PURE PASTELS

There is something so pure, serene and calm about pastels - even the strongest and loudest of colours, the ones that if they had souls would be shouting from the roof tops, talk in hushed tones as pastels. They seem to take on an almost ethereal, elegant persona, where they exist to blend in, not stand out and yet in doing so somehow make more of an impact than their solid, concentrated form.

That's why I love pastels - a room with pastels incorporated as a main backdrop or as accessories is a room halfway on its way to success - the other half of course depends on the decorators foresight and ability to pull different elements of the room cohesively together - whether they use the backdrop of  a pastel wall colour  or scattered accessories to do so.

 A common mistake people make while decorating with pastels is having too many different pastels in a room together -its almost as if they cannot  decide which pastels to stick with and end up using all - I have been inside such rooms and standing in these rooms I always get the uncanny feeling of being inside a marshmallow jar! Sweet, but sickeningly so.

Elegance is what you need to aim for and the key is to creating elegant rooms with pastels is restraint, restraint and (more) measured restraint. Less is more - use less and you'll have a more sophisticated, lasting desired impact.

Enjoy what these homeowners have done with pastels in their homes... and be inspired.