Color Diary: A Tribute to Turquoise Rooms (PHOTOS)
Concentrating a few items of the same hue in one spot is a great way to link an accent color throughout your home -- or showcase your favorite color.
I'm obsessed with turquoise. But I haven't always been.
If you'd asked me what I thought about the blue-green hue when I was in college, I would have told you it was a color best reserved for old ladies' jewelry collections and Southwestern motifs that, as far as I was concerned, could stay in the Southwest.
But a few years ago, a little turquoise vase caught my eye at a garage sale. It was only a dollar, so I took it home and put it on my bookshelf. On a trip to IKEA a few months later, I found a flower pot that was a lot bigger and just a little darker. Since it was only two dollars, I couldn't resist. And because everything looks better in threes, I picked up a smaller, lighter flower pot not long after that.
Before I knew it, I had become my grandmother. I had little turquoise accents all over my apartment (including my wardrobe). And then big ones. After I painted my kitchen cabinets turquoise, I decided I wanted it to really pop in the rest of my rooms. So on a small bookcase in a little corner of my living room, I arranged all of my turquoise and turquoise-ish books along with some of my favorite turquoise trinkets. I had created a concentration of turquoise -- just in time for Pantone to name it Color of the Year. (Yes, I felt very cool.)
"Turquoise is one of those colors that's incredibly intense; it pops," says Brad Wheeler, an interior designer at Urban Dwellings Design in Kansas City, MO. "It already lends itself to being a great accent, and sprucing up a space."
If you're using lots of turquoise pieces in one area, Wheeler suggests breaking up the monotony by placing them on an interesting architectural feature, like a bookcase that's (you guessed it) not turquoise.
Click through the gallery below to see my favorite turquoise rooms. For more great stories, don't miss:
Color Diary: Turquoise & Poppy
Pantone Unveils Color of the Year: Turquoise is Sooo 2010!
Turquoise in the Bedroom
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