Designing With Color Made Easy

Color theory isn't difficult but to an amateur decorator on a budget it can be daunting. Furnishing a room, apartment or home doesn't need to be stressful. If you're on a budget and have decided to garage sale, flea market and second hand shop for your furnishings you can, with a little effort, create a space that is both color coordinated and stylish. I can spend an entire post on color theory but when you're out on an archeology expedition you won't have the Internet to refer back to so I'm going to share exactly how I do it. Most artists have extensive training in color theory. So what I do is find a painting with all the colors and lighting I'm looking for in a room. It doesn't matter what style just look for one that inspires you. I like to use Wassily Kandinsky because his range of colors and styles is so varied. There's something there for everyone. Once a painting has been selected print it off and put it in your wallet or purse. Now you have a reference point for the color theory you want in your room and you didn't have to go to design school to do it. In general select two dominant colors and one contrasting accent color. From this Kandinsky painting I chose warm browns and greens. My contrasting accent colors might be blues, golds or black. Let's see how I did. The style of furniture was Danish Modern.


You never know what you're going to find at a garage sale so you have to keep an open mind. I found a pair of green Simmons Danish Modern daybeds from the late 50's for $30.00, a black Carter's Brother's Scoop chair from the early 60's for $5.00, the pole lamp for $ 7.00, the step table was $8.00, the Nakashima style 60's clock was $12.00 and the two green side chairs were $30.00 each. That totaled at $122.00 dollars for this room. The Carter's Brother's chair ended up in my son's apartment so we can deduct $5.00. It was just that cool.