Bring color home: vacation photographs set the tone for a paint makeover

Sunset, April, 2005 by Ann Bertelsen

Photos from a trip do more than just bring back memories; they can act as inspiration for your interior surroundings. To demonstrate our point, we used the mountain paint palette from "The West in Color"--a set of 60 colors we developed in association with Kelly-Moore Paints--to decorate two very different rooms. The color schemes were inspired by images of Washington's Skagit Valley and Mt. Rainier, taken by travel photographer Connie Coleman (www.conniecoleman.com).

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We painted and furnished a dining room and a living room to show how to draw wall, furniture, and accessory colors from landscape photographs. Other sources of inspiration to consider are a favorite souvenir textile, ceramic, or other art object.

Resources

Living room

Angela Adams Hazel area rug: From Propeller, San Francisco (www.propeller-sf.com or 415/701-7767)

Dan Magree photograph on mantel: Available through Emma Star Jensen (510/428-2871)

Eames Eiffel Plastic Armchair: In light blue; from Design Within Reach (www.dwr.com or 800/944-2233)

Fireplace screen: Okell's Fireplace, San Francisco (www.okells.com or 415/626-1110)

J.C. Cody Harvard ottoman: Cinnamon-stained alder with tan wool cushion; from Richter Black Label Collection, San Francisco (415/575-1770)

Maya Botanical floral pillow: In chartreuse; from Crate and Barrel (www.crateandbarrel.com or 800/967-6696)

Sara Paloma ceramics: (www.sarapaloma.com or 510/658-2592)

60-inch Edward sofa, Edward chair, Dylan chair: Zonal, San Francisco (415/255-9307)

Striped and blue pillows: The Silk Trading Co. (www.silktrading.com or 800/854-0396)

Dining room

Antique dining table and red tray table: Swedish Room, San Francisco (www.swedishroom.com or 415/255-0154)

Roger chairs: Ikea (www.ikea.com or 800/434-4532)

To see all three "West in Color" paint palettes, visit www.sunset.com/palette

RELATED ARTICLE: Field of dreams

The richly saturated colors of tulips in the Skagit Valley set the tone for this dining room and adjacent den. The vivid red (Leaf Rust) and yellow (Full Sun) walls echo the colors of the tulips on the table. Tabletop accessories, including plates and napkins, pick up other hues in the photograph.

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"The trick is to use colors of a similar intensity so that no one color gets lost in the process," says stylist Emma Star Jensen, who helped us pull it all together.

Ceramics are boldly colored, complementing the walls. The inset of the built-in hutch is a sagey green (Colfax Pine), turning the buffet into a focal point.

The white wainscoting and hutch front (Rainier White) serve as a fresh backdrop for the rustic tableware that downplays the formality of the room. The magazine printing process affects color reproduction, so allow for paint variation.

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RELATED ARTICLE: Mountain splendor

The living room reflects the natural majesty of Mt. Rainier's craggy, snowcapped peaks, dense forests, and clear blue lake with its mirror like surface.

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We chose to let the paint colors merge subtly with each other, capturing the tranquility of the image. As a result, the fireplace takes on a clean, sculptured look; the surround matches the sandy wall color (Earth Stone), while the mantel, the molding, and the door trim take on the deeper hue of the mountains (Cedar Shingle). The green accent wall (Lemongrass) mimics the forest.

Accessories and ceramics pick up on the smoky blues of the exterior siding (Gothic Grey), seen through the French doors. Since we wanted the architectural elements to blend together, we kept to muted colors and repeated them on the ceiling, giving the room a spacious and contemporary feel.

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RELATED ARTICLE

Play with accents and backgrounds

The green accent wall above the fireplace is a backdrop for elegant ceramics in the same hue as the molding and baseboards.

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Capture your photograph's spirit

Smooth, river-washed stones repeat the room's earthy tones and reinforce the natural theme.

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Create vignettes as focal points

The blue-gray siding (Gothic Grey; also seen through the living room's French doors) forms a simple, understated backdrop for an arrangement of blue and green candles in Harbor Blue and Aged Olive hues.

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Choose contrasting colors for drama

Highlight architectural features like molding with white or other light hues to make them stand out against deeper earth tones.

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PHOTOGRAPHS BY THOMAS J. STORY

STYLING BY EMMA STAR JENSEN