Today I’m in Hawaii visiting my sister and I took a terrific walk down her street to Kaneohe Bay. As I walked along I saw so much color in all the bushes, flowers and trees. It’s one of the main reason I’m drawn to these islands, the combinations of the blue water and all the green and of course, the colorful plant varietals. Its possible to create a palette from nature any time, for any season, if you just take some time think about the possibilities.
PLUMERIA
The plumeria range in color from white flowers with a bit of yellow in the center, or a bright vivid yellow with orange centers and even pink with yellow. With their green leaves, it makes for a great palette. I like to add cool colors to the warm in order to balance them out.
Buttery colors with creamy whites. This is very soothing, rich and elegant. Or bright oranges with soft yellows and white. Then throw in a surprise of vivid turquoise blue. If you wanted to tone it down a bit, you can lighten up the shades of paint and textiles by 30 to 50%. And if you go lighter than that and you can have a very beautiful pastel palette, and then accent it with vivid and bright colors for your textiles.
PALM TREES
If you look close at palms, you’ll notice they’re not just brown trunks with green leaves. They actually have quite a bit of yellow in them and various shades of green, from chartreuse to a deep rich forest green. The older leaves have some beige and golden tones. The trunks are yellow, gold and brownish shades. This is a great palette for a masculine room or very rich traditional color scheme. You could add burgundy, red, gold and purple jewel tones to bring out that rich theme. Change it up and add any color in a brighter shade such as fuschia and orange to give it a trendier look. Stay with the chartreuse, and bright tones and you’ve definitely got contemporary.
HIBISCUS
Hibiscus come with reds, yellows, oranges and whites. I would combine these with cooler tones such as a softer blue/green tone, like the shallowest shade of turquoise in crystal waters off the coast of Kaneohe. Wow! Your home walls could be painted that color and then have art and florals around in the floral tones, very comforting without falling asleep tones.
GREEN & BROWN MOUNTAINS
Green is by far the most relaxing of all colors, and the mother of all earth tones despite the what most have been led to believe about those 70’s oranges, browns and rust.
Browns and Blues are very trendy right now with rich chocolate colors and teals. Brown with Beige and Creams are really the ultimate when it comes to a extremely rich elegant look. You can go with a warm palette of brownish tones or the cooler side like taupe. A taupe suede sofa in a blue and green room is like sipping a café aulait in a tropical bungalow.
You don’t need to come to Hawaii to get inspired for a beautiful room… but it can’t hurt.
