Get yourself some Radiant Orchid

Updated for 2015

Radiant Orchid has been named Pantone’s Colour of 2014. I think this is a fabulous, vibrant, fun yet captivating colour that can definitely be introduced to our interiors. Lets explore some ways to do this.

Use Radiant Orchid for upholstery on your accent chairs and for scatter cushions.
Yellow or Gold compliments Radiant Orchid but don’t over do it. Less is more.
Radiant Orchid walls in the right room could work a treat.
Not wanting to change your whole interior? Buy some radiant orchid toned flowers to bring your room up to date.
Play with the varying tones of Radiant Orchid, along with the shades and tints surrounding it using them for for a variety of elements in your room. This will add depth and interest.
Pair Radiant Orchid with white if you are wanting a subtler look, grey/brown for drama and yellow for a bold effect.
Finally add some quirk to your room (i.e. an animal coffee table perhaps?) to make it more eye catching and memory making.

I’d love to hear how you use Radiant Orchid, feel free to comment below.

Below are some more ideas of ways to use Radiant Orchid in your home:

Best Ways to Use Radiant Orchid, Pantone's Color of 2014

Colour me happy!

Interior Design and Decorator Tips

Mere colour, unspoiled by meaning, and unallied with definite form, can speak to the soul in a thousand different ways – Oscar Wilde

I love colour. When used well it can really make a room sing. But how do you work out what colour to paint your walls?

I guess as a starting point it comes down to having a think about the room, it’s use, it’s user and it’s location.

Is the room small or large? If it’s small you don’t want to go painting it a dark colour as this will close the space in.

What’s the room used for? Children’s bedroom? Probably don’t want to paint this orange as it is a very stimulating colour and you may not get your children to bed at night, rather choose a restful colour blue or pink. Accents of orange or red are fine just not in large doses.

Who is using the space? What are their colour likes and dislikes, how do certain colours make the user feel?

Location of the room needs to be considered when choosing your paint colour. How much natural light the room gets and the direction it faces plays a part too.

Lastly just choose a colour that makes you happy and enjoy your space!

Blue is the perfect colour for a bedroom as it is very restful on the eye. Image from hearthomemag.co.uk

Meanings behind colours used in logos.

If you have a room that doesn’t get a lot of sun and always feels cold paint it a warm colour like this, you will notice the change immediately. Image from designsponge.com

Come home and relax in a tranquil blue lounge room. Image from dislive.com

Who said you have to paint the walls? Bring colour into your room with furniture, art or maps in this case and decorator items. Image from elementsofstyle.blog.com

Love the art and blue velvet upholstered furniture against the light blue/grey walls, it just works. If you have a room that gets a lot of sun, cool it down with blue or other cool colours. Image from revistaaxxis.com.ca

Beautiful use of colour. Image from vintage revival.com

A touch of primary green complimentary to the floor boards makes for a dramatic but welcoming kitchen. Image from loftenberg.com

Don’t you just love this Moroccan inspired bedroom?

Stunning paint work in this home. Image from fashion telegraph.com.uk

Further information:

Check out the dulux colour forecast you tube clip for some inspiration. http://youtu.be/gzKYCg93-sM
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_psychology

Did you know My Decorator offers Colour Consults, why don’t you make an appointment for one today and we can help you choose the best colours for your space. Just call 0439 081 072 to make your appointment.

How to mix pattern into your interior – clash or match?

Interior Design and Decorator Tips

Pattern brings personality to a room. There are two ways to introduce pattern into a space, the safe calculated matching way and then the clashing quirky way.

To clash or match that is the question?

As I have mentioned in my blogs before I often look to fashion to see what will be trending in interiors. Currently pattern clashes are trending in the fashion world and beginning to seep through to interior design. The vintage interior theme is popular at the moment, this theme carries clashing prints really well. But is there a right and wrong way to clash prints? I think the key is to have a bit of fun, mix up your prints and go with what you like. I think clashes work well as long as your colour scheme is similar then patterns can clash. For instance small or large print floral, paisley, bold abstracts, images and checks and stripes all can work together when they are in the same colour family. I think the unexpected element of surprise of mismatch can bring individuality and personality to a space.

To match is much easier in theory. For example one way to achieve a perfectly matched interior is to pull your theme from the supplied stories that come in soft furnishing fabric sample books as fabric houses have generally designed them to match.

Mood boards work well to help you design your scheme, using small samples of the fabrics prints that your are considering will help steer your scheme.

Let me encourage you to clash a little, push the pattern boundaries, explore what different patterns look like together and have some fun with pattern.

All interior images from Houzz

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Beach Inspiration

Interior Design and Decorator Tips

My husband and I recently went on a weekend retreat to Hyams Beach, it was really lovely to get away for a break where we could soak up the sun, surf and well the amazingly white sand of Hyams….. striking!

On our last day we explored the nearby national park and did some fishing, bush walking and swimming along with dolphin and shark viewing.

Below I have included some photo’s of what we discovered along with a concept board for a living area that was inspired by our lil beach jaunt.

Hope you enjoy the pics, if you would like to work with My Decorator on a room you have that you want to freshen up we would love to hear from you.

Just call 0439 081 072 and we can discuss a course of action!! Talk soon.