Naturally, I have the ability to see an art piece and decorate an entire room from it. I can see dull spaces and find ways to make them beautiful. I can decorate a room from a decorative plate if I needed to, or a piece of fruit, or a rotted piece of wood. It does not matter as long as there are ways to get inspired from it and for me, I am inspired by practically everything I see on a daily basis! However, not many have this ability nor can they afford to hire a designer, but I do know that a good majority has an object, an art piece, anything of value that they are inspired from and want to somehow make it a recognized piece within a room of their home, but have no idea how to get started. Picking out colors and making them balanced within a room, is not simple. Just the simple task of picking out colors can be difficult. So here is a good tool to at least get you started...
Microsoft PowerPoint....thats right. I love using this program for just about everything! I like to take my own pictures (FRITZ PHOTOGRAPHY) and I tend to find photographs the most inspiring so I will use them in these examples, but you can actually create color palettes through PowerPoint for not only a photograph, but objects as well just by taking a picture of the object and uploading it onto the computer. These color palettes you can print off, take to your nearest paint retailer and give them to the associate to help color match and ta-da!!
Step one:
- Upload the photograph or picture of the object to inspire the color palette
- In this case I used the below photograph: (Ideally, for my space I want to print this photograph in a 2x3 and use it as a focal point art piece in the room)
Step Two:
- Open up PowerPoint; right click on the slide in the far left column and select Layout>Blank
- Select the insert tab and click on Picture
- Select the picture from the folder in which the picture was saved in and select
- Place the picture on the page, re-size as desired.
- In the insert tab, select shapes and select a rectangle
- Place it to the right of the photograph.
- This will be your first color choice, I start with the darkest color first. In my case it was a dark deep blue, almost a black
- Double click inside the rectangle- or right click in the box and select format shape
- In shape fill you can select the color. Here you find the color that closest resembles the darkest color of the photograph.
- If you need more color options you can select>more colors and play with those until you find the right one
- Under shape outline select-none as we do not want any border around the shape
- You will have a total of 5 boxes down the side of your picture, each one resembling a color in the photo.
- The accent color is going to be the most prevalent color in the photo, the one that stands out the most from the rest.
- Re-size the shapes and photograph so they all line up with one another
- Highlight the entire section with the mouse so all objects are selected
- Within the selection right click
- Scroll down to save as picture
- Choose a file name
- Save type will be JPEG
You now have a JPEG image of your new color Palette! Here is what they look like:
I am now ready to start the design process.
- I can pick one color to be my wall color - you can use one color, or two using one as an accent wall. In this case I can use the top two colors. the lightest being my main color and the dark midnight blue as an accent wall.
- Select a color or two for the accents in the accessories which is typically the brightest more bold colors from the group. In this case the bottom two colors I see as accents with my fabrics and accessories.
- the darkest color I would typically use as the wood color for the furniture. In this case the dark brown
- All colors can be used more that once in the space. For instance, if I used the midnight blue as a wall accent, I can still use it again as an accent within my accessories along with the other two colors that I selected. I can also incorporated the dark brown selected for the furniture into fabrics and accessories as well.
- Just know, that as long as you are incorporating the colors together from the object/photograph, its that object/photograph that will tie the entire room together once it is complete.
A few more helpful tips:
With patterns, depending on the object and/or photograph...pay attention to the common shape. In my case the shapes are very angular and linear with one prominent curved line. Therefore, I want to find fabric patterns that resemble the bold linear lines with a subtle curve in areas. or a fabric with bold angles and/or circles. I also want to keep my furniture selections more linear. If I were putting this image in a living room for instance and I was picking out a sofa, I may want to choose one like the below: see the bold linear lines with the subtle curve at the legs?
If there are many curves and feminine lines within the object and/or photograph, you may choose something more like this:
Your taste/design style will also play a big role in what you choose, and perhaps it is the furniture itself that is the inspiration? Whatever the inspiration, it is important that what you choose contain a few colors in it to base the color palette from.
Also, look for texture... Does the object and/or photograph have texture or is it smooth? In my case, it has texture and using different finishes and/or materials, I can bring that texture into the space. A distressed wooden table perhaps along with textured fabrics and/or rug. If the object/photograph is smooth in texture, use smooth texture throughout the fabrics, furniture, lamps and accessories.
Texture is a great area to add something unique to the space!
Here are a few more examples that I did off of my photographs for color palettes:
Have fun with this and get Creative!!!
