2nd and Strand

A general rule throughout my life was to stay away from drama, especially the nonsense you can easily find in those glorious middle school and high school years of life. But, I do have to admit that I've been drawn into the drama as of late... but a healthy, beautiful form, that is a black wall.

After searching and searching, I can't find my inspiration picture for this post. On Pinterest I saw this amazing circular entryway painted in a high gloss black paint. When I saw it I thought, "Wow. That's amazing!" But then I thought there was no way I'd ever do something like that in my home, mainly because its intimidating, and because I'm typically drawn to more lightly colored spaces. BUT, obviously that room has stayed with me these past few weeks and every time I see something cool that's black, I think back to that lost picture (why didn't I just pin it?!?). 

So what is it about black? A long time ago we did a post called Color Psychology 101 where we talked about how different colors make us feel. How does black make you feel? Although there are negative feelings every color can give us, as black can feel extra dreary (like reminding us of death for example), it also has some cool connotations as well, like: sophisticated, mysterious, glamourous, formal, dignity, etc.. The main word for black I've already used plenty of times (and yes, its in the title) is drama. 

But even if my inspiration picture is lost, I have found some other gems that are also inspiring to me (from most dramatic to least dramatic). 

I love brass, and I love how these amazing bookshelves (and the art) pop off the wall and the solid black really highlights them.

I can't help but try to imagine this room with a different color accent wall and drapes. I gotta say I love the accent wall, especially with that quilt on the end of the bed and how it highlights that gorgeous headboard and wall trim.

The black wall makes this space.

This is a great example of adding a little dose of drama with black paint without making it seem overwhelming or too dark. 

Painting nooks black is such a great idea. What a great way to highlight the beautiful things you want to display and really make them stand out. If you do decide to do this, I'd make sure you had other black things in the room so the nooks didn't feel totally random and out of place.

So what do you think about black walls? There are endless images of black walls that are beautiful, so if I haven't sold you, search it online and see what amazing rooms you can find. 

Would you paint a room black? A wall? How about a nook? Or nothing? I'd love to hear your thoughts on using black paint in your home.

-Megan

I've been very inspired by mostly neutral spaces, with pops of color. This has been where my personal design aesthetic has been for a few years now, but ever since Andrea's post on neon colors, I can't get bright accents out of my head. Also, since fashion seems to seep into my inspiration for blog posts at times, I recently received this coral sands necklace in the mail (I thought I might as well make a shameless plug for my sister's nonprofit company she started...) and may or may not have worn it three days in a row. It gives my usually more neutral outfits a great pop it needs, and I can't really get enough of navy + coral right now anyways!

The room below has a pleasing analogus color scheme (if you imagine a color wheel, analogus color scheme is when you use three (usually) colors that are all touching each other, as in, three in a row). This room is beautifully done, with a mix of textures and patterns to add visual interest to a calming color scheme. But whats that on the wall? Oh yeah, that's an awesomely bright accent piece that adds a needed pop to the room. I love it. 

I pinned this picture on Pinterest a few days ago. Like I mentioned before, I can't seem to get enough of navy blue + coral + white lately. This room has a lot of pattern going on, but the pops of coral is what makes your eyes move around from the stools, to the pillows on the sofa, then the pillows on the side chairs... then having your eyes settle on those amazing drapes. Using the same color around a room is a great way to bring cohesiveness to a space, but also to make your eyes move around the room.

When it comes to making a bright color really pop, pairing it with white is an obvious choice. I really love white kitchen's, and I love the one below because you can always keep the base color (white) the same, but give the kitchen a new feel and look by introducing a new accent color (like, repainting the stools a different color).

What are you inspired by lately? Are there certain color schemes that you are drawn to?

When I was about to walk out the door for church I hurried back to my room to get some shoes. Of course I was about to grab the typical neutral colors that I'm always drawn to: black, nude, white or brown. But, I saw my green shoes and knew wearing complimentary colors would be the winner. 

To see a post we did talking about complimentary colors with room examples of each, click here.

It may be a bit weird that my inspiration for this post came from picking out shoes, but it had me thinking about red and green all day today. 

Like I said in our last post about complimentary colors, red and green can be an intimidating combination of colors to put together, mainly because it automatically makes people think of Christmas. But since these colors have been on my mind all day, I wanted to show more examples of rooms that are totally working it with this color scheme. 

The first few have a common theme for why they don't scream "Christmas!" when you see them. They have taken different tints and shades of red and green from the typical kelly green and apple red used for Christmas. For example, in the first image, the bunk beds have been tinted a lighter shade of green.

In the next two examples they've also tinted the green, but have also added additional pops of accent color (predominately blue) to combine with the red and green. 

Another way to takle the red and green color combo is to stick with mainly one color, like the example below, and add pops of the complimentary color pair. The small pops of red still make a big impact in the room.

This last example to me is the kicker. Yes I've mentioned changing the shade or tint of red/green into not the typical Christmas colors you see. I also mentioned just above about sticking mainly with one of the colors and using the other as a strong accent. But this image below kind of threw me. It seems the use of red and green are pretty even in this room. And not only that, they are totally the shades of red a green that remind me of Christmas... although when I looked at this picture 'Christmas' wasn't the first thing I thought of. Well done, room! I would love to hear your opinions about this, but I'm going to attribute the lack of 'Christmas' in this room to the beautiful brown wall (which I guess makes this room an example like pictures #2 and 3 with the pops of blue). The brown has such a calming neutralizing effect. It still lets the red energize the space and the green pop, but it calms the mood of the room down. What do you think?

All I have to say is this color combination is totally growing on me. Something new I realized today was out of the 3 complimentary color schemes, this one seems to be the most gender neutral. Blue+orange seems more masculine, while Purple+yellow seems more feminine. I am usually drawn to more gender neutral things (actually, I'd usually tip on the more masculine side) so maybe that's why I'm loving this color combination that seemed so off limits before. 

-Megan