Does your home have a color palette? Remember when people used to have their colors done? Well your home has a vibe and certain colors may suit it more than others. Some colors also may be more pleasing to you personally. These are all things to consider when choosing the palette for your home.
If your home stays in four to five colors or tones, you can make easier choices when shopping and decorating. I have a binder for my house with all the items from the renovation, and inspiration photos. The picture on the cover was my color inspiration/style for the house!
My house is variations of white, grey, light wood tones and some black accents, grey blues. With spring coming I’ve been wanting a change and a bit more color with my current favorite -soft blues. I added this striped blue and another blue pillow on top photo and a few other accessories to give it a coastal and springy vibe.
It all started when I bought this jacket from Anthropologie in the prettiest blue. I had it hanging on my coat tree and noticed it nicely picked up the blues about the house. The house is neutral, but there are pops of blue and a tiny bit of orange in a picture and my rug too..
Then I was at Pottery Barn and I noticed the same soft blue of these Modern Glass Candle Holders. I bought a blue one and gathered a few other blues like my Glassy Baby. So now with the blue pillows and a couple of things I already own, made the house feel fresh to me.
If you know your home’s and your own color story, you can keep it in mind when shopping and making design decisions for the house. You can create a binder as I have, with colors and pictures that reflect your taste and style. Referring back to that will confirm what you love and help you make smart choices. I know what colors I like and don’t so I can usually blow through a store or online shop pretty fast knowing what I am looking for and what will work in my house.
It doesn’t mean you can’t change things up and are stuck with the same colors. In fact, you might add in or subtract or focus on some colors more depending on the seasons. In fall and winter, I love adding more black accents -frames, and woods. In spring and summer I bring out more whites, my coral collection, and striped pillows and linen throws. The color scheme stays the same overall, just the tone feels darker and cozier or lighter and brighter, depending on the time of year!
If you’re unsure of your home palette, or don’t think you have one, start looking around and see what colors you use most predominantly. Also consider your personal wardrobe. What is in your closet? Do you gravitate towards white jeans and navy? How about denim shirts? If there are repeating themes in your closet than they are sure to be things you’ll love in your home and may already have.
Sometimes your kitchen or your fireplace material may move you toward a cool or warm look. You may have many colors in your house, but most people gravitate towards favorite tones. Walk through the house and see if there are threads of the same colors that connect your spaces, especially the main rooms. You may want to choose to use some during some parts of the year, and change out the the others. The most traditional way is adding warm tones at fall and cooler at summer. These colors actually have a psychological effect of making us feel warm or cooler, hence the seasonal use!
Sometimes you just need to find a look. This photo was an inspiration last fall. I used the warm cinnamon colors in this photo to add dried flowers, wood bowls and some candles in these tones and still kept my same neutral feel overall.
You don’t have to be limited to a small color family, but know what your look and tones are. Some people have a lot of color and live with it all. My friend Heidi, whose home and style I profiled for my Californian’s at Home is an artist and her home palette is many, many colors and it works beautifully for her eclectic and creative home and her art. Same with my friend Elizabeth, the Vintage Contessa, who lives with a lot of daring tones like chartreuse and bright yellow and luxe items. Cindy Hattersley is someone with many gorgeous neutrals and some beautiful blues in her amazing California home.
Cindy’s dreamy bedroom!
Some beautiful blues : Zinnia Pillow cover, Thibaut Serengheti Pillow, Coastal Blue Solid Velvet Cover, Serena & Lily Cuesta Pillow Cover , Perennials Rosemount Pillow Cover, Swansea Cotton Throw,
If you know what your colors are that’s a huge help in creating a beautiful home. You may have spring and fall, summer and winter looks, but know the main colors and what works with them. Have some fun thinking about setting your home’s style and colorways… maybe even make a binder as I have, or an inspiration board!
Kim
P.S. By the way, I am honored to be featured on Cindy’s beautiful blog, Cindy Hattersley Design today. She is showing more of our renovation. So pop on over if you have time. Her blog is a great inspiration to me personally. She’s amazingly talented.
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I loved this idea when I saw it on your instagram feed. My house is “Fall” except for 2 rooms where I went rogue and did one in toile and the other dark blue. The rest of the house is rich navy, burgundy, burnt orange and is cosy, eclectic and filled with things from our travels.
Your house is fabulous, modern, beautiful and filled with so much personality. IT is nice to see a house that doesn’t look look the sea of white and gray of social media.
Elizabeth, Your home sounds gorgeous! Navy, burgundy and burnt orange with a mix of toile wow. You have to share more of it! I do so love the home that is filled with travel bits and has an eclectic collected feel! Thank you, I feel like I still have much to add, after taking down so many walls, but slowly getting to a wonderful mix like yours. I agree there is sure a lot of grey and white and I really tried to not go there even though there is a fair amount of white! xo
I LOVED THIS POST!
LETS REVIEW THAT BINDER SHALL WE?
CAFTAN, HAT and pottery POT!
Where is your CAFTAN PHOTO?!!!!I Know you have one unless it got “CLEANED OUT!”Those photos I just sent YOU of CAFTANS would work BEAUTIFULLY with YOUR LOOK!A HAT like that needs to be on the TREE HALL STAND……………I can probably supply THAT for YOU!
I have NEVER done an INSPIRATION BOARD or BINDER……….back in the day when we only had MAGAZINES to look at for inspiration I would tear out and put in a FILE.I recently found these and what I like has NEVER CHANGED!I guess thats good to know………….
A LOVELY POST TODAY and I SAW YOU ON CINDY HATTERSLEY’S BLOG TOO THIS MORNING!
CONGRATULATIONS!!!
Now when will you take up your first REAL JOB?I think you have a calling!
XXX
Elizabeth, Thanks you are always so kind. Okay currently on the hunt for my dream caftan…and the hat! I bet that would be fun on sky coat tree in summer! I love that you also did tear sheets. I have all my files, weeded a few out over the years and made a list of what I think I will always love.. As you, my style hasn’t changed! That is what made me think about writing this. If I had thought about that and made that list years ago I could have saved myself some money and time! Thank you about Cindy’s blog. I am honored.. She is an amazing talent. xo
Your home looks lovely and your colour palette really works. I wish I’d put more thought into our home when we starting getting things instead of buying stuff at the spur of the moment. Now it feels like we have all these different styles and too many colours. The worst mistake I made was painting our living room green because my husband said it would work. It doesn’t, except when the lamps are on at night. Need to pick another colour soon.
Loree, You sound like me. This differing styles and looks has been a recurring issue for me as I like so many things. It’s taken me a long time to get more disciplined about the things I buy. I even painted my whole bedroom a sage green one time at my last home. I was going for a soft garden vibe, but all I could think of was Shamrock Shakes from McDonalds when I saw it! I lived with it for way too long as my husband did the painting and said we needed to deal with it for a while.. try years! I finally pointed the whole thing in a fresh white myself and what a change.
As far as your different styles, I would bet you have some similar styled objects and colors in the house, just maybe in different rooms. Try gathering all your objects, frames, pillows, etc together and see what the unifying thread is! You may be able to use some together, store others and decide what would make it all have some continuity. Have fun with it. Do you think your home has an ocean vibe or anything like that being on an island? I would love to hear. xo
Hi Kim,
Well first off, your home is gorgeous and so calming. I love the color tones and the texture and the modern vibe it has without being stark or cold. Perfect.
Second, I was shocked to see my name mentioned above! Thank you! Yes, many colors in this house but not crazy I don’t think, and usually I focus on one in many variations as an accent depending on the season and my mood, with white as a base and lots of natural wood, rattan etc. I’m getting ready to pull out the new leopard pillows, and gold and yellow tones for spring. But I don’t want to move too fast because I know rain is in the forecast and the faux fur throws (winter colors) I have draped all over the place are so cozy! Of course the best accent color here is the colors of outdoors through all the windows, and right now they are changing to brilliant greens. So pretty in springtime!
XO Heidi
Heidi, your style is definitely an inspiration and I love seeing how your art, wardrobe and home all have the artisan flair to them! Love that you add yellow and leopard for spring. I am with you keeping my faux fur throws a while longer… You know our nights and mornings are always cool even in summer! You are lucky to have those amazing windows and nature too! Love it all. xo
You have such a beautiful palette and your inspo is gorgeous. My palette is definitely autumnal, just like my wardrobe 😂 in fact, I often see a correlation between what people wear and their homes. After all,, it is who that are.
Sarah you are so right about the wardrobe and the home. I was just talking to a friend about that and we can connect the dots between their personal ‘look’ and color favorites to the style to their homes! I love that you love autumn tones. Your dresses for fall you just shared were all of those- so beautiful!
Kim, your ideas for inspiration are right up my alley. The Vogue cover is great idea for colors. Many years ago I kept a file of torn magazine pages for decor inspiration. I agree with Elizabeth’s comment that your house doesn’t mimic the over abundance of “white and grey houses on social media”. Thanks for the design ideas!
Thank you Karen. I am with you loving magazines and saved pages for inspiration! I’m so glad you like the house. Still working on it! xo
Kim I love the cool vibe of your home! So many wonderful textures and lovely blues. Your post is so timely as I’ve been looking for ways to add some fresh updates to my Florida home. And your story of the Shamrock Shake bedroom is so funny! Heading over to read Cindys feature about you! So exciting!
Thank you Ginger! You are so kind. I would bet your Florida home is lovely. So much to love about that area too. Yes the darn Shamrock Shake! LOL.
Your house is stunning … and I adore the touches of blue. Those sofa pillows … wow! And, the color of the votives is amazing. Glassybaby has been a favorite since we lived, briefly, near Seattle. How creative and clever to use a magazine cover as your color story inspiration. I love this! You have me thinking about our color story … blues, greens, ivorys I suppose.. With a few surprises thrown in. xo
I love everything about your inspiration picture! That is definitely a vibe and color palette I love. Like many people my style has changed over the years and in some cases I did things thinking my own idea weren’t “right” or good enough. Luckily I’m over that but still suffering from the choices. My husband insists we finish some other projects before we move back to fixing those choices. I’m looking at you yellow and green walls! But I’m seeing light at the end of this tunnel.
This is such an inspiring and interesting post Kim! You have such great ideas and always make styling, whether with your home or outfits, seem so easy. You definitely have a natural flair for both!
I love how your home is both beautifully styled, yet very welcoming and comfortable. Your colour palette choices are perfect … I love the shades of blue and cream… and occasional grey and how you used your jacket and the vogue cover for inspiration.
I don’t really have much colour in my home overall. Lots of light oak … including flooring , and doors, with simple creamy, white walls. Cream, and neutral coloured blinds. Actually on reflection colours are mainly from artwork on the walls … I do have colourful prints/paintings! 😃
I love the combination of natural wood and cream/white. My sofas are brown leather … chosen for comfort and practicality mainly, but I’d love cream sofas like yours and I can see how they’d instantly brighten the rooms!
Looking at your home and the way you use colour and texture, has made me realise that with the fairly neutral base that I have, it’s relatively easy to add colour. I’d definitely move towards cooler colours rather than warm ones.
Interestingly I wear lots of blues, whites and greys often styling the blues with tan shades … the idea that the colours we gravitate to in our clothes will work so well in our homes is totally new to me … yet so true! Thanks Kim!
Rosemary