Aesthetically Pleasing: a lesson in color

Color. I love bright colors. I wish I had the you-know-what's to go big and bright in my house decor. My problem is that I change my mind about what colors I love too often to commit to that kind of decor. I love a bright lime green door right now, but will I love it in December? I'll probably want aqua by then. My husband would be none to happy with that many projects.

You've probably noticed that my scrapbook/project life pages seem to also be made up of mostly bright colors. I want my pictures to jump out of the book at whoever is reading it...me, mostly I want them to jump out at me. Let's be honest, I'm going to be the one to read this book the most, right?

So I thought I'd share with you guys a couple of rules that I try to remember when designing anything with color (both in the house and on my scrapbook pages). I'll also try to give as many visual examples as I can as we go along.

A POP OF COLOR
I love a nice pop of color. Something that just smacks you in the face and leaves you wanting more. With bright colors (really with any color scheme), that's the goal, to give just enough of the bright color without giving too much of a good thing. For example:

Pottery Barn...of course. They are the masters of color and the reason I keep their catalogs around my house like magazine's I've paid for. Love that pop of green and aqua.

Here's another decor example from The Nester Website. Blue, white and brown. Love it. Great combo. But that pink pillow is irresistible because there's so little of it in the room. A few flowers to match but they work only to enhance the tiny bit of pink in the room. That ottoman makes this room.

You'll have to bear with me as I post a scrapbook page I made years ago because I haven't done it in so long, but it makes my point, so just go with it. The lime green literally jumps off the page and all you're looking at is a strip of ribbon and a little bit of paint.

An example from Vintage Revivals of 2 color used just a bit to make them stand out. Don't you want more of the gorgeous green and yellow?

You can even incorporate this into your wardrobe selections.

Polyvore put this selection together. This green scarf is going to draw the eye upward toward your face (which many of you might not need but I sure do). It's also going to add interest. People will be drawn to it because it's not incorporated anywhere else in the outfit.

Here's another favorite from Polyvore. Love that salmon color that pops out of this ensemble. A little bit on the shirt repeated on the shoes. So cute.


So the next time you're ready to start your scrapbook page or change the theme of a room in your house, think about what color you like the most and make it pop by holding back.

A LOT, A LITTLE, A PINCH
Basically, this rule is to use a lot of one main or neutral color, a little of an accent color and a pinch of an additional color. I try to use this rule of thumb as often as I can remember to do it, but it is hard for me. I always want to go overboard on my "pinch."

Let's take a look at some examples, shall we? Hmmm? Alrightythen...

This nursery is from the Design, Dining & Diapers website. I look at this room and I see that blue peeking out at me through the gray, white and orange and I want more of it. I start thinking, oh, "oh I could put blue on the sheets, make a blue bird on that wall..." All overboard. Totally not needed to get people to see the blue. It's the fact that there isn't too much of it that makes it work. You've got a lot of the Gray/White, a little of the orange and a pinch of the blue. Boom, looks awesome.

Here's my latest project life page. I used the turquoise kit (which oddly enough encompasses this rule). The pinch color in that kit is red though and I didn't want it to clash with Kennedy's pink sweater (red and pink is a cool but tough combo to pull off because they are so close to each other on the color wheel). I decided that even though the blue and green colors aren't really in the pictures, I could still make it work by drawing the eye to the pink portions. A tiny bit of washi tape, a little digi brush and a pink pin is all I used on the first page. 3 pink elements to echo that in the 2nd page too.

Close-up on left side

Close-up on right side

Project Life Layout Templates	Turquoise Edition Project Life Kit	Cobalt Core Kit	AE Hand Drawn Numbers 1-31	AE Your Love	AE Everyday Hand Drawn
AE Thank You Friend

InLinkz.com

There are 3 lessons for you project life people here: 1) your pictures do not necessarily have to match the color scheme of the kit you're using. In fact, it can make your pictures stand out a bit more if you don't have too much of a repeating color scheme. 2) mix and match your kits if you have to in order to get the look you're going for. I used the Turquoise kit for this layout but that pink heart filler card on the bottom right is part of the cobalt kit (as is the pink arrow). 3) Adding a new color into the pre-determined color combinations is perfectly acceptable.

Here's a family photography example of this rule from Casey V Photography:

A lot of neutral (gray/white), a little pink and a pinch of green. Pop!

Here's another great example of this rule from theknot.com

Lots of navy, a little purple and a pinch of lime green. Mmmmm.

I hope this will help you on your next project as far as color goes.