purple palette – lavender

Friday, January 14th, 2011

Maybe the color lavender makes you think of fields of lavender swaying in the afternoon breeze in France. Perhaps it evokes a favorite baby outfit you dressed your daughter in every chance you got. Color memories and associations are different for everyone. No matter your associations with this shade, lavender is a flattering color that works well in most rooms.  The glow from lavender walls would look lovely against white tile in a bathroom (a client just selected this for their bathroom yesterday in fact!)  A master bedroom in this shade would feel restful.

Here are some examples of how others have integrated lavender into their spaces.

This dining room balances simple lines in the furniture and lighting against a colorful wall. I find it interesting that they chose to wallpaper the opposite wall in a gray-green overscale floral wallpaper (seen in the reflection in the mirror).  Without seeing the whole room in context I’m not sure how I feel about that pairing. But otherwise the room is nice.

The living room on the right showcases how you can furnish a room with major pieces in neutral colors but interesting shapes and then update it periodically with an accent color like lavender.  Here the lavender is utilized for the ottoman, small side chairs and window treatments.  The side chairs by the fireplace are a great element to include in every home as they provide flexible seating that can easily be pulled up when you have a larger crowd over or brought to the dining room when you need additional seating there.

Painting the table in this dressing room to match the Quartz wallpaper from Osbourne & Little creates a special corner to play dress up.  Lavender in a nursery with taupe and white accents is mellow and sweet without being predictable.  I like the arrangement of art over the glider chair in a mix of sizes and frames.  The chaise lounge with pale lavender walls, sitting on a purple carpet and piled with assorted purple pillows is a great example of how to layer different shades and tones of purple without it feeling like a PURPLE room.

Now the color rendering of these paint colors isn’t exact since they been photographed then shown on a computer monitor, but this gives you an example of all the shades of lavenders out there.  On the 5 color cards you would want to stay in the top 2-3 colors if you are looking for a lavender.  As you can see, each color is violet, grey, purple, grey-purple or grey-violet in tone.  All are lovely, it’s just a matter of preference and what you are going to coordinate with it.  

Photo sources: 1, 3 and 5 from Living Etc magazine. 2 from Real Simple by Elizabeth Bauer 10-2010, 4 unknown – possibly DesignSponge.

Tags: dining room, dressing room, interior design, lavender, nursery, Osbourne & Little, pillows, wallpaper
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