First one! I love red. Its such a great, vibrant colour that can be used for both boys and girls...
While I know that the old adage was red/pink shouldn't go together, I have seen some truly gorgeous rooms done with red and pink. Its about finding the balance between the colours. Raspberry red and candy pink look fabulous together for girls and red and navy is a classic for boys. For a unisex room, red with teal or taupe is always a winner. Try it sometime!
I came across this photo on Pinterest. It unfortunately didn't have a back link - so if you know where this comes from or the designers name - please let me know - I always like to give credit where credit is due.
This room is a great example of how to work with an existing feature or colour when your doing up your nursery. Having a baby is expensive (Eep. Try having twins!) and if your like most new parents, while you want your nursery to be beautiful, you may not want to have to re-mortgage your house to get that 'oh-so-special' look!
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| Love the red spotty sheet! |
In this room, the wallpaper could have been a little over powering if the furniture was only white. So using the red dresser acts as the focus of the room and makes the wall paper appear much more subtle. The teal/blue rug on the floor balances the red and hides the pine brown timber floor boads. Add some extra touches such as the red sheet (ahem...use our sweetsheets range for a similar look!) and rocking horse and a coloured frame and you have a rather unique, stunning looking nursery.
I actually had this exact problem when we moved into our house. The boys new room has a large wall of vintage 1960-70s wallpaper - its a similar look to the Beatrix Potter 'bunnykins' range.... little mice, rabbits and badgers etc My sister LOVES it.. Me.. not so much!
So what I had to do was work with the existing colours. The wall paper contained a great deal of browns and fawn, with tiny amounts of green, red and blue in the clothes the animals wore... The brown made the room very dark and flat so I used solid white timber beds (the boys were outgrowing their cots) with the heads against the feature wall and a white cabinet between the beds. This broke up the huge expanse of brown wall and brought out the white background, rather the brown pattern on the wallpaper. I then used white and pale fawn striped single bed doona covers. I chose the red and blue used in the wallpaper to act as accent colours. I used the Bolly & Bear Stars & Stripes cushions and comforters that the boys had in their cots and folded them at the end of their beds. I used a lampshade in the same design and hung extra large Red and Navy "H & O" wall letters against the other white wall.
Cruising the internet one day I found a copy of a childrens vintage Alphabet poster that had fawn, red and navy as the main colours from art.com. I painted a cheap oversized frame in fire engine red, placed the poster inside and hung it on the wall.... All done! The white 'lifts' the room and the red and navy balance out the overwhelming browns.
I have to admit, the room does look lovely now!
So the moral of the story. Work with what you have... Pick one or two colours and use them to balance out the parts that you don't necessarily love... Painting a piece of furniture in an accent colour is always a great way to make it the focus of the room. Just make sure that if you have a dark room, you choose a vibrant or light colour for the paint.. think contrasting!
Looking forward to next weeks post!
Marrianne
