Look outside. Autumn in New England is glorious! With the crisp cooler air, comes our annual display of stunning fall colors. Carloads of leaf peepers who drive hours to glimpse the explosion of color just can’t be wrong. No need for the beauty of the season to be fleeting though! A nature inspired palette is Mother Nature’s very own contribution to the interior design world. It’s impossible not to be drawn to the warm, cozy feeling these colors impart to a home. Despite their seasonal appearance in the great outdoors, you can live with them happily indoors all year round!
What makes the autumn color scheme work is that it’s based on a group of analogous colors. Take a peek at the color wheel. The colors of Autumn -yellow, orange, red – all lay next to each other along the wheel. Simply put, they work together and relate to each other – naturally! Choose hues from anywhere in this range on the wheel and you won’t go wrong. Whether you try the colors just for accessories on top of neutrals or you commit to Autumnal walls and furnishings, you will feel comfortable, happy and cocooned by the resulting environment.
What’s also nice about fall colors is that they beautifully complement anything made of wood - hardwood floors, cherry cabinets, natural wood furniture pieces, etc… Why? Well, brown is actually composed of green and red (two extremely opposite and complementary fall colors) mixed together. So wood tones fit in seamlessly as a component of your scheme – rather than serving as a foil to the colors. The whole design feel cohesive, organic, and comfortable.
There are also many ways you can mix and match these colors to achieve different feelings. For a bold vibrant room, you can pick one color like yellow-green and use it as the main color with small pops of yellow and orange. Or, you can rely on different shades of one color for a more subdued, calmer space like a bedroom. For example, yellow, with varying shades all the way from cream through deep gold. Orange and red perk up any space and make it feel cheerful and upbeat. If you instead select fall colors that are muted and muddied (by small amounts of black added to them), your space will feel earthy and organic. Get a taste of Autumn schemes in the images below. And, in the spirit of the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday, give your thanks to Mother Nature!
Wiley Design
HGTV
Ashley Goforth
Amy Meier Design
