As my son turns eighteen today I’ve been enjoying the memories of his many past birthday celebrations and in my mind’s eye I can recall the warm colors of fall always in the background.

In honor of TJ I’ve created some autumn-inspired color schemes that remind me of him.
While fall colors are often very brilliant the more muted hues are the ones TJ likes best.  The earthy browns, and oranges are colors he often chooses to wear and for his bedroom he picked a luscious latte brown.  This photo of fallen leaves captures his colors.

The photo with the acorn is a combination of hues that I would also call TJ Colors.  This scheme is similar to the one above but includes a blue tone that remind me of his favorite sailing shirt, our well-worn leather sofa (his favorite place to relax) and a pair of comfy blue jeans.  The blue tone complements the warm orange and brown hues.

On the Valspar site there is a section of nature inspired paint color schemes so I looked there to see what color schemes they had come up with.  The one above is from Shimmering Pond Colors and the one below from Autumn Leaves Colors.

The color palette directly below the photograph was generated using the online tool Pic2Color.  The color combination below that shows Valspar’s recommendation for a paint color scheme a la the golden shimmering pond.  These two color schemes are similar but not exactly the same.

So let’s look at how this works and how you might use a picture you love to inspire an interior color scheme If you want to use a photograph of nature as your inspiration.  You can use Pic2Color or a similar tool to help you to pull out the color palette but keep in mind that it will include a range of colors and values.

This is a good place to begin but don’t simply use the hues the tool gives you and try to match them to paint chips.  What you are going to want to do is look to these for inspiration and then chose values of the color that will work as interior paint.

As you can see from the photograph of the golden leaves reflected on the water that the folks at Valspar used the picture as a reference but the colors they recommend are more likely to work in a home environment.  This is the same approach you will want to take if you use a photo of your own.

Also there may be colors you want to eliminate completely.  Look at another photo from Valspar, the palette generated by Pic2Color and the color scheme that they recommend.  In this case they have eliminated the blue altogether and gone with more muted shades of each hue.

Can you begin to see how this translates from photograph to color scheme and finally to colors for your room?

Have you ever used a nature photograph as a starting point for a color project?  Did you adjust the colors or just feel limited to ones that matched those in the photo?  Did I explain this in a way that gave you a new idea or way of approaching this?

Reference:

Valspar Paint Colors shown:
Vivid Orange 2011-3
Golden Butter 3002-1C
Red Ochre 2001-4
Creme Brulee 2008-6C

Pineapple Mousse 3008-3C
Crafted White 3007-6C
Summer Moon  3008-2C
Burnt Carmel 2010-6

Valspar paint is available at Lowe’s and through independent dealers.  To find a store near you visit visit the Valspar site and enter your zip code…

First two photos found on Flickr from baldwinm16’s   

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