Recently I can feel a dramatic shift in my design preferences.  Where I used to bookmark white interiors like they were going out of style, well, for me, I think they might be going out of style.  Don’t get me wrong, I still love a crisp, clean, white interior but I just flipped through my color combinations folder and saw a lot of this action:

As you can see, my interest in gold hasn’t waned much (has it grown!!!??  good lord) but the surrounding tones have gotten significantly darker

Ok, so admittedly, that light fixture really seals the deal here.  No, not the duck one.

No fancy interiors to see here, but this was smack-dab in the middle of my color file so I figure it must be worth sharing.  Other odd images I found right along it’s side include:

Love the color, love the fur, love the sparkle.  This could totally translate into a room.

And there it is again.   I would like for you to tell me how this color combination is not perfection.  Or, send me more pictures of real interiors in these tones… I want more!

PS, if I took any of today’s pictures from any of your blogs and didn’t note it here it’s because I don’t remember where I got any of these pictures.  Leave a comment if they’re from your site and I’ll happily give you credit.  xoxo

I have obviously contracted a raging case of scarlet fever, or perhaps I’ve come down with the Pepto Bismol Flu. Because my new appreciation for hot pink can only be explained by a fit of delirium. Now — I’m a black, white, and brown, kind of a girl. Sure, I like loads of bling to slick it up, but at heart I love my drabby neutrals. Except I have recently developed a strange, inexplicable attraction to hot pink. It’s probably because the hunny says it doesn’t look good with my hair — which makes me like it even more.

Nicolas Matheus

Whatever. You can’t deny that a dash of hot pink puts the schwing into spring.

Nicolas Matheus

Girl, you know you be a sexy beast.

Abigail Ahern

Yes, I realize I mixed my gender metaphors there, but it may just be that hot pink is a transvestite hooker with a heart of gold.

Design Sponge

Hot pink’s interests are: It’s Raining Men, lip gloss, and having better legs than me.

Scott Weston

But you know what? I like her. A lot. Hot pink is sharp, funny, edgy, and adds a touch of in your face glamour to any room.

Scott Weston

Did I mention versatile? Pair her with other brights or darks and she will hold her own.

Abigail Ahern

Studio Ilse

Michael Haverland

Pair her with neutrals and she will coyly bat her false eyelashes at you with a flirtatious wink and a nudge.

Abigail Ahern

Laura Day via Lonny

Display her on your pedestrian TV in full frontal view, right next to your haute pink James Nares painting, and you will be a GENIUS.

House Beautiful

In closing, I leave you with this showstopper of an image, which is not to my usual taste. At all. For starters, I don’t know who allowed a giant clam to crawl across the floor and die a horrible, ugly death beneath the console table. But that swath of hot pink brightness rescues the whole room from stuffy old lady land. And do you know what the paint color is called?

Razzle Dazzle.

That’s what I’m talking about.

It’s time for another installment in our Ask Sanders series, wherein some lucky reader has their decorating dilemma solved by our resident paint guru, Sanders Gibbs. It’s a dream come true, because in case you don’t already know, Sanders is a badass. But don’t take our word for it — if you live in Austin, go visit Benjamin Moore Hill Country Paints, where Sanders puts his talents to the test as store manager. Not in Austin? Catch up by reading this interview with Sanders here.

Without further ado, here’s reader Rossana’s question:

“My husband and I are in the process of painting the nursery. We have differing ideas about what this should look like, but we have at least found a nice compromise with the Ben Moore pear green. The gender is a surprise! The room is about a 10 x 12 room with lots and lots of windows and the one wall that is solid will be the one that we put the crib on, and this is the wall that we will paint Pear Green. Question is: what other color would be nice with PG?”

First of all, great choice! Pear Green is a bright and versatile shade that pairs (ahem) well with many colors. Sanders gave us a broad selection of gender neutral choices to pick from, and many can be mixed and matched to different effect.

Amp up the drama by mixing pear green with bold brights.

Or tone it down with neutrals. It works well either way.

For a baby’s room, you could play it sophisticated by painting the crib wall pear green, the other walls off white (Sanders gave us Mountain Peak White), and then adding in other colors through accessories and bedding. Or you could funk it up by painting the other three walls a jazzier color, and then using accessories in more neutral shades. Let’s take a look at some rooms with pear green and see how Sanders’ choices work in them.

This playroom in the home of Avocado and Papaya’s Jackie Kersh features a cute, classic palette of green, red and blue.

Here’s Sanders’ palette, which would work well in a gender neutral nursery: Pear Green with Chili Pepper Red and Peacock Blue.

Another playroom, via Cupcake Wishes and Unicorn Dreams.

And Sanders’ corresponding choices are Pear Green with Stardust and Violet Stone.

I know it’s not a kid’s room, but the color palette in this kitchen would be fab in a nursery.

Pear Green with Banana Yellow and Florida Keys Blue.

And then there’s this hotness — who cares if the Pear Green is on a couch and not a wall? Use your imagination goggles to see that this color combo is off the chain… Loves it.

Pear Green, Mountain Peak White and Silver Dollar. DRAMA. Add a dash of black here and there and you’ve got a winner for all ages.

And here are a couple more pretty palettes, just because I made them up all nice in photoshop:

The bold and the beautiful: Tequila Lime, Juneau Spring, Banana Yellow, Tangy Orange, and Pear Green.

Oh so quiet and sophisticated: Mountain Peak White (loving this white!), Silver Dollar, Taos Taupe and Light Khaki. Brilliant.

That’s it for this edition of Ask Sanders. Rossana, I hope there’s some helpful information here, and hey — maybe we inspired some of y’all out there to repaint. Or perhaps even have a baby… After all, what better excuse could there be to redecorate?

I’m leaving you with this picture of Ike and Sanders. Ike LOVES loves him some Uncle Sanders, mostly because Ike is obsessed with Sanders’ nametag, but also because Ike has good taste in people.

If any of you out there would like some professional advice regarding your painting dilemmas, send in a request and we’ll forward it to Sanders.

Thanks for sharing your expertise with us, Sanders!

About a year ago, I went on a strict color diet of black, brown and pale gray, with a smattering of gold to add some pizazzle dazzle. I have to say this house was looking pretty svelte until Ike came along. Now it’s been fattened up by red, yellow and blue plastic, and I swear the living room alone has gained 20 pounds. Apparently babies aren’t really into drabby neutrals. Who knew? Thankfully the decorating world now says, Hey — it’s ok to binge on primary colors.

Maison Francaise

And guess what? You don’t even have to resort to building your home out of kiddie colored Legos to get the look (because if that were the case, I’d already be 50 steps ahead). Remember the slew of Roy Lichtenstein inspired interiors I presented for your consideration? Well, now get ready for a burst of Bauhaus brights.

Richard Powers

Marie Claire Italia

Those crazy Bauhaus dudes were all about form, function, and screaming color — but no fussy, frilly pants color shall be allowed. Green is about as crazy as party animals Gropius, Van der Rohe and Corbusier, were willing to get, because it’s all about heading back to basics. So sit back, strap up, and put your goggles on. We’re going on a grand tour.

Met Home

M Design Interiors

A Mondrian inspired kitchen from Apartment Therapy

Met Home

Ngoc Minh Ngo

OWI

Elle Decor

Steve Giralt

No source, but check out that Arteluce lamp.

New York Times

M Design Interiors

Well, dudes? What do you think? Are you ready to inject some hot primary color into your home? Just be careful, because Danger! It’s ok to be bold, but with such strong colors, it’s all too easy to go overboard. Like, way overboard. Simple shapes and small doses are the best bet for keeping your visual weight under control.

Don’t be a color glutton.

Maybe it’s because my first decorating debacle was painting our living room Blue Tequila, but blue is not my favorite color. I know I’m in the minority, and I’m sure I’ll have many opportunities to revisit that statement since turquoise is Pantone’s color for the year, but for now I’m sticking to my story. Blue is sentimental. Flat. Candace Olsen. It just leaves me cold. There are exceptions to my personal ban on blue, though: Kelly Wearstler’s Avalon Hotel, Raina’s Newburyport Blue bedroom, and anything International Yves Klein Blue.

Brown Davis

Those of you who have been reading this blog forever know I am OBSESSED with Yves Klein and his badass blue. Everyone else can read these posts I wrote 800 million years ago here and here and here. It’s because IYKB is otherwordly. Klein Blue’s super special combination of pigments vibrate with an intensity that most skimpy, wimpy blues lack. Would I paint my entire home IYKB? Well, no. I want to visit outer space, not live there.

Christoph Theurer

A little touch of IYKB here and there would make me an intergalactic tourist, and that suits me just fine. I especially love Yves Klein’s modern reinterpretation of classical sculptures, which are perennial favorites of well heeled collectors.

OWI

Look expensive? That would be because they are HELLACIOUSLY expensive. Guess what’s also expensive?

Architectural Digest

A lucite coffee table chock full of Yves Klein Blue pixie dust. Oh, and this fancy pad belongs to Kevin Roberts, the CEO of Saatchi and Saatchi, so YES. The globe is also an Yves Klein piece, because homedude is crazyballs rich, that’s why.

Cote Maison via Lampshade

Chicago Home Mag

1st Dibs has one for $24,000. Come on, you know you want it…

Of course nothing tops the rarity of Klein’s Anthropometres paintings, since they represent the imprint of an experience and are not reproducible. In other words, Klein greased up some sexy babes with IYKB paint and drug them around a piece of paper. I smell an art project coming on…

Walso Fernandez

Aaron Hom

An Yves Klein poster is really more in my price point.

Living Etc

Perhaps the best thing about IYKB is that it’s just a color — maybe Pantone 286, to be exact? Steal from the best. Get some shockingly blue paint and start spreading the sexy. Even that damn cardboard deer head looks better in Klein Blue.

OWI

Amanda Nisbet

Studio Ilse

Damian Russell

Or if you’re a fancy beast, they make blue upholstery, too.

1st Dib owner Michael Bruno’s Apartment

Greg Natale

Amie Weitzman

Cote Maison

And of course, sometimes just a dab will do you.

Whew, dudes, did you see all those pictures? This post was a labor of love. As in, I literally feel like I just squeezed out a giant blue baby. But my obsession with IYKB deserved the full treatment, so I’m just going to pat and coo and love this big blue spawn, because he’s such a handsome boy. Yes he is. Now, go forth and paint something Klein Blue. Make mama proud.

If you’re anything like me, you have Obsessive Compulsive Decorating Disorder (OCDD). It is characterized by a marked need to see EVERY example of whatever thing is currently occupying your mental space — be it paint colors, couches, rugs, lamps, chairs, etc., followed by an overwhelming sense of analysis paralysis, and culminating in a rushed selection, because you just need to BUY something, dammit. Currently this disease is forcing me to shop for a new couch, a new white paint color, and new wallpaper, but in the end I will probably just buy some dumb thrift store tchotchke to abate my compulsion, since none of those big purchases/projects are logical if The Hunny and I actually want to move in the new year. Or, I will just screw logic, and buy something big and cheap that I hate next month.

Last night, Karly emailed to tell me that I have 674 Craigslist postings bookmarked. I thought to myself, “Ha, I’ve likely deleted more than twice that many.” So, let’s see… that makes over 2000 postings that have caught my gimlet eye in the last year.

I think I have a problem, people. But I’m pretty sure it’s not my fault.

(via Weather Sealed)

Just look at the history of Crayola colors. At the turn of the (last) century, there were only eight colors. EIGHT. Period. In the last 100 years, the choices have exponentially multiplied, so that I can’t even count all the tiny little bars to tell you how many colors there are now. See there? The choices are uncountable. The variations and combinations thereof — innumerable. And those are just stupid crayons. Imagine how many sofas, white paint colors, and wallpaper patterns, there are today.

Maybe I should time travel back to 1903, with its eight-color palette, and order my sofa from the Sears Roebuck catalog, whitewash the woodwork, and wallpaper… with the Sears Roebuck catalog. Which would be fine, except for one tiny detail.

There’s no Craigslist.

So far 2010 is shaping up to be craptacular. This does not bode well for the next 10 FREAKING YEARS, does it? Let’s recap the already long list of stupid stuff that has happened in this very new year: the entire nation has been living in a subzero meat locker. The Hunny, Baby Ike and I, have been passing around a disgusting cold. I am on a no sleep plan, thanks to Ike’s first tooth. Because I’m exhausted, every night I scarf down a bowl of ice cream with hot fudge about 3 seconds before I go to bed. The scale refuses to even register my weight in the morning — it just laughs. Oh, and the cat puked on our rug in the middle of the night, for the 854th time this month. Aren’t you jealous? Don’t you wish you were me? SAY YOU WISH YOU WERE ME.

Yeah, it could be a lot worse, but I don’t really want to hear about context or perspective or any other gross thoughtful stuff today. Instead, I’ve been fantasizing about painting everything in my house white, and getting all white furniture, and all white accessories. It’s my new happy place, where it’s clean and fresh and everything matches, and there is no orange puke or chocolate sauce, and everybody sleeps all night long.

Yeah, that’s what I’m talking about. (Remodelista)

I used the google to find this, therefore I have no source info. What? You think I shouldn’t occasionally resort to googling my post material? I don’t have time to read blogs ALL day. Update — thanks to Nicole for letting me know this room was designed by Alexander van Berge!

Is that sofa inflatable, or is it just me? (Per Ranung)

This room is so anti maximalist, but I am in sweet sweet love. Even the buildings across the way are white. (Francois Halard)

I don’t know where this came from, and those clothes are really buggin, but hot damn! White just photographs so beautifully.

So. restful. can’t. keep eyes open.

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. (Marie Claire Maison)

Om me padme hum a zoom zoom, just shake your rump! Uh, that’s totally not where I meant to go with that. I just got a little overexcited thinking about all that white. (Living Etc)

Get out of my room, fugly brown boxes.

How not to do a white room. I want to punch that DREAM banner in the face and rip that stupid Z Gallerie pirate chandelier out of the ceiling. Repeat: this room bad. Bad white make Erin angry!

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh. Anger level receding. (Remodelista)

Um hmmmm. (Desire to Inspire)

Oh yeah. (From the Right Bank)

Almost disqualified due to a preponderance of off white tones, but so pretty I couldn’t help myself. Whatever. You can’t stop me. I’m high on white. I’m unstoppable. (Style Files)

Pure as the driven snow… and the number one reason I can’t actually have an all white house. (Ohdeedoh)

I think I’m actually feeling better, thank you very much, but now I’m seriously jonesing for more white crack. So tell me, smart, savvy decorating friends: do any of you have white walls? Do you like them? Does white highlight every imperfection — like the dreaded wall cellulite — or does it smooth over the ugly drama? Any particular colors, tips, etc? It seems like great architecture and serious windows are needed to go white, but I’m oh so tempted…

Interior decor is as much a part of the fashion world as clothes are — trends are born and then trends die. It’s the cycle of style. Because I’m short on time and have to work whenever I find a spare minute or two, I tend to bookmark my posts well in advance (and for my responsible nature I deserve a gold star, right?), but the downside is that I often find I’m tired of the pictures before I even get to post them. So, yeah, I’ve had this awesome black and white roundup lassoed and hogtied for weeks, but I was all sick of it because I’ve already seen a zillion (good) black and white roundups splashed all over the blogosphere. Anyhoodle, this is my long and rambling way of saying that you’re getting a (mostly) black and white post whether you like it or not, because there are some good things about black and white, and besides — it’s a classic, dammit.

Sabrina Bignami

Nicolas Matheus

Richard Powers

OWI

Francois Halard

Studio Ilse

Style Files

Studio Ilse

Jeff Andrews

Emmas Designblogg

Elle Decor

Skona Hem

Jeff Andrews

Sabrina Bignami

Did you see how many pictures I had bookmarked??? I’m nothing if not thorough, and I couldn’t exactly let all that gorgeousness go to waste.

So what do you dudes think? Is black and white itself too chilly? Does it need a pop of color or the warmth of wood to make it work? Tell me your favorite picture, and I’ll tell you mine… Inquiring minds need to know.

Hello hello, blog buddies! I am back from the brink of certain death by bubonic infection, and baby Ike is feeling much better, as well. Along with heaping doses of Oprah, Supernanny, and baby Tylenol, your well wishes and kind words healed our sickness. It’s a miracle! Or maybe my resurrection is the result of these hot rooms that have my blood a’ pumping, because you know what — the gloss is boss.

Apartment Therapy

Yesss, paired with deep, dark paint, a glossy finish adds depth and — dare I say — an element of mystery?

A super high gloss finish like the one in this room by Miles Redd is like hot lingerie for your walls, and you don’t want to force your walls to wear granny panties, do you?

Studio Ilse

No granny panties here, just sleek sophistication. But make sure to smooth out walls before painting, because a glossy sheen reveals imperfections and no one wants to see that orange peel cellulite on your wall.

SR Gambrel

Why not spread the shine to the ceiling, while you’re at it?

SR Gambrel

And although black looks fabulously fresh in a high gloss finish, a whole rainbow of dark hues could work beautifully.

Head Over Heels

Elle Decor

Marie Claire Maison

Dark and glossy is grown up sexy, but use it sparingly. Much like makeup, you don’t want too much shiny, or you risk looking trashy.

Although a shiny finish does make for easy cleanup.

I was hoping to bring you guys some pics of my new office today but I’m STILL not done.  It’s not for lack of trying, I’ve worked on it every weekend for a month and a half.  I’m pretty sure it has a lot to do with the 14 million boxes of “heirlooms” my mother sent when she gutted her house that have been stored in my office for the past several months.  I finished sorting through them this weekend, but unpacking and finding a  home for yet another porcelain miniature tea set has been challenging, to say the least.  Man I’m rambling.  Anyway, office: not done.

Another reason it took so dang long is that I painted it, hated it, tried to live with it then painted again.  I settled on white, which I actually LOVE.  Accents are yellow and black with lots and lots of art (still waiting to be hung).  Since I can’t show you my room, I thought I’d share some other spaces with pops of yellow in honor of my never to be completed work space.

Unfortunately, that chair is not in my office, but I’m not ruling it out if perchance I happen upon it one day at the thrift store.  It could happen.

Hi yellow lamp!  Are you sure that desk is sturdy enough to hold you up?  

Love.

The K-dawg doesn’t allow colorful walls in her house, but this one isn’t making me mad.

yes.

I really like this kitchen but I HATE the way they styled it.  clock: gross, stools: gross.  2 coffee mugs, fruit bowl and plants in triplicate: gross gross gross.  Yellow beam, yes, yes I like you.

If anyone who owns this sideboard is willing to accept a first born in trade please let me know.  My babies will be really tall and probably, like, way smart, so it’s a really sound investment.

yellow couch, you’re awesome!

Do I spy a yellow glow behind the bed?

Ok, so this one isn’t so much of a yellow accent it’s more, as Erin would say, full-frontal-yellow, but I just love it to pieces.

For more yellow accents, check out this guest post Jen did for us a couple of months ago