) Domino Magazine was "Can this Outfit be a Room"...they would take someone's personal style statement and then create decor around it. I miss Domino so much for many reasons, but that feature is one of the things I really miss.

Every once in a while I run across a fashion photo on the internet that I really like. For whatever reason - maybe the colors or even the photography, the styling, there's an art to fashion which I appreciate. I think it's one of the reasons I'm so hooked on project runway - so much of what they do is so artistic and creative. And being creative under pressure has to be incredibly difficult. (I also adore Tim Gunn and want to adopt him and have him live at my house...but that's a different topic)

Anyway...I will save these photos but for no apparent reason really. And then today I thought maybe I should start a new feature on the blog where I try to find a room which resembles the fashion statement. It's not exactly the same as being able to create the room myself - but I did realize that some of the same things I'm drawn to in fashion often draw me into a room as well.

So to start off:

(ignore the fact that she's getting her tights and shoes all wet...one must suffer for art...)


Rooms that embody the spirit of the fashion:


Like the fashion it does seem that we've thrown caution to the wind here doesn't it? I love the pairings of the pink/red and blue. Pinks, Oranges, blues and a menagerie of colors and styles that make this kitchy and cool.
A smidge more demure than the fashion might suggest, but all the great color combinations.
Love the lines of that counter, and the color!

The thing I love about this is that you can use the idea to decorate. Some people are much more sure of their personal style and the things that they like in clothing, than they are of decor. But if you know you're a JCrew girl, a Gap girl, or an Hermes lover, why not use the things you love about a certain style to help you decide your decor? It's a whole new way to look at design!

On the Outside...

xterior paint is something I haven't really discussed much on the blog before. Maybe because I'm much more likely to change the paint color on the interior of my house than the exterior. Although, when I moved into this house I changed the trim from a red/brown to Green and then to Black and the front door has gone through a similar transformation, from White to Green to Black to Red. The back of the house was Cream and is now Charcoal, and the garage door and posts in the front were plain White and I changed them to Cream...so really, I guess I change the paint color more often that I think.

In this post I want to talk about sort of interesting ideas for exterior paint colors and then in a few days I'll show you some local examples of houses I like with exterior paint colors that are slightly out of the ordinary. I'm not going to talk much about beige, because 1. most houses in AZ are already beige and therefore, bore me to death and 2. if you're seriously considering beige, I don't think you're reading this anyway.

(example of typical beige AZ house)







Some of these ideas are a little out there - but it's fun to see cool and interesting color and combinations when they work well.




I don't think many people are going to try this. Honestly, even though it looks okay here, even interesting, possibly cool, let's be honest, blue is probably the hardest house color to pull off (with the possible exception of purple...but more on that later). I do think it can work, but the shade of blue needs to really be just perfect. Here are some examples of houses done in blue which I think really do work, some of them border on a blue gray, which can be nice.






































































































Can any body really make a purple house look good? Well, I'll let you be the judge, these are best looking purple houses I could find:




























































My advice when considering purple? If you don't own a Victorian in Eureka California, I wouldn't attempt it.










A house color you almost NEVER see?





































Orange is pretty rare. But I really like both of these.

I also think red exteriors are underutilized, you see them with red brick, but there are some red and reddish brown colors as options for exterior paint that are very pleasing to the eye:

























































Interestingly, if you look at brochures from the 1950s, a lot of people painted their houses in yellows and greens, but over the years, those often got painted over in favor of white or beige. Here are couple of examples of ranch style homes of the 50s:





















Here are some yellow houses I think turned out cool:


































































































Some of these are a mustard bordering on beige but I like that tone.


There are actually a lot of greens which can work, here are a few that are somewhat unique:




















































Okay everyone can always make a white or a cream work, they are a common, but less boring than beige I think.





























































Not interested in white? How about a charcoal or a black. I am really loving this color on exteriors right now, hence my own choice of charcoal for the back of my house:





























































(my house exterior in the back...charcoal w/ red trim)















Gray exteriors are really nice. I highly recommend gray for people who don't want to commit to color.




















































Lastly, if you really want to go earthy and feel like picking a brown, consider something more chocolate or a little different (a friend mixed gray with brown for a great gray that leans brown on her exterior, pictures to follow in the next blog on exterior paint) than the lighter brown/beige you usually see.