I'm Changing My Life with Color! #WhatsYourColorStory?
Wednesday, March 1, 2017Disclosure: This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #LiveColor #CollectiveBias
With spring nearing, I've really been considering a change in my home. When we bought our house seven years ago, I was so excited about the prospect of decorating it, but now it just feels blah. I was recently sent a copy of the book Change Your Home, Change Your Life™ with Color by Moll Anderson and it inspired me to look at my home in a new way.
It is a fantastic read with a ton of great decorating insight, but also a workbook to help you think deeper about your own use of color (or lack of.) I was really surprised by my answers and inspired to make a change (and start a new DIY-coming soon.) Keep reading to find out more about this amazing book and hear some of my own color story.
Moll Anderson is an accomplished author, television and radio host, inspirational interior designer, life stylist, and advocate for women and children globally. She has won an Emmy, was chosen as one of Donna Karan’s Women Who Inspire, and was a three-time recipient of the Gracie Awards.
She has written four home and lifestyle books that have been enthusiastically embraced by readers, and I can see why.
Moll is an inspirational interior designer - inspiring changes in your home and in your life. It's not just about creating a beautiful space, it's about crating a space that effects you in a positive way.
Our feelings about color are deeply rooted and emotionally based, and the powerful effect of color is most evident in our homes, where it impacts our moods, behaviors, and emotions. Understanding why you love and dislike certain colors is key to exploring your own personal color story, opening you up to embracing the colors that will renew, revamp, and revitalize your home and life.
I flipped through the book quickly and was delighted by what I saw, so I couldn't wait to dive in. While reading this book, you'll want to have a pad and pen nearby (Maybe it's just me, but I can't bear to write in books!) Then I dove in.
Beginning the book, I thought "I don't really have a color story."
As a Graphic Designer I embrace and love all colors, sometimes making it hard for me to choose a palette for a project, or bringing together a coherent room design. Professionally, I know the psychology of color and its uses. It is a generalized theory of how color can be used to affect the people who view it, but I had never thought so deeply about my own reactions to colors and how they affect me emotionally in my own home and life.
The book starts with Moll's own color story. Stories about how a love of color in childhood morphed into a dislike in later years. Her story hit close to home and made me start thinking more deeply about my own life journey and how colors may have related to it along the way, giving me an undying love of some colors, while being "meh" for others. There are some people who can't stand some colors and this will help you delve into the "why" and how you can bring that color back in in a different way.
On looking around the dining room, I saw this painting with new eyes and I started asking questions: I didn't really love it in my mother's home but chose to hang it in my own home. Why? It reminded me of her, yes, but seeing it when I unpacked, I thought it was beautiful. I had never thought that before. Why? After that amazing honeymoon, I was seeing the colors through tropical-tinted eyes. The greens and blues together still thrill me and I knew immediately what color I would be using to inject new life into this room.
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#WhatsYourColorStory? Could you use a change in your home? Your life? Your mood? I love to read your comments!
“I became interested in color when I discovered that it was not only a reflection of my mood, but my state of being. I looked around and saw I was living in black and white, and I realized I was hiding. In this book I share the transformational elements of my own journey with color to help you transform your personal color story.”- Moll Anderson
I flipped through the book quickly and was delighted by what I saw, so I couldn't wait to dive in. While reading this book, you'll want to have a pad and pen nearby (Maybe it's just me, but I can't bear to write in books!) Then I dove in.
Beginning the book, I thought "I don't really have a color story."
As a Graphic Designer I embrace and love all colors, sometimes making it hard for me to choose a palette for a project, or bringing together a coherent room design. Professionally, I know the psychology of color and its uses. It is a generalized theory of how color can be used to affect the people who view it, but I had never thought so deeply about my own reactions to colors and how they affect me emotionally in my own home and life.
The book starts with Moll's own color story. Stories about how a love of color in childhood morphed into a dislike in later years. Her story hit close to home and made me start thinking more deeply about my own life journey and how colors may have related to it along the way, giving me an undying love of some colors, while being "meh" for others. There are some people who can't stand some colors and this will help you delve into the "why" and how you can bring that color back in in a different way.
Each section has a series of questions at the end designed to make you think and delve into your memories and feelings. It was a real eye-opener for me as to why I had chosen my current colors and what I would really like to be surrounded with and why.
Change can be scary, especially when stepping out of our carefully constructed boxes. We long for comfort, but sometimes need to inject joy into our surroundings too.
The book, like any other book on decorating, is filled with gorgeous rooms, perfectly staged. We look at those rooms and think "I could never do that." They're inspirational, yes, but are they useful? In this book, yes.
Change Your Home, Change Your Life™ with Color is also filled with the psychology of color, how it can make you feel, along with practical tips on balance, proportion, decorating on a dime, DIY projects, and how you can fill your life with that color. Moll believes in “Pops of color” as ways to change the mood of your space, your wardrobe, and your life.
Each color section goes into detail about the best flowers to choose in those colors, ways to bring it into different rooms, choosing accessories, and has a gorgeous inspirational palette designed to help you balance and choose coordinating colors. The colors we choose matter and when we understand, we can positively impact not just our surroundings but our mood, behavior, and emotions.
Also, cocktails.
Each color section has it's own inspirational cocktail, and I've never seen a collection of more beautiful drinks! Get inspired, make yourself a cocktail, then get to work. Sounds like a plan to me!
I'm going to tackle my dining room.
It's one of my favorite rooms in the house. It's one of the few that gets a ton of light throughout the day, but it's very bland. The whole thing is decorated in greens and yellows in part because a lot of my furnishings and wall hangings are inherited, so make me feel very comforted, but that's no reason I can't inject some vibrant color into the room too.
Greens are balancing, but this room needs some serious reviving. I just wasn't sure how to do it. After going through the book, I found that one of my favorite colors fell in the turquoise range.
It wasn't always a favorite, but became one after honeymooning in St. Thomas and waking up to the gorgeous view of small green islands in the turquoise Caribbean sea every morning. That view was enough to make me start looking in the papers for jobs there. No matter how impossible that move was, I didn't want to leave.
On looking around the dining room, I saw this painting with new eyes and I started asking questions: I didn't really love it in my mother's home but chose to hang it in my own home. Why? It reminded me of her, yes, but seeing it when I unpacked, I thought it was beautiful. I had never thought that before. Why? After that amazing honeymoon, I was seeing the colors through tropical-tinted eyes. The greens and blues together still thrill me and I knew immediately what color I would be using to inject new life into this room.
I'm going to leave the particular project a surprise, but I will say that it will be a home decor DIY project that anyone can take on to revive a piece of furniture, and I'll show you step-by-step how to do it! [Update: The post is live! Add a Pop of Color + How to Reupholster Dining Room Chairs!]
Change Your Home, Change Your Life™ with Color by Moll Anderson will be available in Target stores when it officially publishes on March 14, 2017. It can also be purchased at MollAnderson.com, Amazon, B&N and Books-A-Million, or anywhere books are sold online.
Grab a copy and take this color journey with me!
You can also find Moll Anderson on social media: YouTube | Twitter | Pinterest | Instagram. I follow her everywhere!
#WhatsYourColorStory? Could you use a change in your home? Your life? Your mood? I love to read your comments!
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