Decorating Tip #9 - Seasonal Color Variations

There are a lot of ways to go here. You can use historical, area or seasonal color themes that have been proven. Remember your room is a reflection of you and who you are.

Southwest or New England themes, it doesn’t matter if you like it.

As the seasons change so do our moods. Design your basic room but do it in a way that will make it easy to create change to meet the changing conditions. Decorating and color themes are fun and change is sometimes very welcome. One of the easiest ways to make simple changes is with simple window décor ideas that are easy to incorporate. New curtains or blinds are somewhat easy but can be expensive. An even easier solution would be a flexible window cornice (or some call a valance). Our solution is a Window Bonnet; check them out for some very interesting, inexpensive and creative solutions supplied by actual users not staged advertisements. This is a cornice kit with no sewing and can be changed easily for every season or holiday with very little effort, just cut a piece of fabric and tuck.

Fall and winter colors should be used to promote a calm, warm and restful feel (mustard, russet, browns and yellows) while spring colors will create a vibrant uplifting and fresh feeling (pinks, pastels lilac, etc) and set the mood for the season.

Jan Klatt
Window Bonnets
www.windowbonnets.com

Decorating Tip #8 - Emotional Impacting with Color

What is the feeling of the room? You should utilize colors that fit your emotional desires for the room. If you are looking for a restful room, such as a bed room or family room use colors with a darker color which relates to the restfulness mood (brown, greens, blues). If the room has an active mood utilize colors such as reds and yellows to create the perfect atmosphere and feeling you get when the room is in use.

It’s your room and the colors you select should reflect your emotions and the feeling you want to display. Emotion decorating is an important part of who you are and what you want your rooms to represent. Remember you live in the rooms and they should be you and who you are. There is no right or wrong.

Cheers,

Jan

Window Bonnets

Decorating Tip #7 - Contrast - Room Definition

Set the mood for your room by utilizing contrasting colors. Set a high contrast room by the use of light and dark color contrasts (example: burgundy and gold). This will definitely define the formality of the room.

The use of contrasting softer colors (pastels, yellows and light colors) or low contrast will define the soothing qualities or mood of the room.

The use of contrasting colors such as black and white (which are defined not as color but the addition or subtraction of color) will set the very formal feeling while the use of, say, white and beige, will enhance the calmness of the room. If you use black and white but want a room with a restful atmosphere try adding a grey tone to create a low key, calm feeling.

With the use of contrasting colors you design and create the mood.

Find more examples in our Living Room Gallery:

http://www.windowbonnets.com/html/living_rooms.html

Cheers,

Jan

www.windowbonnets.com

Decorating Tip #6 - Color Streaming

To create a color stream (theme) throughout you home, select a color you are using in one room and restate it differently in adjoining rooms (an example would be to use the sofa color in your den and use the same color for the dining room seat fabric). Many of our customers have used their dining room or living couch fabric in their cornice. Great coordination. There are many examples in the Gallery of Homes.

http://www.windowbonnets.com/html/gallery_of_homes.html

Utilizing the same color through out the rest of your home in large or small degrees such as decorator items, placemats, lamp shades, rugs, etc. will complete the perfect color stream for your home.

Cheers,
Jan
www.windowbonnets.com

Decorating Tip #5 - Check the Pattern In Your Room

Can’t decide about the color scheme? Let the room decide. What is your dominate pattern? Is it in the drapes, the upholstery, a Southwest rug? This is ever so much easier and less expensive than painting the walls some really super color and finding that nothing in the room really goes with it.

Let’s say your southwest rug has reds, greens, earth tones. For example take the 60% red, 30% greens and 10% earth tones, or maybe 60% green, 30% earth & 10% red, just make the 60 that color that best says “you.”

Sounds simple, so what’s the catch? Colors are driven by the market… remember the olive green and harvest gold of the 60’s, the 80’s seemed to have a blue undertone to everything. The reds had a cool “blueness” to them, and the greens could be best be called sea foam (green with blue undertone). Thankfully today we enjoy a trendy undertone of yellow, thus producing “sage” greens, “hot” reds and “lilac” blues. Keep this in mind as you select your color scheme.

The Window Bonnet cornice pictured at the top takes a part of the pattern in the fabric from the sofa to cover the center. It is a great match for the color scheme and "feel" of the room, see more pictures at this link:

http://www.windowbonnets.com/html/family_rooms.html

Cheers,

Jan

www.windowbonnets.com

Decorating Tip #4 - Let Nature Be Your Guide

Look outside at the view around you. Kind of dark to light, dark colors on the ground: brown, black, some deep red, dark green, then medium colors: trees, mountains, buildings, then light colors: blue sky, white/grey clouds, and yellows at sunset. Nature is showing the way. What she is saying is balance the weight. Dark colors give a room weight, light colors seem to it float away. Balance from top to bottom and side to side. Try this: weighty or dark colors to ground the room, medium colors in some of the furniture, lamps, accent pieces, and lighter colors to finish to the ceiling.

Our kitchens and dining rooms section has some pretty good examples of this. Check out Ana’s “chicken” fabric for her kitchen/dining area. Here is a sample:

http://www.windowbonnets.com/html/kitchen___dining.html

Check them all out.

Cheers,
Jan
Window Bonnets
www.windowbonnets.com

Decorating Tip #3 - Accent Black, It Really Works

It is short and sweet for this one. It may be just a wives tale, but add a bit of black to your room. It does not have to be large; try a lampshade, a candy box on an end table, even a picture frame on the wall. You will be ever so surprised that is just makes everything else pop that little bit more. Try it, yes…. you will like it!

Take a look at the living rooms section, go right to the end and then work up, Mary used this tip in her living room with the cornice décor. Great job.

http://www.windowbonnets.com/html/living_rooms.html

Cheers,
Jan
Window Bonnets
http://www.windowbonnets.com/