The 10-Color Palette

We recently visited the newly refurbished library in our neighborhood, and in addition to my usual M.O. of scouring the children's section for just the right selections for my young readers, I actually cruised the design area as well.  While I love having a home filled with design books (and honestly refer to many of them on a regular basis), there are some that are either not quite my style or are needed for inspiration on a specific project, and I really only need to check them out once.

The biggest general idea I took from my cache of borrowed books is from Sibella Court, stylist extraordinaire, in her second book, Nomad.

The idea?  The 10-color palette.  I remember watching an HGTV show years ago called Find Your Style, which was organized around the principle that you can create your own interiors using a fool-proof palette of four materials--including color.  I always thought this was so limiting--it generally came down to one wood tone, one metal, and two colors--though the designer always pulled off great transformations.

Sibella's 10-color palette feels much more in keeping with my design sensibility, and leaves room to get specific about shade.

Beautiful, right?  These palettes are inspired by different locations (from top: Mexico, Greece, and Japan).  I went a little more local and pulled the palette from my own home.

14.  (And I definitely left out some shades of orange and yellow.)  Looks a little crazy, doesn't it?  But somehow, with the right repetition through my spaces, it works.

This was a really fun little exercise!  How many colors do you think you have in your home?  Go count: You might be surprised by the answer.