Color Inspiration – Coral & blue grey

November 12, 2012 Color advice, Color Scheme, Color Theory

Hello dear readers. First and foremost let me thank you for your visits to my site that have been the result of my mood board being published on Decor8′s website. I do hope that you liked what you saw and that you will stick around some more.

I just came back from a two day family getaway and for once left computer and internet connection behind. I had even forgotten my cell phone charger, so from Sunday midday on, didn’t even have a possibility to check my emails. It was actually a good thing to get away from it for once and to enjoy the relaxing time. I am lucky though that I had at least prepared the images of this post last week since it’s already late evening here.

You have probably seen the picture on the right of my collage before. It’s all over Pinterest and the blogosphere. It originates from Martha Stewart’s website. The beautiful photography of this Hydrangea and Roses bouquet can be found here, but as most of my pictures, I also found it through Pinterest.

This color combination is a very interesting one because it’s not an obvious one. The colors used are neither analogous (sitting next to each other on the color wheel), nor complementary ones (directly opposite one another on the wheel). They neither form a diad color scheme like in my past example moss green & orange. The blue grey is a tone of blue green and the orange is a tone of orange. So why do those two colors work together?

They work together because they have the same intensity, or in this case lack off. Although those two colors are very different, the addition of grey in their composition makes them look like they belong to the same family. If for example the blue green had not been toned down, not only would it have been very bright, but the orange would have looked dirty next to it. It is actually quite risky to mix bright colors with muted and toned down ones in a same space. It is something that needs practice and a good understanding of color dynamics. If you want to read more about this, I can only suggest Maria Killam’s blog. She is a color expert and blogger who has written numerous articles on the subject.

I decided to show you this interior’s picture because this is what my work focuses on, but this color scheme can be seen quite often on exteriors in Europe. It can be found in southern France and Italy, but I have also seen it here in Belgium and no latter than this morning on an 19th century house in Lille, northern France (was passing by car so I had no time to grab a picture). This coral color was made of ocher, which is a natural pigment and can therefore be found on many old buildings. Check out this wonderful building in Toscana (source here)

What do you think of today’s color inspiration and scheme? Could you imagine yourself surrounded by it. It certainly feels cozy to me! Have a wonderful week.

Corinne

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fai

I think of Italy or somewhere in Europe when I first saw the photos. Coral is one of my favorite colors :)

Creating a Mood Board for my blog

November 7, 2012 Blogging

UPDATE – Nov 9th, 2012

I am so thrilled! Not only did Holly Becker pin my board to her Pinterest board here, but she also included it on a post on Decor8 with other boards realized that caught her eye. You can read the entire article here. Thank you!

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I am currently taking the Blogging Your Way Bootcamp class offered by Holly Becker of Decor8. One of our assignments was to create a mood board to capture the essence of what we wanted our blog to look and feel like. It was a great exercise but at this point not a too difficult one.

You see, this would have been great to do when I started my website/blog in 2010. At the time I knew what I wanted to share but I had little to no ideas on how I wanted it to look. I knew what I didn’t like and the type of design I was attracted to, but nailing it down was another matter altogether.  I spent a LOT of time surfing the web, exploring other sites that were built with the same template as mine and fiddling around. I tried out fonts, colors, changed my background images twice a week, and had many different versions of my logo. I tweaked and tweaked realizing that I was procrastinating quite a bit, spending more time on formatting than on providing content.

Over time though, I was able to narrow down what I liked and how I wanted my blog to look. Since I feature many colorful photographies of interiors it was important for me to have a neutral background that would allow those pictures to stand out for themselves. My site had also to include my signature color: emerald green. Although working with color is what I do best, I did realize that this was not the easiest color to work with and that things had to be kept simple, so the design wouldn’t become to loud.

Today my blog looks like I want it to look. Although I still tweak here and there on an occasional basis, I have learned that being over perfectionist is just unproductive. So here is the mood board I submitted to the BYW Flickr group as my assignment.

I’d love to hear your feedback on my blog design. Do you like it? Is it easy to navigate? Would you suggest something to improve it? I can’t wait to hear your comments!

Have a lovely day!

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Lisa

I love how colorful your moodboard is. I had the same problem with changing my blog look constantly as I learned about more features. I’m taking a break from blogging at this point, but I did take Holly’s class a couple times and found your blog there. I’ve been following ever since. I like that your title is simple and that you pics stand out. Have fun with the rest of Holly’s class.

Corinne Kowal

Thank you Lisa. Yes sometimes it’s difficult to just let go and accept it as it is. I hope you’ll resume blogging soon.

Color Inspiration – Moss Green & Orange

November 5, 2012 Color Scheme, Color Theory

Hello Everyone! I hope you are having a great Monday. Mine is synonymous with a”normal” schedule as our son is back at school after last week’s fall break.

I really enjoyed preparing last week’s post on color inspiration and decided for it to become a regular feature on the blog. I want to show you that color inspiration can be found anywhere and not just in interior design magazines. I already have images I am working on and can’t wait to share them with you.

Last week I was spending time with my son in the park next to our home. Fall is really here now and it was a beautiful, cold and windy day. There were two crab apple trees and their golden fruits contrasted beautifully with the moss/olive green of their branches. I took a picture with my phone but didn’t get a good shot; So when I thought about inspirational color schemes my mind went straight to those crab apples and I found the perfect shot here. The room shot I already knew from Elle Decor as I had pinned it in the past to y Colorful Interiors board on Pinterest.

This combination of yellow-green and yellow orange is called a diad color scheme. This means that it uses two colors located two steps apart on the color wheel, skipping the color in between (definition by Kate Smith to be found here). The orange is a tint (white added) and keeps therefore all its freshness. The green on the other side is toned down with both black and white. It grounds the combination, keeping it from being too loud.

I somehow associate this color scheme with traditional houses in Provence. The architect DD Allen, however, created a relaxed and contemporary space with it, showing that color doesn’t define one style but works with whatever style you chose.

I hope you like it!

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Color Inspiration – Coral & blue grey » Emerald Green Interiors

[...] (directly opposite one another on the wheel). They neither form a diad color scheme like in my past example moss green & orange. The blue grey is a tone of blue green and the orange is a tone of orange. [...]

A day in Paris

November 4, 2012 About me, Inspiration, Tiles

A little over a week ago I spent a day in Paris. Now I know that it sounds great but I was actually there to work and spent the entire day in a meeting facility. Don’t get me wrong it was a nice and casual meeting facility. But it was neither a sightseeing, nor a shopping day and besides getting to the meeting from Gare du Nord and back in the evening I didn’t see much of the city.

Although I haven’t lived in Paris for close to 6 years, it feels still pretty much like home. I grew up 50 km outside of the city, studied and worked there. I know the city pretty well: I’ve explored it by foot over the years, loving to loose myself in its lost streets, and connecting its dots together. There was a time where I didn’t even need to look at a subway map to know how to get from point A to point B. It’s still, almost, true.

Despite the little time I spent there, coincidence was in my favor. Outside of our meeting place, from which we stepped out for breaks, was this building whose side was completely tiled in blue. It’s not a very common sighting in Paris where most buildings are either made of “pierre de taille” or of bricks. It reminded me of Spain and Portugal. I loved the color variations and the interlocking pattern, which would look great as an upholstery fabric for a set of armchairs.

After my workday was finished I had an hour to get back to the station and to catch my train back to Brussels. Since I was only 5 subway stops away I walked the distance. The evening was cold but the day had been a beautiful one without a single cloud. The city was bustling as I passed an area built at the end of the 19th century and known amongst other for its boulevard theatres. A little further, next to Gare de l’Est, were dozens of Afro hair salons filled with men, women and kids. Next to them were nail salons under the care of Asian ladies. I loved observing how everything seemed to have an order despite the apparent chaos.

I reached Gare du Nord shortly after the sunset while dusk was settling on the city. Hector Guimard’s well-known Art Nouveau subway entrances were already lit up and the main entrance to the station was under its best lighting. I grabbed a couple of interior design magazines and settled down in the train on my way back to Brussels.

Despite its noise, crowd and traffic jams Paris is never as beautiful as when you don’t have much time to enjoy it. I loved being there for this short time. See you soon city of lights!

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From Inspiration to Realization

October 30, 2012 Color Scheme, Inspiration, Tiles

Sometimes inspiration can come from an image that is totally unrelated to your project. You probably know Pinterest, the hottest virtual pin-board online. I do spend quite a bit of time on there curating my numerous boards and looking for images that inspire me. The other day I pined this beautiful image by Andreu Robusté. It is an image of a tennis court taken in Spain. I loved it because of the color combination and the way the photographer framed it; It looks like abstract art; The white tennis court lines and the black and white net provide a very graphic element in the composition.

A few hours later I was back on Pinterest and saw in my recent activity column that someone had repinned this picture. The picture was just a small thumbnail and upon seeing it I actually thought it was a different picture of mine that had been repinned. You see, just a few days before pining this tennis court picture, I had pined the image of a gorgeous tiled bathroom shot from the portfolio of Danish stylist Katrine Martensen-Larsen. I pulled it up and realized that the composition of this bathroom picture was a very close match to the tennis court one. The colors, green, white and this dusty pink were the same, and a beautiful two toned black and white tile added the graphic element also found on the tennis court image. It was like the designer of this Danish home had used that exact picture as inspiration for that bathroom color scheme. To find such matching pictures was truly quite amazing.

What’s your take on this? Do you use pictures that appeal to you even though they might be totally unrelated to interior design to create the interior of your dreams. I’d love to hear about examples.

If you want to join my almost 900 followers on Pinterest you can find me here.

Have a lovely day,

Corinne

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Color Inspiration – Moss Green & Orange » Emerald Green Interiors

[...] really enjoyed preparing last week’s post on color inspiration and decided for it to become a regular feature on the blog. I want to show you [...]