New York Interior Design: Sometimes You Just Need Color

Today is wacky Wednesday at my kids school. We have a neon afro, mis-matched clothes, and marker mustaches. Crazy!

I kind of did something crazy for me too. I got a little bolder with color! I know, call the crazy patrol!

For many, adding color is second nature. For me, I'd prefer calm tranquil neutrals.

In our tri-level we have short stair cases and in the hallway going upstairs I did a small gallery wall of sorts. I loved it for a long time but over the past year the white frames seemed to yellow a bit and they just didn't look right.

It would have been easy for me to just spray paint them white but friends, I went out on a limb!

My main level has a mix of neutrals {shocking, I know!} aqua's and I'm trying to add in navy. What a perfect color palette for my frames. So a trip to Lowes was in order.

Here's the before:

And the after:

{don't mind the laundry by the fireplace, just keeping it real} ;)

I kept the same arrangement but added in the aqua and navy with just a pop of teal. The navy and teal frames are glossy so I felt that some rusticity was needed to offset this. In came my rusty finial which helps to balance things.

*Here's another tip: Mix up your frame arrangements by changing their contents. Add a mix of pictures, child's artwork and pattern. {I found scrapbook paper in my colors for the teal frame.} {For the finger painting I gave my son colors that matched my scheme and let him do his thing}. This mix is unpredictable and keeps things interesting.

Here are may cast of characters that I found at Lowes.

I bought the clear gloss to go over the flat light aqua paint but decided against it because the mix of glossy and flat frames just looked better. I ended up using the gloss to cover my subway art tutorial that I shared with you a few weeks ago and it really gives it a finished look.