Blog Post 9 - To Hell with Interior Design Trends - Get Inspired by Nature Instead
I am an Amazon Associate and earn from qualifying purchases.
Ok, I started writing this whole blog posts about interior design trends and tried to stay organized with my thoughts and points… then it started to feel like every other blog post and very icky. So I’m starting over. To hell with structure! I’m going to talk like I talk and if you don’t like it, you can just keep reading because it’s addicting to read this type of writing. (You kept reading didn’t you?) (And now you’re smirking).
shhhh. it’s a word.
I was thinking about color trends and what makes good-feeling design (as one does at every hour of the day) as I was driving to a client’s house (just started demo! Yay!). It was a long drive, so I had lots of thoughts. But I was able to finally verbalize what I’ve always known inherently (and bc of hundreds of hours in design school)…
Trends are so fleeting. No regular person can afford to keep up and rich people don’t want the hassle. So how do we design something that can withstand the test of the ages?
START HERE:
In a climate that has seasons, what are the three colors that are the only consistent colors that are present every season?
Dark Green… evergreen trees
Brown of every version… allllll the bark of the trees.
Sky blue… uh, the sky.
Now, in the psychology of color, blue invokes calm, clarity, focus, stability…
dark green inspires stability, balance, rejuvenation, tranquility, peace, new growth…
and brown encourages the feelings of support, stability, resilience…
Did you find the commonality?
STABILITY.
Of COURSE we feel stable with these colors. They literally surround us every single day everywhere and we don’t even think about them. They are a comforting constant to us. The tones, shades, and hues change somewhat depending which part of the world we live in, but they are there nonetheless.
My design advice for someone who doesn’t know where to start de-trending your home:
First, look to nature.
Some places don’t have dark green and brown, but maybe they have tan and rust and lighter green consistently. There’s always blue sky! Maybe it’s a bright blue of Kansas, or a gray-blue of Seattle. How are these natural colors bringing comfort into your home?
Practical, Useable Design Advice
Ok, Alesa, but we need USEABLE tips. Fine. No more abstract thought. Let’s put a design together!
For this design, I’m sticking with these three colors as our inspiration. (We’ll talk about more colors next time!)
#1 - Paint the dang wall blue
Obviously the furniture helps. But it’s it just so much more… happy?
“But everything was newly painted greige before we moved in.” The first way to really step up the design in your home and make it COZY is to give the walls some life. If it were me, I would probably paint the walls some form of blue (just ask my family... I freaked out a few months ago and suddenly couldn’t handle our gray kitchen walls anymore. I painted them Soar by Sherwin Williams. So so dreamy).
SW 6799 - Soar by Sherwin Williams
Yes, there is a random outdoor plant on the counter. Yes, there is a drill and screws in the kitchen. No, I don’t like the dark blue shades, but they are very expensive and they came with the house, and my husband would die if I said I wanted to replace all of them. Yes, someday I will fix the hinge on the cabinet so it closes all the way. WE LISTEN AND WE DON’T JUDGE. But look how pretty the walls are :)
You can choose any blue you love. Keep in mind the lighting in the room (fewer windows = lighter blue, lots of windows = darker blue) Blue can be the perfect neutral color to build your room around. (wait… colors as neutrals? That’s the next blog post.)
ALWAYS test your paint colors before you commit. Sometimes the perfect blue is NOT perfect on the wall.
#2 - Go for the mid-tone, mid-red brown flooring
The least trendy wood color is a mid-tone, mid-red brown. What on earth, Alesa. I know, I know but look:
It’s like the man you’ve always wanted. STABLE. Consistent. Non-confrontational. Can hold its own in a room and look good doing it decade after decade.
You have to bring samples into your house. Don’t trust the lighting at the design store!
Wood floors don’t really go out of style, but the colors can. Light flooring was in for about 5 years and now it’s going out again. Super dark was “in” back in the early 2000s and it gave way to the lighter trend. Orange oak was all the rage in the early 1990s.
Mid-tone wood floors are so balanced that they’ll withstand the ages.
#3 - Pick the green sofa or chair
Velvet! Chenille! Boucle! Linen! (Those are types of fabric you uncultured swine) Dark green is strong. Not loud, STRONG. And it’s another deep color that can become a neutral backdrop in a room.
This one is green velvet. Don’t you want it to devour you?! Me too.
#4- Do not skip the curtains
The function of a curtain is not just to control light. Curtains control the overall softness of the room.
A creamy white linen… a neutral taupe with green or blue embroidery to tie in the wall color… A deep teal to round out the color palette… It’s all just going to make your space feel like the coziest, warmest hug.
As I was writing this …I SWEAR I did not think of this beforehand… I realized I already designed a room with this exact color palette.
So there you go. It’s in our DNA to enjoy this color combination and not even know it.
Next time we’ll talk about how a color can be vibrant and serve as a neutral. (And you kept reading. I knew you would).
Ok, I love ya. Buh bye.
-Cozy Little Llama
Ready to start creating your nature-inspired room? Start here with my Amazon picks.
