Color explorations: green rooms

I have been looking forward to this post for a long time now, since I love the color green and I particularly love using that color in many ways in interior design and decorating.
Green is a hue or color, but it is also a great neutral. It teams up well with most colors. Just look at nature, a florists shop or artwork.
There are many great color combinations with green , one of the prettiest is green with pink. It speaks of youthfulness, playfulness and freshness. Many girls bedrooms are decorated that way because it's so feminine.
But I love family rooms in that combination as well.
Green with naturals, tans and beige associate with an organic, nature oriented approach. It is very soothing and calming.
One of the color combinations I like very much is green with white and black or brown accents.
Green with blue produces echoes of nature, water and forest and can denote new beginnings and growth.






Different greens go well with each other. Don't be afraid to mix and match.
Today are so many more greens acceptable, after lime green made its way into decorating a couple of years ago, fresh greens are no longer only associated with children's or garden rooms.


This dining room is so harmonious, with it's natural palette and little refreshing turquoise accents, see how white is used to freshen up this muted green.

Green with pink, so pretty!


I found the picture above at Alicia B.Designs, designed by Heidi Friedler, see how clever she uses different patterns and hues of green (green as a neutral), accented by fuchsia and whites and a touch of blue. The artwork connects all!
Below from pointclickhome via Alicia B.Designs, what a beautiful entrance!


Green looks stunning in any setting, may it be classic, traditional or contemporary.






These green combinations are cool and refreshing, I see them in hot climates, where any kind of cool is welcome.



I love the versatility of green, it has been used since people started developing colors for decorative use. The Egyptians painted the godess Isis' face green to show the connection with nature. Green has been used in many university's creeds as the color symbolizing wisdom and knowledge. Libraries use green lamp shades to protect the readers from to harsh a light.
Green in Feng Shui belongs to the wood element and is supposed to be shown with plants as well.


What a nice place to sit, work and read!




This is our own dining room, we've had it wallpapered 9 years ago with Designers Guild wonderful lime green striped paper, we have been comfortable and in love with it since then. The room has an eastern exposure and is rather dark after noon, but it feels always festive. It needs refreshing, but....



I love this living room's clarity and modern feel. This is fun! And check out the hand painted fire screen to prevent the black hole effect during the summer month! Very nice indeed!

By now you could be green with envy, but I hope rather inspired to take out your color samples you have been playing with and go and get green!


Pictures via flickr, house to home, House beautiful, Designers Guild, where indicated by others. Sofa 'Troy' from the current Crate & Barrel collection.

Today I love

I love to group pictures together, there is a rhythm which creates a visual poem....or a gentle melody!


Images via De klassiske undervisningsplansjene, VTinteriorslibrary.jpg, Patrick Blanc

Rooms to Inspire in the Country - book signing event in Connecticut

I just found out about the book signing of the below newly published country design book!
If you happen to be in the neighborhood, why don't you pop in?
Maybe it will be a lovely ride into the country side?



Rooms to Inspire in the Country by Annie Kelly and Tim Street-Porter
Start: 05/23/2009 - 2:00pm


Welcome back Annie Kelly and Tim Street-Porter! They will be signing copies of their new book ROOMS TO INSPIRE in the COUNTRY. Country living evokes bucolic landscapes and picturesque villages—rolling Connecticut countryside, verdant farmland, the sun-drenched hills of Malibu—and the architecture that echoes these idyllic settings. These houses, ranging from family estates to weekend retreats, are the personal homes of decorators and tastemakers, including Jonathan Adler, Martyn Lawrence-Bullard, and Steven Gambrel. The properties exemplify varied design perspectives and provide fresh ideas about how country living is ideal for creative expression. This inspiring medley ranges from Tony Duquette’s exotic pavilion-style California home to a charming New York Victorian, a modernist Palm Springs desert getaway by Neutra, a nineteenth-century Gothic cottage on Shelter Island, and an eighteenth-century Connecticut house. Along with design ideas for interiors, the book also covers the garden and pool areas. Since outdoor entertaining is an integral part of country living, a section devoted to tabletop display is included. These beautifully photographed inspirations encourage the reader to explore the design opportunities in the country guided by the best interior designers.



Location:
The Hickory Stick Bookshop
2 Green Hill Road
Washington Depot, Connecticut 06794
tel: 860.868.0525

www.books@hickorystickbookshop.com


All information and pictures from the bookshop's website.

Color explorations: natural/white rooms

Beginning today I want to explore rooms with different color schemes. I have always been drawn to colorful rooms, but lately began to think of white, light filled rooms. Since my childhood in East Germany, where the fashion had been white walls, part necessity, part reaction to 70's style wallpapers, which I found horrid at the time, I felt a rather dislike to white walled rooms. They gave me no comfort and somehow left me cold. Ever since I've had the urge to bring colors to the last corners of my universe.
Now after years of living in color drenched rooms, I am finally ready to embrace the lighter side....
Today I am starting to show you rooms which I have collected in my files from all sorts of sources, rooms with a white or natural color scheme, where texture plays a major role, different accent colors change moods and different hues of white determine the feeling of the rooms. Existing light is so important and as Maria Killam from Color me Happy points out: darker rooms will not bring white to life.
I so agree with it and the old notion of small and dark rooms needing white or light colors to make them feel larger is simply wrong. They will feel cool and gray and loosing character. This is where jewel toned colors are come into play.
Let's explore!

via Color me Happy

By now Liz Lange's 'county' house done by Jonathan Adler has for sure made it's honor rounds in the design blog world. And for a valid reason: it is simply the peak of chic and I can only imagine the impact from now on forward. Black/white with a different strong accent. Here turquoise, in other parts of the house yellow, green or blue. I am in such awe! Go check out Color me Happy, Maria has written beautifully about the house.



Many all white rooms come to life through different geometric forms which create visual interest. Here you see how walls, table and chairs with their angular shapes stay in contrast to the globe lamp, the artwork with circular forms and objects like the vase and flowers which show height and dimensions. Simple but effective.



This room glows with the stark contrast between the floor, bay window and floating side board on one hand and the white walls on the other. Observe how all together the room lives through the geometric forms, they take center stage and ground the room. The hight is wonderful and the chandelier a nice contrast to all the modern forms!


This small part of a living room shows all the essentials to create visual excitement: round shapes against the square forms of the background, pattern and texture against the bland walls, all together a feeling of lace and lightness.



This room is lovely, I like how the historic ceiling and grand proportion of the room stand out against the modern chairs and the rather simple treatment of all furniture. Can you see how the ceiling medallion is reflected in the shape of the mirror?



This incredible room needs no extras: the windows build the back bone and create all the interest, the dining place is like the front row seat in the theater...




A sweet vignette of playfulness and contrasts.


via desiretoinspire

This monochromatic, natural earth toned room is wonderfully calming, all the different textures make it sing, the lamp with its shells, the wall texture, the shiny surface of the mirror and all the ethnic artifacts give the room character.






All these pictures show how different white appears. What all have in common is the use of texture: raw woods and mixed chairs, sheep skin versus metal bench legs, pattern in windows and the traditional feel of an iron bed and wall of pictures. De-light-ful to live in these rooms!


via Urban Grace Interiors

Apart from choosing open shelves for display and practicality, this kitchen is my dream kitchen as I told you in one of my previous posts, the different textures, the shiny surface of tiles and countertops, wooden floor and the raffia seats for example make it such a fabulous place to be in.


Stripes are fun!



The next pictures show so impressivly how different hues of white and soft naturals change the feeling of each room, the one above a cozy country room whith added warmth through soft earth tones and gentle lines of furniture.


That one quirky and bohemian with a potpourri of frames, chairs and funky light fixtures...



This one sophisticated and elegant, a grand dame - living room style...


And here simply happy colors...


versus the most ethereal white floating space, heavenly!


There are uncounted possibilities for working with white and I can only begin to dream of my white house in the near future...I always will have colors around me, but white has made it into my orbit!


Most pictures via flickr, housetohome, Elle decor and House Beautiful.

Merry May ...

For all of you some May flowers!

XX
Victoria


picture via flickr

Natures perfect shape

Since I was young there has been one form created by nature which has fascinated me:
the perfect shape of shells in spiral forms, I have collected them forever. Later when I discovered that form in architecture I found it one the most enticing adaptation of natures splendor. Wonders in stone, simply perfect!
I am using that shape somewhat like a trademark for me as an artist, it represents the never ending circle of life.
I found some of the most amazing images and wanted you to enjoy them.










These images all via flickr, top left the Queens House in London, the German Reichstag building, today seat of the German Bundestag, a staircase in a villa in Paris and mother nature herself: the perfect shell!






I wish you a happy weekend with a chance of natural wonder!
XX
Victoria


Artwork by V.Zlotkowski, top photo via Elle Decor.