I love color.
Oh – those white-and-white-and-more-white rooms are pretty.
(source)
I mean – what’s not to love about that??
But it’s not me. I need color and lots of it.
(source)
So how do I reconcile that I love that room – and this one?
(source)
And This?
(source)
I think I’m fickle.
So here’s where I need your help.
I am not a decorator. And my house isn’t in terrible shape – but it’s nowhere near as cute as it should be. :)
It’s just an ordinary house with ordinary things in it.
But I have a serious itch to redo it. All of it.
I have couches that need to be recovered and plain white walls because I live in a rental.
So I can’t paper my walls in bright blue damask print – as much as I love this.
(source)
I’m paralyzing myself with indecision.
Should I make the couch tan and decorate with fun funky pillows?
(source)
Or make the couch itself colorful?
(source)
Take pity on me here and help me out.
How do I incorporate color – and lots of it – but not too much?
If my living room flows into my family room and circles around to my dining room, do I have to stay with a main color scheme?
Any secret fancy ways to add interest to the walls of a rental?
Oh – and I’d like to avoid looking like the inside of a Vegas Casino.
Or Graceland.
(source)
Because as much as I love Elvis – I’d just as soon not live in his house.
Any thoughts? Suggestions?
Anyone want to come over and help me redo my entire house?
It’ll be fun. :)
I am a color junkie myself..so when we bought a house..I chose greens(a moss green n a darker sap green) for most of the walls and subordinated them with off white. I painted the pillars a deep wine so that each room looked like a painting with wine frame and green background. I kept the upholstery in off-white/ beige, wood work in a dull natural wood colour. Depending on my mood, we use wine/pink cushions and throws or go monotonous with dark greens, olive and sun tan yellows. I have a lot of paintings around the house (self made) and they give a very cozy lived in feel to the space…I hope this helps
If you want color on your walls you can find a material that you like (blue damasks print) put it in starch and water and it will dry on your wall and when you are ready to take it down super easy and you just have to peel and wipe the wall clean. I like every room in my house to have a different look or color so that I don’t get bored with it. Even though your rooms wrap around I would do a main color on the wall that connects all of it together and then one or two walls in each room do a different color or different hues. I would also do different pops of color in pillows or art work, things sitting on a table or shelf. Good luck with the whole house. I work room by room cause I guess I just pick really expensive stuff or I am really picky and want it just so. I did the bathroom this year and hopefully will get to do my kitchen next year but I want a new floors and countertops so that will take a while. Good luck again!
Hello! I’m a 20 year old girl who LOVES to decorate!! We lived in a rental house (2 bed room with 7 kids :) ) for 4 years. We had quite the time of it decorating and trying not to make it look cluttery. It was a one story ranch style house. The walls were off-white. We like to put frames of scripture verses up on the walls with decrotive borders and backgrounds. It made it easy to change color schemes and themes (i.e. flowers or ivy or paintings etc.) Any
way the possibilities are endless!! Artificial flowers are also a good accent to add color and easily change. I have lots of ideas, but won’t state them all! Hopefully all these great ideas these ladies have given will get the creative juices flowing :) Have a lovely day!
I wouldn’t be much help, I love all the rooms!
You have to love Elvis’ decorating style. :) Can you imagine the dust that would collect in the pleated ceiling of that room?
I love color too! Unfortunately, my boyfriend does not….in fact I think he may be allergic to it! I’m having a time decorating our (rented) apartment as well.
One thing I do to spice up the walls is huge, statement wall art. Try covering a big canvas with fabric (staple-gun it!) and attach flowers or other embellishments to give it a 3-D effect. Good luck!
I also LOVE color, but definitely am interior design impaired. One of my favorite books is Susan Sargent’s New Country Color: The Art of Living. She also has other books on color in the home….I highly recommend her for inspiration and sheer eye pleasure. c
Is it wrong of me to tell you to do it all in flamingo pink? With feathers?
FINE! I have an open floor plan and I chose three colors that complemented each other for the “main” color. Then I accent with pops of color. For large chunks of color on the walls (this part will be really easy for you since you love fabric so) make large wooden frames and stretch then staple the fabric to them like you were making painting canvases. Those can be repositioned or repurposed any time you’d like. Plus, you can use it as your jumping off point, maybe you’d never have a couch in that fabric, but it’s great as art. Good luck and think about the flamingo pink before you make any major decisions :)
I am going to tell you a story ~ 9 yrs ago I bought a brand new couch. I had my choice of styles from all in the store and I was able to choose from a huge book of swatches which fabric I wanted on that couch. The ONLY requirement was that my 6’6″ brand new husband could lay down on that brand new couch without half his legs sticking out three feet beyond the arm of it. :) I drove the two hours to this store we had heard about and walked for over two hours in that store since it is the size of two city blocks and 2-3 stories high. We finally chose the style which fit that one requirement and then drove back home to discuss more about other things we might consider. I went back a week later with a girlfriend to pick the fabric out and I was extremely firm on making over my living room in my favorite color. Do you know that if you walked into my house you would not be able to even guess what my favorite color is? Nope. I haven’t got one single room although the hot tub room came close but that’s not quite right either. So, I decided this couch was going to be the most gorgeous color of deep, yet bright purple one had ever seen and then we’d work around that color.
Once there looking at the swatches, I chickened out and ordered a more subtle color while still staying within the purple colors. I ordered Eggplant which was still a pretty ‘purple’ yet a dark and boring purple. I was still excited since I had never bought a brand new couch that I got to choose the fabric. Then six very long weeks later my couch was delivered. I was so upset and wondered if I was nuts or if they changed what actual tone “Eggplant” was. It was horribly ugly and in my living room it looks brown. ewwwwwww I STILL HATE THAT THING to this day. HATE IT!
Why did I just bore you with this long story? It’s to tell you to do what YOU WANT TO DO. Do not be afraid of the color. If that’s what you want and what will make you soar when you walk into that room after working all day long or coming home from a long day out of the house the I say DO IT! In life there are so few chances to really do what we really want to do and you never know when something horrible could happen. You might never get the chance to really do what you want. If you like those rooms you see and the look good then copy those. You already know they work well together. So what if you are tired of the couch a few years from now. Did you pay a million dollars for it? If you get sick of looking at it then get rid of that or recover it all over again.
For what it’s worth ~ I really don’t like the look of the pillows being what brings color into your room. Unless you are just going to LOOK at that room and not use it then I’d bet those pillows will look good on the couch for about a week and then they’ll be tossed into a corner where you’ll end up having a great looking colorful corner. I know the gorgeous pillows I got to choose fabrics for since they all came with my couch and could be two different colors than the couch was have been stuck under the piano and some were removed from the room altogther because they are a pain to keep straight. LOL
Gosh, this is going to be really long once I submit. LOL Sorry.
I feel your pain, chickie. My suggestions are limited to stuff I’ve seen, because I’m not really a great decorator. So if you happen to have some favorite fabrics that you think would look great together, how about covering some canvas (thrift store art or blank painters canvas – doesn’t have to be expensive) with the fabrics? Then you can mix and match and hang tnem wherever you want.
Something that would be interesting to try would be to hem the sides of a strip of colorful fabric ( print or otherwise) while making a top casing for it .It would be hung on a curtain rod then placed near the top of a wall to flow with energy in an otherwise boring room !