Colours to Inspire – Neutrals – What’s Your Favourite?

I recently blogged about my favourite jewel tones, so now is the time of neutrals…
Neutrals are natural and classy – things I hope I am!

Neutrals are classic, and classy, and suit everyone.
They range from monochromes to warm browns and moody greys.

Warm Browns © Lisa Shambrook

Brown is one of my favourite colours, and has always been one of my base colours complementing the greens I love so much.
Brown is warmth, nature, autumn, and softness…

Moody Greys © Lisa Shambrook

Grey is a colour I’ve only recently embraced,
but it swathes the moody sky and matches my stormy emotions.
Grey is elegant, emotional, temperamental and classy…

Mysterious Black © Lisa Shambrook

Black is classic, a colour that suits everyone who wears it.
Black is sultry and plays to my enigma.
Black is mystery, darkness, night, and imagination…

Pure White © Lisa Shambrook

White has never been my colour, I shy away from its exposure,
preferring the invisibility of darker tones.
White is peace, calm, purity, and wisdom…

What’s your favourite neutral colour and what does it mean to you?

Glorious Autumn Leaves

We have had the most glorious autumn this year…
Colours that have truly stunned and beautified the season.

Gold, Bronze and Red © Lisa Shambrook

It’s been a colourful year in many ways – not always good ones – but the autumn leaves have brightened my life and made the tough stuff easier. Right now at the end of November and as we move into winter I need to make the most of the amazing colours and leaves before the trees have completely disrobed in the gales and November rain…

Gold and Green © Lisa Shambrook

I’ve already posted a couple of autumn blogs this year: Autumn Days Are Here and The Best Bits of Autumn – but the leaves themselves warrant another post to bask within before the seasons change!

So, just enjoy my leaves in all their glory…

Sycamore Helicopter, Acorn Cup and Red Leaf © Lisa Shambrook

Bronze and Green © Lisa Shambrook

Red © Lisa Shambrook

Acorn, Oak, Green and Gold Leaves© Lisa Shambrook

Bronze, Crunchy Leaves © Lisa Shambrook

What have been your favourite colours and leaves this autumn?

Family Photo Wall

We redecorated recently (by supreme order from Oldest Daughter) and our lounge went from this (top pic) to this (bottom pic)…

The original green didn’t actually look as dull as the picture suggests, and it wasn’t the exact moss shade I had in mind…however we’d bought the paint and had no money left after we moved in, so we lived with it for the next seven years…

I’m really pleased with the new colours: ‘Soft Stone’ on the walls and an accent wall of ‘Intense Truffle’, but our main aim was to add the ‘Family Photo Wall’ as below:

I knew what I wanted and got further ideas (see above montage) from Pinterest and off we went, scouring the house and shops…mainly TKMaxx ( I love that store and can barely pass it by without going in and coming back out with something wonderful!) for frames…

We fixed up a huge sheet of paper (wallpaper lining) across the wall and pinpointed the nails that were already on the wall (it was a bit annoying for the layout to be constrained by nails in the walls from previous occupiers, but needs must), then laid it on the floor and placed our frames in the desired locations.

Then I hunted through our family photographs to chose pictures to get reprinted and decided which frames would suit them best. Once they arrived we laid them out again, photos in frames, to be sure the layout worked.

Next we hung the main four pictures on the nails that already existed and began the fun bit of hammering in a dozen or so more nails! Finally the blank wall:

was covered:

The whole room had a makeover: the mismatched, falling apart sofa’s got new throws and cushions all in my green and brown accent colours, and we discovered a plethora of lovely green ‘bits and pieces’…that would be their official name, of course!

I am now very happy with a redecorated and much decluttered room…with only the rear of the room left to finish. Beyond the bookshelf in the above picture there is desk and shelf space, currently still in disorder due to husband’s lack of time to go through his bits and pieces. And the finale of the room which will be a wall similar to the family photo wall but full of quotes…‘The Quote Wall’…pictures will follow at some point…