Color Me Beach-House Blue

I'm so excited about today's Color Me! If you haven't seen these before, I will be bringing you these "Color Me" posts, a couple times a month. The goal here, is to show you helpful ways to incorporate color into your house, with paint and decor. Color can be scary for some, others just need some tips on refreshing what they already have. There will be all sorts of color palettes, so if this one isn't for you, check out the others Here, and be sure to follow along for all the upcoming palettes.

  I love blue, and love all things beach, so this is my kinda house! This beautiful model home, was of course designed, and decorated by the awesome ladies over at Dy Lynne Decor. I know you hear their name all the time you guys, but this is what they do, every month, of the whole year....how awesome is that, dream job!

Beach themes seem to be really popular right now. You can search it on Pinterest, and be there for hours, getting lost in the worm hole. So lets dissect this room, and this color palette, and see why it's so popular?

All colors by Sherwin Williams

I think one of the main reasons that people decorate with a beachy theme, even those far away from the water (like me), is for it's calming nature. This color palette isn't loud, and it isn't overwhelming. Even if your not a big fan of the beach, this set of colors can work well with all sorts of decor styles. 

For the base paint in this living room, something like "Rhinestone", by Sherwin Williams, is a good starting point. This is a light grey color, with a warm undertone. Keeping the base light, lets you build brighter, and darker colors on top of it. White, is also a good fresh base, but to break away from the super simple, try and slight change in tone. Grey's can be a tough one, like white, they tend to lean towards another color. Like a green-grey, or blue-grey. So when your picking your grey, place it next to your other room color swatches, and see which way it pulls. If your room has more blue, go with a bluer-grey, or a white-grey.

The sofa, being the biggest piece in the room, is kept a light color, similar to the wall. Keeping all of the big pieces in the same range, ensures the room will be soft, and flow. A darker piece would have been to heavy in this room.

For all of your colors in a palette like this, warm undertones are best, these are colors with a yellow base and not blue. If that sounds confusing, check out my post, 6 Tips For Picking the Perfect Paint Color, I dive into cool and warm colors there.  When your working with the blues, a cool undertone color, can really take on a pastel look, and wont look as soft when finished.

The next two colors in the palette, "Folkstone", and "Burlap", are good for grounding pieces. For instance, a rug, curtains, smaller furniture pieces, and medium sized fabric choices (like chairs and large pillows). Since both of these colors are earthy, and neutral, it will be easy to find things with texture and patterns in these tones.  A large woven area rug, helps to ground this space, and brings in good texture. The coffee table and side tables are just a shade darker. Going to dark here, will make the room look uneven, and piecey. 

The last three colors in the palette, "Rainstorm", "Rain", and "Tame Teal", are the accent colors. These colors are used in the art, pillows, chairs, and accent pieces. For the pillows, they used several patterns, and and pulled in all the tones from the color palette.

 Simple, white coral shaped lamps adorn each side table, and a collection of ocean inspired decor is grouped on the coffee table. Keeping just the accent pieces in the colorful tones, makes it easy to change colors, and styles as you like. 

This piece, in a niche across the room, brings in more texture and pattern. 

This kitchen and dining space, are open to the living room, so the color is carried through here as well. Kitchens can be a tough place to add lots of color. There are many big grounding pieces, that you can't change, like the cabinets, back splash, and counters. Adding color in seating, and accents, is a simple way to give that pop of color you may need. 

Using colorful plates and napkins, against your neutral colored surfaces, can really add a punch of color. These plates, and simple pieces, can be switched out as your taste changes, or with the season. Decorating for fall, or Christmas would be such an easy transition here, as none of the accent colors are used on large pieces. 

There is also alot of texture in these rooms, which softens all of the hard surfaces. Natural fiber rugs, linen curtains, rope accents, greenery, and textural wood pieces, all pull this space together for a cozy look.

 I love this art piece, it has so much texture, and it works perfectly with the color palette.

Here is another space in the house, that follows the same rules. The walls are in the same base paint (Rhinestone), and are broken up with a white bead board accent on the bottom. Since this room is alot smaller, it can tend to get dark, even with a light color on the walls. Using a white on the bottom half, helps to make it look larger and brighter. You could use also use a ship lap, a board and batten, or stop the wall color with a piece of molding just above the chair rail height.

 The chairs and table, use the same mid-tones from the palette (Folkstone, and Burlap), and the accent colors (Rainstorn, Rain, and Tame Teal) are also scattered around the table, and in art on the walls.

I just love this house!!

 I hope you loved it too, and that it gave you lots of inspiration, and ideas about how to use color. Don't forget to check out my other Color Me palettes.  Be sure to stop by Facebook, and check out Dy Lynne Decor!

Until next time.....

Teen's Mod Bedroom

Summer fun is bringing on all sorts of fun decorating ideas here in our house.

 It's hard not to hit a decor store, without seeing a whole palette of color.  Since some of my friends are spending summer days painting and decorating there homes while they have time, I thought Id throw out a few fun ideas. 

I wanted to show you some inspiration for teen's rooms, since they can be so hard to decorate. 

Girls at that age can be so finicky, my daughter is teeter-tottering on the teenage years herself, and she comes up with some new design or decor scheme everyday (she's definitely got my blood). 

At this age, color seems to be a big part in the overall feel of the room, it cant be bland, or boring. Whenever we hit the paint store, my eldest is immediately drawn to the Pantone paint chips, picking every bright color she can. 

First thing I would keep in mind, is the color on the walls, keep it simple, but still  in a color. Soft, warm, blues, pinks, and greens are good in spaces like these. If your teen has some trouble waking up in the morning, maybe consider a super sunny yellow tone.

The things that are easily changeable in a room, like bedding, art, and curtains, are better in the punches of color. 

Here at this model home, the ladies at Dy Lynne Decor made this room into a colorful, mod, teen's room.  The bedding was the main focal point in the room, and I painted these custom art pieces, to match the colors in the bedding. 

Picking art pieces, can be just a daunting as picking the theme of a room. 

These fun pieces are bright, colorful, and obviously speak straight to a girls heart.

What girl doesn't love makeup, shoes, and perfume???

Keeping the big pieces, like the bed, and dresser in white, and with clean lines, helps keep the bedroom modern. Fun glass knobs, glam up the dresser, and simple beveled mirror is the perfect finishing touch to this area. 

Simple pops of color, like in the frames, and in the jewelry case, help pull the color to this side of the room. It's important to carry the color all the way around the room, and not just on something like the bedding. Otherwise the bedding stands alone and can look to busy, and loud in a room like this.

The third mod-painting, the high heel. What every young girl begs to wear....and the when forced to wear them at an older age, curse the day they were ever invented. 

Ahhhhh, life's circles!

This is definitely a theme that will last for many years, from middle school through high school. 

Well that is if you don't have one of those girls who loves change!!

This room was designed and decorated by the ever-fabulous ladies at Dy Lynne Decor.

Lacrosse Bedroom

I've gotten some questions lately about boys room, more specifically sports rooms. Iv'e shown you several over the past year, but I haven't gotten to lacrosse yet. 

Some of you may not have lacrosse in your area, but you can use some of these ideas with other type of sports rooms. 

How fun is this room? 

This room was designed and decorated by Dy Lynne Decor. This model home was actually a move over, so it is the second time I painted it :) Good thing I like it. 

The logo I painted, is from the local college. 

All the walls in the room were painted in a deep blue. If you are designing a room around team colors, or logo, pick your tones carefully. You don't want a bold color all over your room that you can't live with daily. You can always pick a neutral color for the base of the walls, and put your punch of color on just one wall.

 The stripe of orange, on the main focal wall, was best big, so the logo could fill the space.

For the bedding, keep it simple. Sticking with 1-3 colors that are in the rest of the room. You want the logo to be the focal point, not the bedding. 

I painted two pieces of custom lacrosse art for the room. One was hung over the bed, the other on a side wall.

Instead of using a curtain rod here, above the window, they placed a lacrosse stick to hold the curtains. If you were doing a baseball themed, you could put two bats end to end, and use them as a rod. 

This fun orange leather stool, helps lighten the desk area.

You don't need alot of art in a room like this. Here, the lacrosse sticks hung around the room, act as the art. 

The lacrosse sticks are very simple to mount, and hang with just one screw.

The logo is obviously the main focal point of the room. If the logo you are using doesn't have alot of words, or doesn't specify the sport, use the space above the stripe, to add it.  

So how to paint the logo?

Well, the first time I painted this room, in the other model, I free handed to whole thing, and that's alot of work. 

If you don't have the experience, I wouldn't attempt it. 

For this go around, I used my projector. I know it seems a bit like cheating, but when you need to do logos, they should be exact. So this is my go-to method for these areas.  I use a modern projector, one I can plug into my computer, but for years I used an old school projector. If you can get your hands on one, this is a simple method. 

If not, you can have the logo printed out at you local copy shop, in a large scale. Then you just tape then together, and tape it to the wall. The easiest way, to get you image to the wall, is to take a piece of chalk (sidewalk chalk is soft and works best here), and rub it all over the back of your paper. When you start to trace the image, it will imprint the chalk to your wall. just be careful not to smudge your lines when you start to paint. Here, I painted all of the blue first, and went back in with the white. Some spots may need more than one coat of color.....especially the dreaded orange, not my favorite color to paint with :)

For the logo, try to use it in scale, if you have a big empty wall like this, keep it big. If it is going above a bed, make sure it is the right proportion for the space. You can add a circle around the logo, or a stripe to make it appear bigger as well. The possibilities here are endless, pick a team you child plays on, a local team, or even a nationally known team, in any sport. 

And that is all it takes, some color on the wall, a logo, and some sports themed art pieces. 

Here are a couple of other sports themed rooms I've shown you recently.

Kids Rooms Collection

So for the past week or so, I have been showing you simple DIY paint and decor tips, to enhance kids rooms, or adult bedrooms for that matter. Use these tips all over the house really. 

So here is what I have shown you so far....

Football Field Wall Treatment

Faux Headboards

Wood Feature Walls

Stenciled Walls

If all of that wasn't enough to get your creative juices flowing, here are some bedroom spaces I have shown in the past, all grouped in one spot.
Click on any of the links, to take you back to the original post for a how-to, or tips and tricks for pulling it all together. 

Camping/Woodland Bedroom

Shabby Chic Nursery

Travel Bedroom

Where The Wild things Are Bedroom and Bathroom

Cherry Blossom Shared Bedroom

Submarine Bathroom

Monogrammed Nursery 

Floral Girls Bedroom

River Mural

Paisley Papered Girls Room

Modern Woodland Bedroom

Toile

Hot-Rod Bedroom

Shabby Chic Girls Room

Baseball Bedroom

Nature Inspired Girls Room

Alphabet Wall Art

Shabby Beach Bedroom

Woodland Bedroom

Garden Nursery