24 ways to up your color mojo and thumb your nose at Crayola

Crayon manufacturer Crayola has announced it will celebrate National Crayon Day tomorrow, March 31, by dropping a color from its 24-crayon basic box. Tune in for the big announcement of precisely which color will melt into oblivion at 8:45 a.m. EST Friday on Facebook.

Not that it will make any difference, but the company invites you also to share your preference for what to keep at #ShareYourFave.

That 24-crayon pack currently includes primary and secondary colors red, yellow, blue, orange, green and violet, along with neutrals black, white, gray and brown. We can assume those are safe, but what of the crossovers yellow-orange, blue-green, red-violet, red-orange, yellow-green, blue-violet, violet-red and green-yellow? That leaves scarlet, indigo, carnation pink, dandelion, apricot and cerulean.

What does all this have to do with home décor? Probably not a lot, since Pantone is the goddess we bow to and its mix-masters keep inventing new rather than pulling old because they’re always happy to have one more page to charge for.

Meanwhile, here are some 24 links to articles I've collected on how to use color in your home—one for each and every color is the soon-to-be history 24-color box. Enjoy!

1.

These 6 Lessons in Color Will Change the Way You Decorate, OKL

One Kings Lane / Patrick Mele

One Kings Lane dishes with designer Patrick Mele, using one of his most recent design projects to illustrate the six referenced lessons. There’s also a Q&A complete with extra tips at the end. Don’t miss it!

2.

Amy Astley on Living with Color, AD 

Simon Upton photo / Matteo Bonnetti, designer

This introduction to the new AD editor begins with a John Ruskin quote that seems to say it all: “The purest and most thoughtful minds are those which love color the most.” But why? Astley tells us what she thinks. Gorgeous photos from the pages of AD.

3.

Ideas to Decorate With Color, Espacio Living 

Emily Henderson Styled / Espacio Living

Unless you’re fluent in Spanish, you’ll need to translate (opposite mouse-click on text, select “translate”) this sampling of colorful living rooms put together by Espacio Living. Too much trouble? Not to worry. The photos speak volumes on their own. Look and learn!

4.

The Secret to Pairing Bold Colors, AD

Julia Lynn photo

AD interviews designer Angie Hranowsky, who never met a color combo she couldn’t get to shake hands and play nice. The secret, she says, is matching values. Read along and see what she means as she dissects choices from a recent project in a Sullivans Island, SC, home.

5.

How to Add Color to Your Home, Bloglovin: The Edit

Via jelanieshop

Discover the roles played by color-coding, combining, contrast and balance, similar hues, focus, fun, and lighting.

6.

Finding Foolproof Color Combinations, Apartment Therapy

Palettable

Learn all about a new on-line tool called Palettable that can help you choose a whole-house or single-room palette. 

7.

Design Guide: Color Rules, Confetti Style

Laurel Bern Interiors

Start with a color you love, of course. But there’s more. Much more. So follow the link to take it all in, why don'tcha?

8.

Home Tones: Successful Color Combos, H is for Home Harbinger

EKB Interiors

Nothing to read here, but lots of eye-candy combinations that work and how!

9.

Why High-End Paint is Always Worth the Splurge

& The Right Way to Test Out Paint, both from AD 

Thomas Loof photo

Are you really getting more when you pay for a pricier paint? The short answer is yes. The long answer—that is, WHAT you’re getting—is in these easy reads from AD. You’ll learn all about how pigments and resins affect coverage, drying time and durability, along with tips on testing out a color before you commit.

10.

5 Rules for Selecting the Perfect Paint Color, The Inspired Room

Glidden

Melissa Michaels, blogger and author of several books, always makes tough subjects simple for those of us whose decorating careers are no less important simply because they begin and end at our own front doors.

11.

How to Choose the Paint Color You Really Want, Sunset

Refined Interiors / Houzz

Some experts say the hunt for the perfect home colors begins right here, in your wardrobe. What colors do you wear often? For me, it’s magenta and turquoise, and yes, they’re everywhere in my home because they make me happy. Memories and feelings play roles as well. Get some advice and inspiration from the experts.

12.

Choosing Color: How to Determine the Undertone, Tidbits & Twine

Tidbits & Twine

Masstone, undertone, simultaneous contrast, hue, shade, color wheel, complements—is your head spinning yet? It won’t be after reading this easy-to-understand guide before you head out for the paint store. 

13.

Does Paint Color Really Affect Your Mood?, AD

AD

The short answer is yes. Now read this interview with Dr. Mary Gregerson, president of the American Psychological Association’s Society for Environment, Population, and Conservation Psychology, to find out how.

14.

Considering Transparency and Opacity in Décor, Apartment Therapy

Tamara Gavin photo

Remember from grade school? That’s see through and not. But there’s more to it than that when you apply it to your home. Clear up whatever you feel particularly dense about with this short read.

15.

How to Ace Decorating with Dark Walls, AD

Colin Miller photo / Haus Interiors

Dark walls are all the rage, but dark paint strikes fear in the heart of most husbands, if not their decorating partners as well. Here’s what to know to get your courage up and make your mark by going dark.

16.

This Might Be the Most Flattering Paint Color Ever, AD

Michelle Arcila photo

But if dark’s not in the cards for you, find this at the other end of the spectrum. Discover the attributes of Tissue Pink on your walls. It’s just as raging as dark and not nearly so scary.

17.

How to Pick a Color Palette that will Pull Your Home Together, Apartment Therapy

West Elm

It’s all about pattern, art, grounding, lateral thinking, and a judicious use of pop colors. Follow the link for the low-down.

18.

The 2017 Colors of the Year, According to Paint Companies, Apartment Therapy

Behr

If all this talk about color has whipped you into a decorating frenzy but on trend matters to you, check out what the paint companies say you should buy.

19.

New Season Paint Trends from Farrow & Ball, Mad About the House

Farrow & Ball

This article narrows down the previous even more while also expanding. Learn what amongst Farrow & Ball’s palette of 132 gorgeous tones is trending in March 2017, through the eyes of journalist Kate Watson-Smyth.

For more fun and inspiration...

20.

The Colors of India, The Transcontinental Affair

Sophie Thé

If you can’t make the trip, this is the go-to review of one stylist’s Instagram-logged journey. What a scrapbook of inspiration for infusing your own home with exotic color!

21.

The 15 Most Colorful places in the World, Sunday Chapter

To find out just where this is, as well as 14 additional color-crazy spots, hop on over to Sunday Chapter. Then, imagine these places as inspiration for decorating your very own home.

22.

 How Pastels Became a Cultural Obsession, Co.Design

Kitchenaid

Read how the color experts weigh in on how and why these soft, fluffy shades make their mark. Hint: It goes back a lot farther than Rose Quartz and Serenity, 2016’s Pantone colors of the year.

23.

A Brief History of Color in Art, Artsy

Vincent van Gogh, Sunflowers

The good, the bad, and the ugly about the history of red, yellow, blue, green, purple, black, and white pigments. Find out just how lucky we are (or not) today.

24.

The Crazy History Behind Your Favorite Colors, Elle Décor

Elle Decor

Before you decide what colors to use in your home, you might want to know what they stand for—or at least what they stood for once, and where they came from. This link gives you a full-scale infographic with all the nitty-gritty.

If you want more…

• Follow my Pinterest board, Color Porn, for more links about color as I find them, and all my boards, for that matter, for more links about everything home décor! 
• Click on the (affiliate) links below to check out (and/or purchase) the classic tomes on color history and theory.
• Don’t miss a post of BoHo Home. Get to-your-inbox posts by becoming a follower, using one of the subscription services at the bottom of this page. Or, follow my blog with Bloglovin, a social-media platform that puts all the blogs you choose to follow in one, easy-to-access location that won't clutter up your inbox.

Books on color history

         

Classic books on color

            

Books on color in interior design today

         

Saturday SAVES on Sunday by one beat boho mama

This boho mama is boho beat after a day of helping our daughter ready her first home purchase for move-in on Monday. There was a lot of décor talk in between sweeping up the previous owner’s doghair and dirt, but all the action was in forward motion with cleaning rags. Honestly, I can’t get the smell of 409 out of my hair!

Anyway, that’s why this week’s “Saturday SAVES” didn't make it to you until Sunday. I could have skipped it altogether, I guess, but since I’m too sore to do anything but sit today while the packing drama continues at her third-floor apartment, I’ll just turn the heating pad up to high and enjoy catching up with all of you.

Gold's kissing cousins  

In last Saturday’s SAVES I fixated on gold sofas and gold whatever, and this week it’s gold’s kissing cousin, yellow.

Jan Baldwin

Follow Cote de Texas’ Joni Webb on a sunshiny romp as she chases down “The Mystery of the Yellow Sofa.” There are a ton of great photos (many with boho accents like the yummy throw pillows in this room), compelling background on the lineage of particular makes and models of yellow sofas, and tips on getting your own lemony loveseat on a budget.

Tjitske van Leeuwen

Another kissing cousin to last week’s “plain-old-flat” gold is the metallic kind, as in rings and things. That gold was the focus of a décor post at Planete Deco. “The Sensuality of Gold” shows myriad home décor uses for spun gold—yeah, that stuff Rapunzel made—fabric, accessories, wall flecks and more. Lots of photos guaranteed to get your motor purring even if your spinning wheel only turns out ordinary thread.

Purple envy

Urban Electric Co. via My Notting Hill

At the complete opposite side of the color wheel, this smoky purple living room room made me stop and count the Chinoiserie. I LOVE how the indigo blue-and-white porcelains and pillows underscore all the purples in this living room. The orchid’s a wonderful pop, but the purple door is what really has me going. Or should I say, coming and going? Because it does. Yes, it does.

Museum of Ice Cream

Purple, purple everywhere and even some to lick! Don’t miss the Museum of Ice Cream’s Instagram feed. Get a sample taste at Domino or go in for the full feed. Either way, you’ll be amazed to see where ice cream is going these days, besides in your mouth. 

Yes, I’m dieting again, so my favorite food and I have parted ways for now; but I can dream, can’t I? And these scoops ARE the stuff of dreams. 

Inside Aussie design

Susan Redman via Houzz

“Meet the Aboriginal Women Forging a New Design Identity for Australia,” on Houzz. Those pictured above—the Elcho Island Weavers—are just the tip of the down-under iceberg. If you love boho—ethnic, global, whatever you want to call it—this story is a must read.

Kitsch(en)y boho fun

Honestly, this kitchen reminds me so much of ones I had in my first apartments. It’s a hodge-podge, but that’s what makes it so interesting. 

Architectural Digest

This one in particular is a well-thought-out hodge-podge with restored vintage appliances and such.

Architectural Digest

The adjancent eating area is just as cute! Love the colorful glassware on open shelving and the Danish modern chairs. We had similar ones in the formal dining room of my childhood. Anywho, continue your peek “Inside an AD Editor’s Collected Brooklyn Townhouse” at Architectural Digest.

Places to see on your boho journey

Singer Castle, Dark Island, NY

Check out “5 Whimsical Castles to Visit in New York,” also at AD. Yes, you heard right: New York. As in the state, not the city. As in this side of the pond. This article was interesting to me because I spent (the happiest) half of my childhood in upstate NY but never visited any of those featured.

I did, however, live nearby one that didn’t make this list: Belhurst Castle, on the shores of beautiful Lake Seneca, in Geneva. I ate lunch there long, long ago, as a child, and I was fascinated. There’s a hotel, as well as a restaurant, and a winery where you can taste the local vintages.

Never swam in Seneca—steep sides, deep and cold—but several other Finger Lakes are within a 30-minute drive.

If you’re already planning a that signature DC vacation with the kiddos, here's a little known must-see. The subway system is the penultimate way to traverse the nation’s capital, so come up for air at least once in station central. AD’s story and slideshow “Union Station Returns to Its Former Glory” details recently completed restoration and renovation. The photos are cool enough to convince me the in-person view is nothing short of spectacular.

For the boho gardener

Get the DIY tutorial for this charming “Potting Bench with Decorative Roof” at Love Grows Wild. It's too pretty to get dirty, in my book, but it would also make a charming bar and/or serving buffet.

And for those of us whose backs and knees prefer a dream of gardening to the real thing there’s this dreamy bench:

Dot&Bo

What a cute mudroom must-have! That is, if I had a mudroom. If you’d like it for yours, or even as a conversation piece elsewhere in your home, it’s available at Dot&Bo for “only” $899, marked down from $1,150. Gulp.

Surely there’s a DIYer out there with a knock-off strategy for this one. If so, let us know. I’d be happy to feature it in a guest post. 

Well that’s it for the running-on-empty week that was July 17-23

Gotta go fight my husband for the Bengay. I’ll be back on schedule Tuesday (already put the post to bed) with the finale to my master bath reno. In the meantime, I hope you’ll follow my blog with Bloglovin or one of the to-your-inbox subscription providers in the sidebar.

Stay cool (feels like 107 here, says the National Weather Service).

xoxo,

Susan