Cork Confusion

Ok, now that I have a thousand corks, what do I do with them? It was fun collection them - throwing them in the bowl after a party then counting them in the morning to see how many bottles of wine we went through but it's time to stop! I have about 4 containers of these things and I don't know what to do with them!!!

photo by Vince Frasca

They do look kind of pretty in a glass bowl. It's fun to sit at the counter and go through each cork trying to remember the bottle of wine it came from and at what occasion it was that we polished it off.

Photo by Vince Frasca

It's now to the point where my company looks at all the bowls and is wondering if I have a drinking problem. There's got to be a creative way to display these party bookmarks but what? I don't want the bulletin board or the picture frame - what are my options???

Don't know what color to paint your kids room?

photo by Vince Frasca

When trying to pick a color scheme for your room, start with your favorite picture or photograph. Let's say this picture of the pencils is your inspiration piece. You can base the color of your entire room around this one shot. Since the colors here are so vibrant, I'm going to assume that a young child would have chosen this to frame. Looking at the pencils, blue seems to be the dominant color so I would take a Navy blue and use it for one accent wall in the room - perhaps where the bed headboard is. For the rest of the walls I would pick one of the yellows, but not too bright. For a final touch I would take one of the greens and use it as a horizontal stripe going around the room on top of the yellow walls. Kids love stripes!

Make sure you choose a color co-ordinated mat to include with the framing of your photograph. It adds additional color and makes the picture large, more impressive on your wall. The colors I recommend for this project are from  the Laura Ashley collection from Valspar - bright and vibrant. They are:

Navy 4

Cowslip 3

Apple 6

Granite Countertop? I have a color for that!

Since granite is a natural stone, you'll have variation from slab to slab but for the most part, the same colors are throughout - they may just be in different places. The colors you choose to compliment your granite will also depend on the color of your cabinets and flooring. For the most part, I've found that if you have a gold based granite, some type of muted green, creams or a muted taupe works best. A color that would have a bit of contrast and not take away from the granite would be a good choice for this stone. If you're using Sherwin Williams paint, I suggest:

Whole Wheat

Believable Buff

Harmonic Tan

Basket Beige

Believable Buff

When working with the blackish granites such as the very popular Uba Tuba (that name always makes me giggle), the golds are a must to compliment and contrast with this granite. Gold is a feel good color and it's one I recommend often in the kitchen. It's a nice way to start your day and the color on the wall will definitely have an impact in that. Still using Sherwin Williams I suggest:

Restrained Gold

Mannered Gold

Blonde

Shagreen

You can choose just about any paint color if you have black granite but like I said before, the deciding factor will depend on what color your cabinets and flooring are. To tie in your kitchen, you can always pull a color that you see in your granite. In this slab I see greens, grays, and golds. Like green? Try:

Hearts of Palm

Rye Grass

Shagreen

Want to try gray? Each of these "grays" has a different undertone so one may match up to your cabinets and flooring.

Contented 

Wool Skein

Worldly Gray

So, if you're not sure of what color to paint your kitchen, I suggest going to your local Sherwin Williams paint store and getting paint swatches of these colors I've mentioned. I've used all of these in many of my clients homes and they are some of the best colors for kitchens. Please keep in mind that these colors may not be the best choice for your kitchen. So many factors depend on the final choice. But for Charlotte, NC -these are winners!

Old verses New - Which Santa Are You?

There are two types of Santa's. The old, Victorian Santa with a deep, rich burgundy wardrobe represented of the days gone by. He's not so fat and not so jolly but a classic old man dressed in his best threads but still has that familiar ho ho ho smile.

Then there is the typical, jolly oh so red Santa we see today. When did Santa get a makeover? The candy apple red hat, jacket and pants that we all know so well lined in snow white fur. I wonder if Mrs. Clause had something to do with it? Either way - I like them both! Which one do you like?

www.bettyloubyrnes.com

Go Ahead, Put Chocolate on Your Walls

Who can't resist dark, rich chocolate? Nonpareils are a classic chocolate treat.

Now you can enjoy this delicious color on your walls with Valspar's “Lyndhurst Rich Brown”. Treat your walls to this beautiful shade of brown for an accent color - one wall will do! Don't go for seconds!

photo by Vince Frasca

Old Rose Pink and Lyndhurst Rich Brown 

Valspar

photo by Vince Frasca

Pink tablecloth, milk glass, four lace table runners and my rose and platimun china is the setting for this Valentine's day.

5 Material Things I can't Live Without

Photo by Vince Frasca

I guess I need some type of therapy but I have lipstick stashes all over the house. There are lipstick clusters in my office, on my dresser, in my car, in my husbands glove box, in just about every purse I own, in the back pocket of most my jeans which leads to finding them in the dryer, in the bathroom, TV room, kitchen and in all my coat pockets. The sick thing is I love them all from the ones I find at the dollar store to the ones at the departments stores for $24 a hit. Someone help me - I just love the colors!

Midnight Red

Tuscan Russet

Pink Beach

Exotika

Copper Shine

Plum Sable

Roseberry

. . . . I CAN'T STOP!!

My next item is my Mac. There's just no words. This is a must. We are definitely connected at the hip. Now if only I can have her in one of my lipstick colors I'd be out of my mind!

Chocolate. We all know all girls love chocolate. I prefer dark over milk and white is not even a chocolate so my #1 is dark chocolate in any way, shape or form.

Portable Scrabble, iTouch Scrabble, computer Scrabble, board Scrabble, iPad Scrabble - it's all good!

Last but not least - my favorite pair of jean. 

“The Dreamer” boot cut jeans from Old Navy.

Fits like a glove!

Enjoyed the little break from color … and breathe!

Perfect color scheme for that perfect little girl

photo by Vince Frasca

Can't think of a color scheme for a girls room? Just look outside your window  - Mother Nature has it all planned out. This vibrant pink and yellow would make a great color scheme for a young girls room. Try Berry Blush and Maple Cream from Valspar, for this designer color scheme for that perfect little girl - yours!

What color is your winter?

A cold Pittsburgh sky, frozen in time. This clear blue sky is a rare occasion in Pittsburgh, gray cloudy days are very common so when you see this blue baby - take a picture!

The beautiful Cardinal, one of my favorite birds. The female is more brownish then her side kid which red as red gets.

This one of the most beautiful birds created. How red it this? 

Can I get that in a lipstick please?

 . . . don' forget the beautiful contrast of dark green and bright red found in the evergreen hollies.

Add this to my list of favorites too!

Some wild birds have some wild colors

Back in the day I was a Ceramic Decorator for a small shop in Setauket, NY, I hand painted fine china from plates, to mugs to lamps and decorative tiles. I mostly painted the Audobon Birds, Wild Ducks Unlimited. Here a few of the more popular bird I painted and their amazing colors.

Since it's Thanksgiving, I have to honor Tom the Turkey and all his colors. From his iridescent body of red, purple, green copper and golds to . . 

the bright orange beak of the Puffin - I actually saw one of these crazy birds in Maine. 

The blues and greens of the typical Mallard 

and the not so typical burnt red color of the Canvas back.  

With classic black and white - classic colors of the Loon, can also be spotted in Maine.

One of my favorite wild birds - the Wood Duck. Doesn't it look fake?

The Color of Vodka. Which color tastes good to you?

Look at these beauties! How do you choose? By flavor of course but don't we all shop with our eyes first? I wouldn't choose the raspberry although red is one of my favorite colors, the only time I like raspberry flavor is from the actual berry or Tootsie Roll Lolly pops.

This one is out.

 

Peach. It was a great color in the 80's when combined with Seafoam Green but it stops there. Back in the day I over-served myself on a Peach Woo Woo drink and could never tolerate the flavor after that.

This one is out.

Mango. I LOVE mangos but as a fruit - not a drink.

This one is out.

Pear. Definitely not - love this color though.       

Purple - my favorite "now" color but, no, not in a drink.

Grapefruit? Like the grapefruit diet? Sure!

At it's purest form - like white - this is a staple.

Lemon! That's my baby!! She's my favorite although you'll NEVER see me wear yellow anything.

Tell me what your favorite color is.

Home Sweet Home - which sign are you?

Signs, signs everywhere are signs but which sign would you choose to represent your home?

. . . a little bit country?

. . . with a whole lot to say?

. . . a little fancy schmancy?

. . . less is more?

. . . innovative?

When a Blue Christmas is a good thing

Year after year my parents took the blue spruce Christmas tree out of the attic. It wasn't like the artificial trees they have today - it was sooooo fake looking, but it was ours. My Mom was the one who liked the all blue Christmas tree, everyone else just went along with it. 

Once the tree was up, she would put up blue lights (they were the old fashioned lights - not the vibrant LED's we have today), some green lights, old glass ornaments that were chipped and the color was worn off in spots, the occasional bubble lights and the two white doves on top of the tree.

   

I wasn't a Color Specialist then, I was one in training. I knew there was something off about this tree. Why was the main theme of this tree "blue". I felt "blah" when I saw blue and even today, it's a rarity to see me in blue . 

“Why isn't there more color on the tree?” 

“Why don't we have a rich, green tree?” 

“Why do we have a blue tree?” 

“Since we have a blue tree, why don't we add more colorful lights instead of adding more blue to it?” 

These seemed very legitimate questions to me and the only answer I got back was “I like blue.” Well, Mom could have put some color lights on the tree. At least it would have kept me quite and happy. It and probably shut me up too.

Nevertheless, it was a beautiful tree in it's own way. Merry Christmas Mom!

What's my color prediction for 2010?

I am not a professional color forecaster by any means but I have a fairly good knack at it. I took a wild guess that purple would be the up and coming color back in 2007 and it's still going strong. You should have seen how my colleagues looked at me when I was trying to present the purple line of fabric. I guess nobody wanted to listen to the girl from New York that got transplanted into Charlotte (she actually has some pretty good ideas)

Anyway, getting to my  point, I'm not sure what the color trend is now. I've tracked the runway colors of red, black and gray. Although these colors are great in the clothing line - they wouldn't make such a hit on our walls. I knew that wasn't going to work.

 

The blogs are buzzing about pink. A pink Christmas? Highly trendy and certainly won't last much past this season if it makes it at all. Pink does have it's place for clothing, nurseries and whatever novelty of the day is but as far as a true, lasting color trend . . .  I say no.

 

Which brings me to my  prediction - green and salmon - 

Color me Green Tea and Wild Salmon

The reason I chose these colors is this. With the health craze and the "green" craze that's going on now, it seemed a natural progression to a health related color trend. How cool would it be to say I have a 'Green Tea and Wild Salmon' color scheme in my living room. 

Look how pretty this would be:

Green will always be in. I've also seen a lot of people choosing the spicy colors this year. I think this is going to be a good choice for 2010. If anything else if it doesn't get on your walls, make sure it gets on your plate - it's a healthy choice! Designers - tell me what you think. You're the pros, am I in the right direction?