Curb appeal..

Summer is here, with the sun shining it is the perfect weather for sprucing up your curb appeal. Whether it be in your garden, fixing up the planters, painting the front door or adding outdoor accessories these are all simple fun ways to create a beautiful yard.

My favourite way to add colour to the exterior is painting the front door of your house. Something incredibly easy, cheap and extremely effective. Choosing a colour is usually the hardest part, first step is to look around at what your neighbours have done, and typically do the opposite. If you were to count how many people have either black or red doors it would be endless. You need to figure out a colour that both works with the colours of your house yet stands out from all your neighbours.

I recommend a beautiful eggplant it is bold yet timeless, Bm AF-690 Caponata is a good choice. Feeling risky, a soft yellow door will ensure you will be the only one in the block. Remember don’t be afraid to step out of the box to create something bold and beautiful.

Warm or cool..

What is a cool or warm colour? Cool colours are blues, violets and greens and warm colours are reds, oranges, yellows and greens. You may have notice green is in both sections, that is because green can be considered both warm and cool. Colours generate a feeling inside you without you even knowing. Have you ever walked into a room and felt something just isn’t right, that is the energy being created from your colour surrounds both positive or negative.



Blue, Violet & Green: Relaxing, calming, soothing

Red, orange, yellow & green: Warm, cozy, energizing

Example: the colour blue can be associated with the ocean creating a relaxing and calming feeling. The colours orange and red can be accotiated with warm and cozy like the feeling you get when your sitting next to a fire on a cool winter night.

Allthough colours are either warm or cool, a cool colour can still be warmer then another cool colour. Huh? For example, you have a red-violet colour next to a blue-violet colour, the blue violet is cooler then the red-violet. It is all about what you are comparing your colour to whether it technically warm or cool.

         vs

Red-Violet                                                                  Blue-Violet

Picking that perfect neutral..

Have you ever walked into a space and felt something wasn’t right?

Picking a wrong neutral for your space can create an off balance in the appearance of your room. First step is to establish your undertones. Undertones are the underlying colour, which can be red, green, blue or purple. Your typical “beige” mostly has red or green undertones. Gray tends to have a full range of the previously listed undertones. Taupe can be perceived differently to everyone but most commonly have a red or green undertone.

Second step is considering all aspects of your colour scheme incorporating all your materials. If you have a green undertone gray coach, your colour selection for your walls should reflect the same undertone. Consequently if you put a red undertone gray on the wall then you will create conflict between the two materials. Thus putting a green undertone gray on the wall you will have a better colour harmony.

Last step to unify your space is to pull everything together by accessorizing according to the colour scheme. Accessories are crucial to a neutral colour scheme by adding visual interest. This is the exception to the undertone rule, 10% of your colour scheme can be pulled from different undertones.

 Wanna know more about colour and undertones, here is a great site to refer to:

http://www.mariakillam.com/

Colour 101..

Colour is scene differently by everyone, meaning beige to one person could be totally different to the next person. Neutrals are timeless when used properly; “beige” is a neutral colour which can have a red or green undertone with a yellow base. Beige was a popular colour choice 10 years ago. An example of this is Benjamin Moore’s (Bm) CC-110 Muslin.

Taupe is a colour that is your half way point between gray and beige, over the past few years taupe has been popping up everywhere. It is considered to be a muddy colour which can also be either red or green undertone with a gray base. For example Bm CC-500 Ranchwood.

You then you have your “gray-eige”(word I created to describe the lonely colour group), another neutral that is half way between beige and gray without being muddy that is made in a yellow base. For example Bm AF-100 Pashmina.

Gray is a colour that has many undertones such as red, green, blue or purple. Gray is dominantly a cool colour that has a blue undertone. Gray has been the colour trend over the past year but will fade out soon enough. Bm HC-168 Chelsea Gray.