A Winter Color Palette – Sunday Morning Coffee
It’s time to get our house decorated for the new year. My first goal is to pick a winter color palette. Next, I have to decide how to decorate our home!
Once Christmas has been taken down and put away, the house can seem very bare. A wonderful antidote to the bareness is to decorate for winter.
Season 2 Volume 1
Thanks for joining me for Sunday Morning Coffee. This is a place to share, learn, dream, and have fun as I share my new winter color palette.
Yesterday on the blog I mentioned that my New Year’s resolution is to make my home, and my life more comfortable and organized.
And guess what?
Yesterday we spent all day cleaning out the basement! It was a huge project and now that it’s over, I am so happy! I also started organizing my Craft Storage room on the 3rd floor which is another big project. But it is going well too.
Now, when it comes to comfort in your home, I think adding a new winter color palette is a great place to start.
A new winter color palette sets the tone for your entire home. Would you join me and come up with a new palette for your home too?
Choosing a Color Palette
So how do you pick a color palette that works best for you?
First, you need to think about what kind of look and feel you want in your home. Do you want a cozy feel? Do you want a more modern feel? Or do you want to brighten up your home to combat the less than welcoming weather outside?
I want to create a relaxed feeling in my home with a clean color palette that doesn’t have too many different things going on. I also don’t want to have to go out and buy a lot of new things and I am sure you don’t want to either. So the first step is to look at what you already own and come up with a few colors to feature in our home and achieve the look and feel you want.
I have written before about the benefit of a neutral color palette for your home. By having neutral furniture and decor, it is really easy to change the color palette. Why?
Because you can completely change the feel of a room with pillows, decor items, and art. The big expensive items don’t need to change. Why? Because they are neutral (aka off-white) and match everything!
By changing the color palette for winter we are not making a substantial investment, just creating a subtle shift.
So let’s do this! Better yet, let’s do this together! Let’s set the intention to introduce a winter color palette into our homes in January. We’ll create a plan, share our progress, and achieve our resolution together!
So, are you ready?
Let’s start with the plan. Pick two colors that speak to you. Pick colors that achieve the feel you want in your home. Don’t do what someone else is doing unless it works for you. I chose two colors that feel calm and soothing to me.
The colors I selected are sage green and icy blue. I think these colors will create a soothing and calm feel which will be very welcome after the wonderful chaos of Christmas colors, lights, and celebration.
Something New – Before and After
Usually, when I take down our Christmas decor, the transformation is shocking. The bright and cheery colors are replaced with stark white contrast and it kind of freaks me out.
I just need to remember that our house is in transition. I took down all of the Christmas decorations and haven’t yet redecorated this room. So if you are thinking our family room looks really plain, it is!
I haven’t yet added my new colors in here.
You might remember my intention from last year was to introduce a new color into our home. It was pink! As a girl living amongst men, (even our dog Sport is male), the idea of adding pink to our home, made me almost giddy.
In case you are wondering if I added any pink to my home last year, you can check out a lot of blog posts about our pink decor here.
Some of you even commented that I overdid it. That may be true, but I loved it.
As I mentioned I am setting the intention to bring icy blue and sage green into our home. There is already a lot of sage green in our home but icy blue? That’s a new color for me!
Doesn’t that sound gorgeous?
Once you have chosen your colors, the next part of the plan begins with searching the house for items in this fresh new color palette. I began in the cupboards and drawers to look through the stacks of quilts stored here and there throughout the house.
Looking through our bookshelves for treasures and books I found a few items in icy blue and sage green. It is a funny thing to look through your home with a specific intention. I found things that I don’t know I would have seen if I wasn’t looking with these colors in mind.
As I was taking down the Christmas decor, I found some wonderful icy blue and sage green vintage Christmas ornaments that I can’t wait to use. Why not use them as we transition from holiday decor? I found a lot of sage green items. Unfortunately, icy blue was more of a challenge.
I also took a quick shopping trip to Vintage Junktion LA. My friend Judy Davis has 50,000 square feet of vintage treasures that she has collected by buying out estate sales and shopping everywhere. Her inventory is amazing and I love visiting her. She is also located only about fifteen minutes from our home so that is wonderful!
Pictured above are some of my finds.
Picking Fabrics for your Winter Color Palette
You know how I love to make new pillow covers. I will be making pillows soon and will share my tutorial to make new pillow covers. Changing pillow covers is seriously the easiest way to update a room. I reuse the pillow inserts and just swap out the covers.
I shopped online for some pillow fabric and found three that I like. The first two have a darker blue, but I think it will create a contrast and enhance the icy blue.
Which one do you like? One, two, or three?
Next, I took a quick trip to my local JoAnn to check out fabric. I bought samples of these fabrics as I thought they might work in the living room. Hmmm … I can’t decide if I want to use them or not.
If you don’t sew, no worries. I ordered a few inexpensive pillow colors too!
I also bought some chunky yarn. It’s chenille and I want to crochet a blanket.
I know what you are thinking. why crochet a blanket when I can just buy one? Well, that’s a very good question. I think I just want a fun project.
If it turns out, I promise I will share it and the DIY. I have to be honest, I have only crocheted a few times and this will take some learning on my part.
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That’s an easy one.
It’s our kitchen. Why?
It’s one of the few rooms in our home that is completely void of holiday decor. (I mentioned earlier that we had a holiday photoshoot here last Tuesday, so I did get a bit of a late start!) And it is back-to-normal after all of the crazy cooking during the holidays.
It’s very plain and um, not exciting, but it feels very calming.
I love sharing great ideas from my fellow bloggers. Here are my favorites from this week.
One of my favorite things to do is look back at the year and see what you all enjoyed the most. So last week I shared my top ten table setting ideas, my most popular blog posts, your top ten favorite decor items, and my top ten DIY and craft blog posts.
I also shared a beautiful table for New Year’s Eve and the most incredible and fun recipe for Mimosas.
The craziest thing is that I discovered I wrote 356 blog posts this year. Wow. It was a busy year and now I know why!
My soon-to-be friend* Martha Stewart shared a great blog post, How to Set and Accomplish New Year’s Resolutions with Your Family. She talks about how to get everyone involved to make each goal a reality.
You can read it here.
*I am still working on this.
Some of the things that I am starting my New Year off with …
Here are some other winter color palette ideas
It’s the new year and I know we all want to be healthier. But I also know we don’t want to make a commitment to exercise in the New Year, only to find by February it is a long-forgotten goal.
So how can you make exercise a part of your daily routine and stick to it?
Schedule it.
Set aside a regular time on your calendar for healthy exercise.
Which reminds me. Don’t call me from 8:00am – 9:00am, Monday – Friday. Because I will be in our workout room. And I will be busy!
I cannot wait to share my plans for the New Year with you. Hopefully, you saw that I started a monthly giveaway on Instagram and this month I am giving away two KitchenAid mixers! All you have to do is like my Instagram posts for the month and you could be one of the two winners.
I am also sharing a home tour of my living room and family room with my new color palette! I have three DIY’s … how to make pillows, flowering branches, and how to make your own English Advertising pots!
And yes, I am also going to tackle organizing the most terrifying closet in our home!
Live on Amazon
I have two Amazon Live broadcasts scheduled for this week. They are The Best New Winter Decor Ideas and Think You Hate Faux Flowers? I Can Change Your Mind! You don’t want to miss these.
Here is one Amazon Live from last week that I think you might enjoy! These items have made my Christmas “take down” so much easier! Click here.
Pin the image below to your decor boards on Pinterest (just click the Pin button in the top left corner). You can also follow along with me on Pinterest!
For more real-time updates, follow me on Instagram @My100YearOldHome
Happy New Year Leslie, You’ve been such an inspiration this last year! Happy Sunday! 💐✨💕
Love the new colour palette Leslie! I live in an old Craftsman home and have used a sage green palette throughout the main living areas. Love the icy blue – I’ll definitely give this a try as a subtle accent colour to brighten the rooms this winter.
Looking forward to seeing the green/blue color palette. We just remodeled and downsized and that is the color palette we took from a favorite painting. I love the rich dark greens for winter.
I have always wanted to make a chunky blanket. I knit but don’t haven’t tried this technique. Can’t wait to see what you achieve! Let’s go. ❤️
Love the ornaments and color palette! Pinned a few of the ornaments. Where do you find your favorite ornaments? I need some new stuff! We finally got some snow in Colorado so it was a purging weekend for sure! PS I can’t find your post about steps to contact our state’s movie location gig? Can you send me the link. I can’t remember what to search! Ha! laura in Colorado!
Happy New Year Leslie! We must be on the same wave length as I am doing blue and cream winter decor for my house this winter. Started yesterday to get out what I have and can’t wait to put it together today. Looking forward to seeing what amazing things you come up with this year!!
I’m so excited for the crochet throw. I started knitting one and the needles are so big it’s hard to handle and I totally understand the “fun project” thing. Looking forward to the New Year with Your 100 year old house !
Leslie, I love your color palette choice(s)! Can’t wait to see all of your exciting ideas! Happy New Year.
Your post today has given me an idea of how to change my living room by shopping in my own house.
Need to get the Christmas decorations put away.
Just love, love reading your post every morning.
I love following you and always share your posts.
Love the new colors but you are a pink girl. I think you should add just a dash of soft pink. Pink is such a lovely color year round and can be used in so many different ways without looking like you copied last seasons or last years pink. I so enjoy your blog. Thank you. I am living vicariously through you. Blessing for a beautiful 2022
Happy New Year, Leslie! Thank you for this wonderful post. I was finding it hard to get excited about putting Christmas decor away and returning to the same old setting that has become all too familiar these last many months. But you’ve turned my thinking a full 180* and I know I’ll have no trouble shopping my home to join you and the ladies as we decorate and DIY together. Blue and green is a favorite color combo for me and I can’t wait to see what you have up your sleeve!
Great minds think alike! I have always used a neutral palette for large furniture pieces and added color to accents. I live close to the beaches and bays to which my color choices come from. I have sage greens and ice blue. Thinking of adding gold for metals to warm things up. Already ordered a new handknitted rug for the living room.
Happy Sunday Leslie,
I share the same passions (cooking Decour entertaining crafting and gardening). My Husband passed three years ago. Your blog and all that you do has been helpful during my grief. You have inspired me this past year to try some new things. I really loved the snowflakes ❄️, the beach and backyard dinner parties. Thank you for the Sunday blog!
Sincerely,
Dolores
I have to admit I LOVE your all-white room (!) but oooh those colors sound beautiful – can’t wait to see how you use them. Thanks for another year of wonderful inspiration. I’ve scheduled my time and hope to get a couple of your projects made this year too! (I see you, white pinecone wreath!) Happy New Sage & Ice Year!
Love your fabric selections. My favorite is choice 2. Where do you like to shop online for upholstery fabric? I would like to recover my sofa.
love your color palette choices. the 3rd fabric choice is my favorite. i am wanting to learn to finger crochet using the thick heavy yarn. i think it will make a beautiful blanket.
Like the new view of your house. The post looks new and refreshing. Have enjoyed each post this last year and can’t wait for more inspiration in 2022.
Love the color palette! I introduced green in to my fall decor. I loved it so much that I carried it forward into my Christmas decor. Found antique chandelier pieces, tied a small piece of green velvet ribbon at the top near the hook, added a long white ribbon and hung them all on a white mirror in my foyer. Wrapped the top and side of the mirror with greenery and its own green ribbon spiraled down. The white table below, was adorned with wonderful green trees with flecks of gold I found at Hobby Lobby. You can see pics on @takemehometn
I will check it out, sounds wonderful!
Oh, I love #2!! Can you share the name and details please! 🙂