NtB Craves: Monochromaticism
By Never teh Bride
In my heart of hearts, I’m lazy. I usually start decorating with two colors (or non-colors, whatever) and then branch out color-wise as I see things I like. My living room, for example, started with a palette of blues and browns, but I’ve since added orange, which meshes with everything else a lot better than you might at first imagine.
Black and white are easy starting points because ‘black and white’ is a proven combo. Once you’ve got your timeless and classy black and white interior established, you can start adding other hues, like vivid red, bright yellow, baby blue, or even apple green. Voila! Instant eye draws!
August 21st, 2008 at 11:31 am
My mother used to tell me that it was a good idea to always own a pair of orange shoes because ‘it’s the neutral nobody thinks is neutral.’ Over the years I have come to admire her wisdom in that regard. Orange really does seem to work with pretty much everything.
That’s one of the reasons I’m currently working on redoing my living room/office/media room in orange. Funnily enough, I just picked up some really spiffy curtains for the room from Ikea. They’re a cream-colored background with narrow, sinuous black vines and tiny dots of bittersweet orange here and there. Those will be the undercoating, as it were, and I’m heading back with my next paycheck to get the bittersweet orange velvet curtains to go over them.
I wonder if it would be too much to do copper leaf on the ceiling.
August 21st, 2008 at 5:59 pm
Orange as a neutral…interesting. It would explain the general awesomeness of my orange accents! I think I’d like orange shoes, though I wear a lot of black and don’t want to end up Halloweenie.
As for the copper leaf, who cares if it’s too much? It sounds fab.
August 24th, 2008 at 12:16 am
Have you ever seen the episode of AbFab called “White Box?” Do check out YouTube for it; also the episode where they go to a dinner party at an all-white apartment and unfortunately bring red wine. It gets put out in the hallway, because it “just doesn’t work with the room.”
August 24th, 2008 at 6:15 am
I remember that AbFab episode for one of my favorite Patsy lines: (on the woman responsible for the White Box) ‘She was so uptight, she couldn’t sit down for fear of sucking up the furniture.’ Or something along those lines… *runs off to Youtube to look for episode*
I love that white-on-black fabric that’s like henna designs, and I can totally see it with a warm pumpkin orange or brick red for a Moroccan-inspired vibe. In fact, I am going to start searching for something like that it to see how it looks against the wall behind my bed, which is venetian-plaster soft earth yellow - I need a headboard, and this could be lovely for a padded headboard or back pillows.