The gray and orange combination would make a very sophisticated color palette for either an interior and exterior of a home.

Quite a different look than the orange in yesterday’s Etsy Inspired color palette.  These tones of orange are much more sedate and complex.

With gray moving to the forefront in 2009 we will see it being used with many complex neutrals and looking at nature for inspiration is a perfect way to find neutral schemes that are breathtaking rather than boring.

To pick just one color would require me to dismiss all of the many gorgeous red hues in a bowl of fresh cranberries, which is how I prefer them until just hours before the meal when I grind fresh berries with fresh oranges and a splash of lemon for a raw cranberry relish that is so good it makes my taste buds tingle just thinking about it.

My love of cranberries extends into the picturesquegrowing and harvesting. While living in Massachusetts my son and I would make a trip each fall to see the flooding of the cranberry bogs.  Below is what the bogs look like before they are flooded.  What you see is the top of the bushes and the bog is about three feet deep.

The process is kind of like planting bushes in the bottom of your empty swimming pool.  Letting them grow all summer and then in the fall filling the pool with water and then getting in and shaking the bushes until all of the berries fall off and float to the top.

In the bogs rather than shaking the bushes they actually use this machine that makes sure the bushes let loose of the cranberries and that they all float on top for harvest.

You’ve never really tasted a cranberry until you’ve scooped a few out of the water of the bog and popped them into your mouth. The difference between fresh-off-the-bush and fresh in the grocery store is that these are tangy but not sour or bitter in the least.

This is an ariel photo of one of the bogs as they float the cranberries to one spot to be vacuumed up into a truck. I love the hearts they made for the photo. It seems Decas Cranberry Products understands my love affair with this berry.

Here are the fresh berries waiting to be processed.  Even in the crates they look just gorgeous.

The top picture is from a delightful blog post about stealing into a bog with some friends to harvest cranberries on Gillian Coldsnow’s blog

The remaining pictures are all from the Decas Cranberry Products site.  They obviously have their own love affair with the glorious cranberry because of all the pictures I have looked at theirs seemed to share my romanticized view of the harvest.

I took a section of his blog and created the color palette shown below.  I think the colors work great for his blog header but couldn’t you just image this color scheme in an interior of an apartment or knitted into a favorite sweater?

These aren’t the exact colors perhaps but when I paint a landscape I work to capture the feeling of the scene in colors that please me rather than worrying about whether or not they are the exact hues.

My thought process is much the same when I develop a color scheme from something that inspires me and I hope it is your approach as well. No need to worry about getting the colors exactly but rather focus on putting together colors that please you.

And just in case you were wondering here is what the full banner looks like.

Better yet why don’t you check out Paul’s blog Half2Know for yourself.

There are lots of great post on “color, business, culture & fun.”

PS- I started to write about a photo I had pulled as an example of colors that could work well in a kids room this morning and to my surprise discovered it is a variation of this same palette. See the post on Color for Your Home.

I am often inspired to prepare a meal by the color of the ingredients and because I eat fresh, natural and mostly organic foods most of my meals are built around fresh fruits and vegetables.

Recently I have gotten hooked on raw swiss chard. All I do is chop up fresh swiss chard, toss with some Sel Gris (French Grey Salt) and high quality olive oil and enjoy a flavorful salad full of color and nutrients.

In looking at how gorgeous my bowl of chopped greens looked I was reminded how people sometimes instantly rule out color combinations because in their mind’s eye colors like olive green and red just wouldn’t look right together.

Too bad. I don’t think it takes a color expert to know that a combination like this can be just “yummy!”.

Open your mind to new color schemes and remember your color inspiration can come from anywhere…even what you’re making for lunch.

I really like how the greenish gray and rust (which I tweaked to more of a taupe) and the blue and pink of the sunrise work together.  In the earlier morning light the colors are very neutral and naturally harmonious.