Color + paint color

Colors that match vs. complement vs. just plain work. (Bonus: an unexpectedly fabulous color combo!)

Annie Elliott | May 24, 2011

We all know that when you're decorating a room from scratch, my advice is to start with the rug.

One of my most loyal, blog-reading, bossy-bossing clients is moving into a darling bungalow, and she took this advice to heart. (Advice, gentle suggestion, command...tomato, tomahto, tomuto.)

Remember how I said recently that blue dining rooms are all the rage? In part because they pull the blues from Oriental rugs so beautifully - blues MATCH well? That was the case here. This client's bungalow dining room was a "before" in the blue dining room post....

» Color + paint color, Dining room

Blue dining rooms. So here! So now!

Annie Elliott | May 1, 2011

I know Honeysuckle Pink is the color of the year, but I seem to be recommending BLUE for a lot of dining rooms these days.

Why is that, I wonder? I've never thought of blue as a particularly appetizing color, but it seems as though blue is just the ticket for several projects right now....

» Color + paint color, Dining room

Google SketchUp: best drawing program EVER, with a handbook to match

Annie Elliott | March 31, 2011

Hello, Gentle Readers. I miss you. I apologize for the sporadic posts of late...have you wondered why that's been? It's for a good cause - an exciting cause - but an exhausting and time-consuming one.

I am co-authoring a designer's guide to the drawing program Google SketchUp, and it will be published by Pearson.

SketchUp is is downloadable FOR FREE via this link...

» Color + paint color

White trim before and after

Annie Elliott | March 24, 2011

Hello, Gentle Readers! I do love updates.

When we last spoke, I was debating whether the trim in this bedroom -- needed to be painted a deeper cream to match the ceiling (on which we used OC-9 Ballet White). That was the conundrum that led to 7 sanity-restoring rules about trim color. You remember....

Here's the result!

» Bedroom, Color + paint color

Black walls, and other scary sounding but clever tidbits from Candice Olson

Annie Elliott | March 11, 2011

There's a reason Candice Olson is famous.

I mean, thanks to reality tv, a lot of people are famous these days, even if they're less than brilliant or less than talented. But - traditionalists take heart - some people still earn fame by knowing what the heck they're talking about. (Oh, all right: maybe also because they're really really pretty.)

Ms. Olson is one of those....

» Color + paint color, Living Room + Family Room

Trim color tips: 7 sanity-restoring rules about trim color

Annie Elliott | March 7, 2011

I recently posted about a bedroom in progress that presented a trim challenge. In response, a Gentle Reader left this comment:

I have started to hate thinking about trim colour...Basically I just don’t understand the rules for trim....

Ok, my friends. Let's see if we can nail down some rules. It would be so delightful and easy if every single room in our home could have the same trim color. Alas, this is never the case....

» Color + paint color