Anna Starmer - Love Color: Choosing Colors to Live With by Anna Starmer

In the studio, collections of objects and photography inspire new color creations for both fashion and interior design ideas.

Of all the elements that, as decorators and homemakers, we can add to our personal environments, color is one of the most dynamic and cost-effective ways to transform a space. Color has instant impact and elicits a strong and personal response. It works on a subconscious level we instinctively know whether we like or dislike a color scheme. By surrounding ourselves with the right colors we can enhance our emotional well being and improve our day-to-day mood.

A dwelling only truly becomes a home when it is filled with life: family, friends, animals and plants. Collectables and personal keepsakes speak of our private history, they thread stories and memories through our home. Treasures collected on our travels, books, ornaments, and cherished artworks all weave together to create our own personal color palette. So many of our design decisions are built around the way we live and the necessities of our daily routines. The specific function and purpose of each room drives the ways in which we inhabit it; color can be used to enhance these spaces, helping each room feel more defined and purposeful. The ways in which colors affect and alter one another can seem a touch of magic; light and surface too can transform the ways we see a color.

There are no rules when decorating your home; your space is your blank canvas upon which to play with color and pattern. Get up close and personal with your colors; experiment with bright color flashes and accents, notice the way subtle nuances or tones can blur and blend to create a perfect room scheme.

Love Color is an adventure in color, a treasure box of ideas and inspiration gathered from around the world suggesting timeless, beautiful color solutions for your home.

Love color, it will fill your home with love, life, laughter and light.

The musings of a color consultant: dyed threads, material samples, paint swatches and photographs all come together to inspire alluring color combinations and new ideas for surface and design.

FINDING INSPIRATION

Color inspiration is all around you; its just knowing where to look for it and how to record it. In todays world most of us are afforded the luxury of having a camera in our handbag or pocket. Photograph things that appeal to you. The particular grey of an old stone wall might catch your eye, or you might gravitate towards a lampshade you spy in a restaurant, or you might simply love the colors in your best friends kitchen.

So make a habit of collecting images. Save pages from magazines or print off photographs that you come across online. Collate and store your images in files or create mood boards. Why not record things in a scrapbook? Try grouping similarly colored images together and you will start to understand how these work with one another. Consider also the surface textures, materials and patterns that feature in the images. What appeals to you? Perhaps you want to go all out and embrace pattern clashing, or you may want something more subtle. Unless you mix and match images together you wont know what engages you.

Collecting color samples and creating your own mood boards in this way will help you to define your own style and confirm which colors are suited to you and your lifestyle. Most of us do not live in show homes. Our homes are for living in, which is why you want to ensure the color schemes you choose reflect your own taste and ideas. Be influenced and inspired by interiors magazines and online mood board or pinning sites, but be careful not to be dazzled by fashion into following a scheme or a trend that is just not suited to your space or way of life. Color combinations go in and out of fashion, and chances are that you will quickly fall out of love with a scheme that you have simply copied from the pages of a glossy magazine.

A mood board of captured moments inspires new ways with hot pink. From floral patterns to sneakers, metallic lurex threads to a knitted magenta scarf, the world around us inspires our color infatuations. Use your favorite snaps to match to paint or textiles.

GATHERING TREASURE

Choosing the best colors for you and your interior scheme can be a difficult task, given the seemingly endless array of ideas and inspiration available. It is important to recognize and acknowledge your own favorite colors and styles, and hold on to your vision, even when you are bombarded with paint shade cards, fabric swatches, style guides and other peoples opinions. Follow a few basic steps to boost your color confidence and help simplify the task ahead.