Are you afraid of color?

I am not at all. I love it. I can't even pick a favorite. Maybe that's partly because they change so much for me. Almost every wall in my house is painted a color other than white. Color can be very subtle or it can be very bold. If color isn't your thing, that's OK really it is. Don't try to use crazy color if it isn't really in your personality. Color has an effect on mood, size, space, and light. Color has an amazing effect it can energize you when you walk into a room, or it can make you down right depressed. The best thing about color is that it doesn't have to cost much of anything. Today's post will be about small ways to use color and tomorrow will be about paint colors because I could go on we should separate them. If you have a very sparse neutral room and you aren't ready for dramatic change start with something small. There is a large variety of throw pillows available in a large variety of places and prices. If you are out and about and see a fabric you love buy a yard and make your own. Or look for some pillows already made. Either way it's easy to just put a couple of purple pillows on the beige couch in the room with white walls to get a pop of color. If you don't know where to start with color look at magazine pictures. Maybe start with a favorite color and use it in a throw or pillows. You can even frame a piece of favorite fabric and hang it on the wall. These are ways you aren't married to your color choice and if it doesn't work for you give them to a friend, donate to a charity, or just put them away. Color can be fun you just have to get used to it.

Design notebook

I am a magazine junkie, I think it started when I was in design school. We had to go through magazines and pick out the elements in the pictures for vocabulary words, etc. I was always looking through BHG at lunch time so I ended up with a huge file of recipes cut out in a huge mess. Now days my addiction is two-fold, I really like that or I need that for later. So, I purchased an artist sketch book from the craft store and I am whittling away at my stack of magazines.

You will need:
Sketch book
self-adhesive divider tabs
Glue stick
Pen

First divide your notebook into categories that you will use, i.e. recipes, things you like, reference, home decor ideas, etc.
** I actually have ideas for a few different notebooks, for now the recipes are thrown in a binder with plastic page protectors I'll sort them one day into tried and loved and chuck the ones that I don't want, but one thing at a time. **

You can buy blank divider tags that you can use the self adhesive tabs to attach to a page in the notebook to help find the pages when the notebook is closed.

Then as you are going through magazines (for me it's two or three at a time so it doesn't get away from me) cut the pictures you like and paste them onto the pages in the appropriate category. The best part is you can write on the page next to the picture why you saved it so you don't have to remember for later. Sometimes for me there is something way in the background that appealed to me because it sparked another idea. I can record that info and later I don't wonder why I cut out a Clorox ad with a person in a tub. There is also enough space to sketch the new idea.

As you go through your notebooks you can start to see consistent themes that will help you define what your true design style is and what is just a passing phase.