I remember the year I got color coded and discovered I was an “autumn”. Everything in my wardrobe changed. Probably for the 1st time in my life I started learning what colors flowed together and caused a magical coordinated look. Since I looked hot in my orange sweater, sitting behind the wheel of my red car looked horrible. Over the years I’ve learned to look outside the box and get the BIG picture. I am talking right down to the color of dinnerware, silverware and table accessories………It is not good to set the table with white plates with silver rims with gold color forks and knives, rather use the SILVERware we have. Blue napkins are good to match the blue in the rug under the dining table and on and on….
So we want to change the look of a room. Without painting and major furniture purchases, we can start by removing everything from the room down to only the furniture and walls. Consider the colors of your rug. Go through a magazine and cut out swatches of identical colors and tape to a 3X5 card. I wrap mine in packing tape so it will last through the abuse in my purse. Now, if at a garage sale, thrift store or antique mall, (sorry folks, my things have to be absolute bargains not found new…) and you come across that light fixture or vase that throws your pitter patter into convulsions and you can’t breathe because you have FOUND THE TREASURE, you can qualify it by your palette, period! If the colors do NOT match, they won’t match in your room and it will not be right at all. OF COURSE if you MUST have it and will die if you cannot take it home this minute, then you need to accept the fact it will have to go in another room and you will have to magazine up another color coded palette for the other room and design around THAT light.
Now before you start accessorizing, try rearranging your furniture differently. If it’s your living room…such a way that seating can be arranged where you can look at each other and have a conversation. Considering the colors of the light you have brought in, how about some lightweight curtains…if your walls are white, light white draperies FROM the ceiling to the floor. Your room will look larger. Your color palette will pop! You can change your room completely, seasonally if you’d like….. just with your accessories!
It’s the THRILL OF THE HUNT! If you will shop the garage sales, the flea markets, you can always have interchangeable “TREASURES” to change the look. I even keep a place in the basement where I warehouse my accessories by color, by glass, by metal, by wood items. Then of course flower arrangements for the 4 seasons. If you will find such affordable jewels, change away! ! ! !
Well, the garage sales started last weekend and FINALLY I went hunting…..I came home with a very heavy cast iron back of bench insert with a golfer on it which Russ snatched up for his man cave, a large patio flower pot and a 50 year old heavy glass dutch oven. Let “THE HUNT” begin!
