I've been talking, blogging, tweeting and writing a lot lately about how beige is really bugging me. The funny thing is, I see it bugging my clients to. What does this mean exactly? People are just getting bored with beige. It seems that beige is the color people gravitate towards when they just don't know what else to choose. Today and probably for the rest of the year, I'm going to show you alternatives to beige and even colors that you wouldn't think would work in it's place.
Look at this gorgeous artichoke! My Mother-in Law made stuffed artichokes the other day and of course I had to snap a picture of it before they were gobbled up. This palette contains most of the colors that I personally would love to see more of in our homes.
Here you have a nice selection of light colors right down to dark accent colors that can be used just about anywhere in the home. Here's how I'd break it down.
Foyer: This pale green would be a stunning color for a foyer. It's soft and will transition well with so many colors which is what you want for an area that has such an dominant space in your home.
Office: As you enter your home, there is usually a room to the left and to the right. One of those rooms is the dining room and the other will more than likely be the office or family room. Let's say it's the office.
When I choose color for offices, 9/10 it's going to be a dark color - doesn't have to be but that's just the norm. This eggplant color is PERFECT for an office! I know you're saying no way to a purple office but actually, yes. One of my clients recently asked for a purple office. I just about hugged them with joy. It was my job of course to keep it a mature purple and not so fairly tale-ish but purple it was. I actually don't really consider this eggplant color to be a true purple but it's certainly a purple hue.
Dining Room: Here's another room that I usually use a dark color but break it up with a lighter hue on the top of the chair rail. This green would works nicely since it's shades darker than the foyer color and we know it looks great with the office color because it's in the artichoke - which - looks beautiful. Let me just tell you that choosing color this way, by using food as a color source, is just about fool proof. It's rare that you can go wrong picking colors right out of the foods you eat.
Kitchen: Wouldn't it be refreshing to see this color in a kitchen? I personally have not suggested it yet for my clients but hopefully, one day soon, this color will find a home in one of my clients kitchens. This would look awesome with black appliances and a dark, wide planked wood flooring.
Living Room: Now this is a very unusual color so there aren't many people who would go for it. The closest I've come to using this color was in a dining room in various shades. Having said that, I think it'll be a nice surprise in a living room. I wouldn't use it for all the walls but certainly for a main part mixed in with the foyer color just to lighten it up a bit. I don't mean physically mix it in with the foyer color but bring the pale green onto some of the walls in your LR and use this mauvey chocolaty hue on an accent wall.
Bathroom: One of my signature color curves is to use a really dark color in the first floor bathroom. This is usually just a half bath for guests and its either by the kitchen or foyer area. These bathrooms are super small and have just barely enough room for a sink and a toilet. Many, if not most, of my clients say, “It's a small bathroom and you want to put a dark color in it?” Yes! “No matter what color you choose it's not physically going to make your bathroom larger. Painting it white will give it the illusion of being larger but white is just not an option so - let's just make it a really cool color. We can brighten it up with the right color accessories and lighting.” I usually even take the dark colors right over the ceiling for extra drama and yes, it looks good!
So here you have a beautiful and very unique color palette based around the hues you can find in an artichoke and guess what? No beige!
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