DESIGN ~ THINK COLOR IN YOUR SPACE

Color can do so much for a space visually. It can create warmth and vitality. Choose colors in the red, orange, and yellow spectrum. It can create a sense of coolness and calm. Choose colors falling in the green, blue, or violet range. These color choices can really effect your mood if you tend to live in a place that has frequent cold weather or the opposite, a hot, sunny climate.

When looking at a space, you need to assess several things to establish the effect and direction you would like to take the space. Observe such things as the overall shape of the room ~ small, large, square, or long and narrow (these tend to be the more common room shapes). Are you working with standard 8ft. high ceilings or are you dealing with high ceilings? How much light exists in the room? Are there architectural features, such as a fireplace, alcoves, molding and trim that need to be featured verses made to recess (or fade into the background)? What is the space being used for ~ rest, eating, activity?

Solutions exist that help create a specific effect in a your space.
1) Small spaces can be made to feel bigger by obviously using whites and off-whites but if you are brazen enough to use color, go with a much lighter hue of a chosen color.
2) Desire a large space to feel smaller, more intimate, more cozy ~ then go with a darker, deeper color hue of the chosen color.
3) Should you have a long, narrow room you can make the far reaching walls have an appearance of being much closer together by going with a darker variation of the chosen color on those opposing walls or by using a darker color of some other complimentary choice.
4) Effect #3 can also work on ceilings. You can make a room appear to have more volume by going with a lighter color on the ceiling. I often go 1/4 to 1/2 shade lighter of the color being used on the walls. You can also simply use an lighter complimentary or compatible color to the walls. Have incredibly high ceilings and need to make the room feel more intimate. Then select a dark color for the ceiling. This will give the appearance of the ceiling being lower than it really is.
5) Perhaps one element people are familiar with in color choices is when a room does not have an over-abundance of natural light. This is when you want to use lighter color choices that work with what limited light already exists so the room does not appear gloomy. Adding some mirror accessories in the room positioned on walls opposite the natural light also allow the light to bounce off the walls toward the darker areas of a room.
6) With respect to architectural details, if you want the feature to stand out then choose a color that contrasts well with the wall color. If you desire the feature to become less prominent in the room, then by all means simply carry the same color from the rest of the room over to the architectural feature as well.
7) Moods within spaces can be set too. If you desire a bedroom to be restful, calming, and tranquil, then use neutral colors such as tans, light beiges or grays, white or off-whites or variations of softer greens and blues. In spaces of daily activity, you may desire to use a bolder color or color combination.
8) If you have a space where you are restricted to white or off-whites, such as in an apartment or leased property, then strongly consider bring in your color through accessories. Find an inspiration piece that you can draw your colors from to complete the room. Examples of an inspiration piece could be a fabric, a painting or color photograph, a vase, etc. I think you probably have the picture.

There are so many other solutions that exist with color. In fact, I could easily go into so much more detail and direction with color. For now, in order for you to digest some of this information, I think I will stop here. But it really is 'food for thought' if you are looking to do your space right and feel comfortable in it.

If you have simple basic, general questions, feel free to leave them in your comments and when I have time I will try to answer them in a combined response post down the line. In the meantime, don't be bashful about using color.

****I am hoping to provide simple general design tips or thoughts every now and then on my blog, time permitting. Hopefully you will find them useful in your daily applications around your personal spaces.