Lemon Yellows to Pucker Your Home

My cheeks are puckering just looking at these cookies from Women's Day Magazine. The monotone hues will have an all around warm, universal feeling. 

Where to use this Color Recipe?

From light to dark, you can use this Color Recipe for a kitchen and living room. I think yellow and golds are a great place for the kitchen. It's a cheery color to see first thing in the morning and a great way to start your day!

A small kitchen is perfect for a monotone color scheme. The overall yellow hues will give it the feeling of one larger space instead of breaking it up with various colors. It'll work nicely especially with an open floor plan where one space flows into the other.

This living room should also have yellow in it but only as an accent. Too much yellow is just, well too much. Use the green that is shown in the cookie dish for the main color of this room and use that bold yellow for an accent on the mantle. 

PAINTING TIP: You'll have to sand and prime the mantle then paint with an oil primer such as Kilz. The mantle should be painted in a semi gloss sheen,

In the perfect world I would get rid of the tile in the kitchen and the carpet in the living room. Changing the flooring to a bamboo or a light wood like I've shown above will really make this small home appear much larger - and prettier!

Beans Are More Than Just Good for Your Heart

They make a great color scheme for your home too!

How unique are these colors? I just love them and I must say, it made a tasty lunch as well. Can't I ever just enjoy a meal without looking at it like a color scheme? No. So let's talk color.

This color scheme graduates from pale yellows to deep rich purples. Do you know what a broad spectrum of color that is? This particular Color Recipe is perfect for the person who wants to do something different with color for their home and won't be afraid to use it. Here's how I'd place these hues:

The foyer or entrance way would be the lightest color in the recipe which would be the beige color on the left. Since the room above is right off the foyer, the beige should be incorporated into this room so it relates to the foyer. Adding the darker red as an accent brings a little color punch to the otherwise hum drum beige.

Here's what you can do with the rest of the Color Recipe.

PAINTING TIP: You're going to need a tinted primer when working with dark colors. This will help reduce the coats of paint you'll need to get the color right. I've worked with dark reds before and used up to 5 coats of paint when I didn't use a tinted primer (back in the day). With a primer, 2 heavy coats will probably suffice if you're using a high quality paint.

WELCOME!

Welcome to my first Color Recipe! Well not MY first but the first for this blog. Here I'll have many Color Recipes or culinary inspirations, for you to refer to if you need help choosing color for your home.

Below I'll talk a bit about the recipe and then suggest how to use it in your home. This is such a fun and easy way to choose color but warning, you may gain a few pounds if you follow this blog regularly. The pictures will be delicious and sure to make you hungry!

Photography from Mowie Kay

Cupcakes come in all colors but these cute little delectables are baked up in pastels. Pastels by the way, are the perfect Color Recipe consideration for girls ~ of all ages.

The great thing about choosing color this way is that you can mix and match these hues throughout the room, or home, and they'd all look great together. You just need to know where to place the colors for the best possible result.

Where would this Color Recipe look best?

As I mentioned before, these pastels would look best in a girls room. If you look at the color palette you'll see a nice, creamy beige. It's similar to Jersey Cream, which is a Sherwin Williams color. You can use Jersey Cream as your main wall color choice and any of the other colors as accents. That's a lot of color combinations to choose from!

Here's one that I like. I'd use Jersey Cream as the main wall color, Persimmon as the accent color where my headboard would be and I'd use the blue in accessories such as throw pillows, drapery and bedding. Adding a dose of blue to the palette just keeps the room from looking  too “girly”.

Now, referring back to the Cupcake Color Recipe, do you see the two darker colors right below the photograph? That's where I'll be placing the accent colors. Accent colors will be the darkest hues in the palette and can be used to represent furniture, flooring or accessory choices.

The darker colors are usually just the “shadows” in the photo but still represent an important role in the Recipe. It's similar to writing an essay. You need a beginning, middle and end. Same goes for a Color Recipe, you need light colors, medium colors and dark colors to complete the “story”. 

Keeping these key elements in mind are crucial when choosing color for your home this way. It's a great way to be innovative with color, use the colors you like because you'll have the photograph of your choice and now you have a guide as to how to place your colors.

If you need some advice or help with your Color Recipe, there are links on my main website that are available for you to schedule a color consultation. Meanwhile, bon appétit!

www.DecoratingbyDonna.com