Designing Kids Rooms Using the Color Wheel: Complimentary Scheme

Decorating a child's room is a creative and often challenging task, and using the color wheel as inspiration is a great place to start. Color is such an integral part of interior design, and

using color in kids rooms, especially complimentary colors will give you maximum contrast, 

which can result in some very fun, eye-catching combinations.

Complementary colors are any two colors which are directly opposite each other, such as

 red + green,

red + purple,

yellow + green. 

The high contrast between the colors creates a vibrant look,

 especially when used at full saturation. 

I know, I know, when you first think of red and green, you immediatly think

of Christmas colors, but trust me, as you shift the base color (hue) to make

it either darker (called a shade or tone) or lighter (called a tint), you get some 

beautiful and interesting color combinations.

Take a look:

In this nursery, designer Jennifer Bertrand  used red and green in a very clever way.

By making the red darker, and the green a little lighter, 

the overall effect is sophisticated and whimsical.

A very popular color choice for girls rooms is pink and light green, 

a color scheme that results when white is added to both red and green.

(Design by Robyn Karp)

I am seeing a lot of this color combination recently, and for good reason.

These two colors are so fun paired together and look great in all different intensities.

In this picture, Michelle used a navy blue and white stripe fabric with orange piping

on a headboard in her sons rooms. The result is mascualine, preppy and totally kid-friendly!

Gather and Nest used a deep orange with softer blues to  make

this nursery a sophisticated and colorful sanctuary.

At full saturation, you can see what a vibrant contrast is achieved by using

violet and yellow together! With a little orange thrown in, this color

scheme is bold and fun.

By adding white to both yellow and violet, the resulting color scheme 

in this girls room is soft, soothing and feminine.

(Image found at BHG)

So don't be afraid to play with complimentary colors in your child's room! The result can be a colorful, vibrant and unique place for your child to call their own.

Autumn Clemons is an Interior Designer

living in the Salt Lake City area, and author of the blog design*dump.

3451 9-1/4IN. COLOR WHEEL DIAMETER:9-1/4"

POCKET COLOR GUIDE

Vintage Chic Girls Room

Posted by: Autumn Clemons

Hi there Design Dazzle readers!

I am really excited to share with you this completely chic and amazingly

 budget-friendly room designed for a lucky set of twin sisters.

The designer of the room is Christina Brian, whose beautiful blog

Full House is chock full of inspirational images. 

Believe it or not, this room was completed for just under $250!

Most of the items in the room were purchased from thrift stores, 

Craigslist, and large discount stores, and then recovered, repainted and reworked.

You can see more pictures, as well as a list of sources here. 

Thanks for sharing this beautiful room with us,  Christina!

Autumn Clemons, interior designer and author of the blog design*dump, is a featured contributor.

Pretty In Soft Pink!

Karla created this charming bedroom for her little girl. Check out Karla's blog - It's The Little Things That Make A House A Home - to view more photos of this sweet pink and green girls bedroom.

1. What gave you the idea for the room? Anything special that inspired you?

After having two boys, I knew that I wanted her room to be as pink and as girly as it could be! I love eyelet fabric and scallops on little girl dresses, pants, socks, bed linens - you name it - I love it, so I wanted to recreate that look in her room. Painting the scallops on her walls was a ton of work, but completely worth it! The dot at the point of the scallop was intentional to give it that eyelet feel. The matching polka dot border that I painted near her ceiling came after I had finished decorating the room. I had been feeling like the room was lacking something, and adding that pop of green at the ceiling brings your eye up and shows the contrast between the wall colors.
2. What are the paint colors? Any do-it-yourself projects?

The paint colors are: Primrose Bouquet #PPL-43 and Palm Breeze #420E-2, both by Behr. Painting the scallops was a big DIY job, but the biggest DIY project in her room is her bed. My husband built it for her, which I think is such a sweet little touch. I love it that the place that she lays her head every night was created by her daddy! I also took an old, small pedestal table that I found at a thrift shop, gave it a makeover with paint and words and it became a tea table for her and her dolls.


Clever idea with the big brothers holding signs in the photo! This is how Karla announced they were pregnant to their friends and family.









3. Please share any bedding, art furniture finds? What's your favorite purchase. Is there something you had to have?

Her bedding, curtains and curtain rod are all from Target from the Simply Shabby Chic collection. The bookcase is from Ikea. The dresser is from a local all-wood furniture store.

It's hard to narrow down what my favorite purchase was. It was so much fun to start buying cute, little, pink accessories after I had convinced myself that we were destined to have all boys!

The item that I knew I had to have for her room was the Ikea bookcase. It has scallops on the top which just reinforce the theme and I love that it feels like a girly piece of furniture. The fact that it is functional as well, is just icing on the cake!

Thanks Karla for sharing such a well-loved, adorable room!

DIY: Princess Castle Headboard

Some people are just too clever and Tim Schepp of Wisconsin is one of them. Tim designed and made this sweet princess castle headboard with products from a home center and hobby store.



A little princess would feel like royalty with this castle bed. A perfect focal point for a royal chamber.



Tim's instructions to make a castle headboard:



Arched Door:

"I used some pine tongue and groove boards for the door.



Main Body:

A large piece of insulation foam board for the arch, (cut with a jigsaw).

A prefab shelf glued onto the foam board.



Towers:

The towers are made of cardboard concrete forms, (drywall compound was used to smooth the seams). Once I cut out the windows, I carved little pieces of drywall for the stones and glued them around them to make it look like stones. I made a box for the tower base our of 2x2's and drywall, topped with a decorative column mount.

The tops are doll cones.



Paint:

I used a white primer paint on everything first, because the stone fleck paint doesn't cover very well. Then I used American Accent's Bleached Stone fleck paint. (Krylon's "make it stone" in White Onyx works too). The tops were painted violet, over the stone coat, for texture. Next, was a clear coating for durability. Then the entire castle, (not the door) got a coat of spray glitter.

Disney's Fairytale Pink by Behr paints, was used for the door, (headboard).





Lighting:

I used a stripped extension cord to go from the wall to the inside of one tower base. Then I installed a dimmer in an electrical box, and ran romex to outlets mounted in the towers, just below the windows. Then I plugged in nightlights.

On the top of the towers, I used heavy straws for the flag pole. I found small lights that were for a train set street light kit, and mounted them on the top and ran the wires though the straw, to the power supply, and plugged into the outlet."



Doll cones, are acrylic cones that can be ordered on many craft sites. I found mine at www.sunshinecrafts.com. They are thin and flexible, so I used some Great Stuff spray foam, to keep them rigid. My fear was that if the cones flexed, the fleck paint would crack and fall off."



Another option for the cones - little traffic cones found at toy stores. Thanks Tim for sharing such a wonderful DIY project!

Whimsical & Charming Girl's Room

I love the 3-D effect of the flowers and birdhouse on this beautiful tree mural in this little girls Shabby Chic room designed by Aja Richards-Donohue.

The word, "Dream", artistically hung is a simple and attractive headboard. Using butterflies, floral bedding and coordinating throw pillows add soft touches to the room.

The hanging pom-poms add color, whimsy and charm.

Thanks to Aja Richards-Donohue for inviting us to see her enchanting little girl's room.