Wardrobe Inspiring Decorating

 
It is common wisdom that if you are looking for inspiration for colours to decorate your house, you should look in your closet.  It makes sense that you would dress yourself in colours that are pleasing to your eye and look good on you, and that they would be the same colours you would want to surround yourself with in your home. 

So I thought I would put it to the test. 

In our home we have used the following paint colours (all Benjamin Moore paints - and I checked the colour descriptions with Maria, who not only is sweet and friendly, but is a genuine colour consultant, and writes the fabulous blog Colour me Happy):  

• Honey Harbour (a soft yellow beige ) in the living room and powder rooms
• Tea Light (a light gray green) in the family and dining rooms
• High Park (a medium gray green) on the backsplash in the kitchen 
• Silver Gray (a soft blue gray) in the master bedroom and ensuite 
• Nimbus Gray (a medium blue gray) on accent walls in the master bedroom and in the front hall

While the paint colours are all light pastel yellows, greens, and blues, there are some slightly darker shades of these same colours in throw pillows, carpets, patterned materials, and accessories. 

Turning to my closet now, I have a lot of dark neutrals, such as blacks and greys, with a bit of brown as a nod to the last decade of brown clothing, and also a fair amount of pinks and reds and some light blue, green, and turquoise showing up in shirts, scarves and sweaters. 

Here's a peak into my not so organized closet

So let's see how the dressing and the decorating line-up.  I divided up my analysis into colour groups, as follows:

Neutrals - Yep there are lots of neutrals (white, cream, beige, black, and brown) in both my closet and my home.  However, I would never wear an outfit or decorate a room entirely with neutrals.  I often admire rooms or outfits that are all black and beige, and think they look sophisticated and elegant, but in reality it's just not me.  Wait a minute, what am I saying, that I'm not sophisticated and elegant?  

Blues - I should start off by saying that I LOVE BLUE - I always have and I always will.   I wear blue and I have tons of blue around the house.  I gravitate to blue, what can I say?  I was meant to live by the ocean.  I love any shade of blue (it is the only colour I can say that about) and would happily decorate with them all. 

Yucky colours (shown below) - Now this is my opinion only, but I really don't like pinky-beige colours, peachy tones, acid yellows, and yellowy-greens. They will not be put on my body, or enter my house.

 

Pinks and Purples - I enjoy wearing purpley-pink (which I refer to as Michelle Obama purple) shown on the left below, and the bright pink on the right.  I have those colours in sweaters, scarves, camisoles, and t-shirts.  I love to wear these colours, especially the Obama purple; however, I could not see myself putting these intense shades of pink and purple around the house.  Ever.  Even in candles or pillows, or plates.   I have tiny amounts of pale pink around the house in candles, soap, and a few dishes.  Any more and I think hubby would rebel.

   

Greens and yellows - I like most greens and some yellows and have a few items in those colours around the house and in my wardrobe.  I really only like yellows that stay away from the mustardy-pukey shades. These days I usually wear apple greens and have soft gray greens around the house.  However, unlike the pinks and purples, I actually could envision using other shades of green in decorating in the future, such as teal, celery green, apple green, and pistachio (shown below).

 

Reds -  Reds are something like the greens.  I actually wear a fair amount of red, but have only a little of it around the house, including a few rasberry red pillows and a throw on our bed and some true red accents in the laundry room.  Like greens, though, I would love to incorporate  more shades of red around the house in the future, in particular true red, rasberry red, orangey red, and persimmon colours, all shown below. (Isn't it strange how often I use food to describe paint colours.)

In general the colours in my wardrobe are much darker, and more intense than the colours around the house.  I know some people can paint jewel tones or dark navy/brown/black on their walls but we would never enjoy living in a space like that.  Maybe it is because we live in a northern country with gloomy, cold weather for half the year.  Likewise,  I can't wear really soft pastel colours because of my pasty anglo fair skin colouring.  I do wear pastels a bit more in the summer, but even then I like bright colours and often choose them over pastels.

While the colours of my wardrobe only sort of match up with the colours in our house, if you were to describe in words how I dress (and I did ask a close friend her opinion) these words spring to mind:

• classic
• comfortable
• with a splash of colour or detail

Those same words definitely apply to how I decorate!


How about you?  Do the colours in your wardrobe match with the colours around your house?  Is the description in words a better match than the colours?