I’ve been watching videos on YouTube of the interior designer Rita Konig and (I can’t find the link to) one where she said that often people start with deciding on wall colour first and it feels like a big overwhelming choice but usually she doesn’t pick the wall colour until 3/4 of the way through the process after deciding on which furniture, curtains, rugs and pictures that will be in the room and then picking colour/colours that work with those things…. It blew my mind a bit!
Level and insulated floor? Very fancy 😂 I like the blue and orange very much. My house is sorely lacking colour but sadly I am lacking motivation and time to paint 🤦♀️ I love reading about what others are doing renovation wise though.
I’m so here for vicarious renovation chat!! We always have the Christmas tree dilemma too! This year it went by the fire too, and even though I was worried the fire would dry it out, it was fine! It will be so amazing to have insulated floors!! Thrilled for you!! X
I love strong colors, and you might be surprised to learn that artwork looks GREAT on strong colors. My partner has deep teal walls at his house, and the art really pops. I have a mottled deep butterscotch wall color in most of my house (triple layer ragged and rolled caramel/butterscotch over pale yellow) and deep French blue in the bedroom. I'm against any pastel colors on the wall. (Just tell me to get lost. It's your house.) Then I'd go with some split complement color for the book case, again, really rich. The books are going to hide most of it, so be bold. Frankly, the pastel blue and the direct compliment, orange don't work for me. But as I said, I'm very opinionated and you can tell me to piss off.
My house had has these colors for 25 years now and I still love them. Oh, and my kitchen cabinets are a deep sage green, and my floor is 16" squares, set on the diagonal, alternating cream and burgundy, with a black border. I sanded every stain king tile myself, and stained them too.
I am loving the sound of your butterscotch walls, they sound heavenly. We have gone for dark forest green in our bedroom; walls and ceiling, which makes a lovely dark cave to sleep in. I am definitely not afraid of strong colours. Plus I love the bossiness of your advice 😂 too, why not? You have some good advice there!
Ha ha! Thank you for your reply. I am wishy washy on some things, (actually not too many) but definitely not what color I think people should paint their interiors. Also what I think of bleu cheese. (not a fan) I love the dark forest green in your bedroom. It must be so restful. I sort of wish I had painted my bedroom ceiling blue, but I wanted the inside of the closet the creamy yellow, and as the closet is open to the room and the ceiling just flows into it, I went for the lighter ceiling. Live and learn.
Because I live in the dark and misty (at least 3/4 of the year) Pacific Northwest, I love having my main living space walls that caramel color. When I look in from outside at night or dusk and a few lights are on, it looks so warm and welcoming.
Looking forward to seeing your finished room (I know! You have to wait till the concrete cures!) when it's all done.
We got Smelly Peggy in the mail last week! (recently available in the U.S.) My daughter and I laughed out loud reading it. I love your illustration style and am so happy to own the book. Just left you a review on Amazon :-)
I have a picture book for adults. It's about the journey that most big changes in life take, told as it if we're a journey to another planet and back. Is it a bad idea to make it for adults? Should I pivot to kids - perhaps older kids? And where would I begin, looking for an agent?
So, you have a story, you have some basic character sketches and a mind that’s pinballing out of control with ideas, what’s one of the very first things that you do/focus on that will anchor your book? So it doesn’t pinball off into the land of started but never finished book ideas?
As for decor, the colours remind me a lot of the goodshipillo logo, gorgeous as they are - would they not feel, in time, like your job has taken over your home? I used to have a lovely big studio with a shop and I was surrounded by my work day in, day out, it ended up stifling my creativity, but that was just me, maybe I’m just being a little pessimistic 😬
Another book question: What do you think of the idea of a purely picture book..no text? with the idea that adults look at the book with the child and talk together about what is happening? Would that be trickier in terms of illustrations than a book which is text led?
I have a layout question. Are there standard book page sizes I should be working at with my illustrations? Do I have to leave margins, or make the backgrounds slightly larger than the required finished page to allow for any cropping, or to I work to the exact finished page dimensions? Thanks so much. As for your colour scheme. You could go on the Deluxe website and find their room visualiser. That way you can get an idea of what the colour will look like in your particular room.
Hi Pam, I answered this excellent question in a post last week, and in case you aren’t a iPad subscriber we answered it on the Good Ship podcast too. That episode will be out on the 21st February (I think). Helenx
Maybe make the doors down below orange, and accent orange up above. The fireplace surround could be orange as well to tie in. If you make the back of the bookshelves a very light color blue it will lengthen the room . I did a quick sketch but cannot send to you.
That will make such a lovely difference and yes to chalky blue with red or orangey red. Super.
Question re picture books. If you’re looking at a page ( single or double), is there any guidance where the text should be placed? Sometimes it’s in a block so you mainly see the image and sometimes it’s more spread across the page. Or just one or two words. So how do you decide where it goes?
Level floors!! Very modern! Exciting times Helen, although I don’t know how I would cope with so many weeks of renovation chaos. Great photos. I came across some photos from 2010 when my husband and his mate decided to take the bathroom out, and pulled the entire ceiling down with it 😱 your renovations look much more organised!!
They did put a new ceiling up and the kitchen was lovely when it was finished, but it did look like we'd been in an earthquake, or perhaps a bomb had gone off!! I was 4 months pregnant with our daughter at the time 🤣
These are great questions, thank you. Are you making the book to send as a sample to publishers or is it already contracted? I think you mean it’s been snapped up by a publisher, is that right?
I love orange🍊I think it’s such a useful colour!
I’ve been watching videos on YouTube of the interior designer Rita Konig and (I can’t find the link to) one where she said that often people start with deciding on wall colour first and it feels like a big overwhelming choice but usually she doesn’t pick the wall colour until 3/4 of the way through the process after deciding on which furniture, curtains, rugs and pictures that will be in the room and then picking colour/colours that work with those things…. It blew my mind a bit!
Oh mind blown! I know what artwork is going up, so maybe I should start there. I will look her up. Ta!
Level and insulated floor? Very fancy 😂 I like the blue and orange very much. My house is sorely lacking colour but sadly I am lacking motivation and time to paint 🤦♀️ I love reading about what others are doing renovation wise though.
Yes I get that, I can manage exciting phases of renovating and decorating but then I am done DONE. No more. Until the itch comes back 😂
Also sink hole 🕳️ sounds terrifying! Glad that didn’t strike twice!
I’m so here for vicarious renovation chat!! We always have the Christmas tree dilemma too! This year it went by the fire too, and even though I was worried the fire would dry it out, it was fine! It will be so amazing to have insulated floors!! Thrilled for you!! X
It will save me a fortune in woolly socks and slippers!
I love strong colors, and you might be surprised to learn that artwork looks GREAT on strong colors. My partner has deep teal walls at his house, and the art really pops. I have a mottled deep butterscotch wall color in most of my house (triple layer ragged and rolled caramel/butterscotch over pale yellow) and deep French blue in the bedroom. I'm against any pastel colors on the wall. (Just tell me to get lost. It's your house.) Then I'd go with some split complement color for the book case, again, really rich. The books are going to hide most of it, so be bold. Frankly, the pastel blue and the direct compliment, orange don't work for me. But as I said, I'm very opinionated and you can tell me to piss off.
My house had has these colors for 25 years now and I still love them. Oh, and my kitchen cabinets are a deep sage green, and my floor is 16" squares, set on the diagonal, alternating cream and burgundy, with a black border. I sanded every stain king tile myself, and stained them too.
I am loving the sound of your butterscotch walls, they sound heavenly. We have gone for dark forest green in our bedroom; walls and ceiling, which makes a lovely dark cave to sleep in. I am definitely not afraid of strong colours. Plus I love the bossiness of your advice 😂 too, why not? You have some good advice there!
Ha ha! Thank you for your reply. I am wishy washy on some things, (actually not too many) but definitely not what color I think people should paint their interiors. Also what I think of bleu cheese. (not a fan) I love the dark forest green in your bedroom. It must be so restful. I sort of wish I had painted my bedroom ceiling blue, but I wanted the inside of the closet the creamy yellow, and as the closet is open to the room and the ceiling just flows into it, I went for the lighter ceiling. Live and learn.
Because I live in the dark and misty (at least 3/4 of the year) Pacific Northwest, I love having my main living space walls that caramel color. When I look in from outside at night or dusk and a few lights are on, it looks so warm and welcoming.
Looking forward to seeing your finished room (I know! You have to wait till the concrete cures!) when it's all done.
I love telling people what color to paint their houses. Sometimes they even listen to me.
We got Smelly Peggy in the mail last week! (recently available in the U.S.) My daughter and I laughed out loud reading it. I love your illustration style and am so happy to own the book. Just left you a review on Amazon :-)
Oh that is good to hear, thank you so much for telling me. And extra thank yous for the review. Peggy owes you a big lick! Hx
I have a picture book for adults. It's about the journey that most big changes in life take, told as it if we're a journey to another planet and back. Is it a bad idea to make it for adults? Should I pivot to kids - perhaps older kids? And where would I begin, looking for an agent?
Great question, I will answer it in the next post, or another one after that. Thank you.
So, you have a story, you have some basic character sketches and a mind that’s pinballing out of control with ideas, what’s one of the very first things that you do/focus on that will anchor your book? So it doesn’t pinball off into the land of started but never finished book ideas?
As for decor, the colours remind me a lot of the goodshipillo logo, gorgeous as they are - would they not feel, in time, like your job has taken over your home? I used to have a lovely big studio with a shop and I was surrounded by my work day in, day out, it ended up stifling my creativity, but that was just me, maybe I’m just being a little pessimistic 😬
Ah good question. And good point about the palette 😂
I have a feeling you’ll end up picking completely different colours in the end anyway, although I do like a bright orange myself!
Oooh, lovely colours! Maybe add a tiny, brush tip blob of green to the blue so it pings against the orangey-red? Mmmmm…
You read my mind! I went back to my procreate drawing and added some green this morning!
Another book question: What do you think of the idea of a purely picture book..no text? with the idea that adults look at the book with the child and talk together about what is happening? Would that be trickier in terms of illustrations than a book which is text led?
Good question, thank you!
Have you seen a book called Zoom? That's a kids book without text. It's one of my favourites.
No, I'll see if I can find it. I have seen one about a wee girl afraid to go into the sea, can't remember what it's called though.
It's by Istvan Banyai. There's the original Zoom and another called Re-Zoom
I have a layout question. Are there standard book page sizes I should be working at with my illustrations? Do I have to leave margins, or make the backgrounds slightly larger than the required finished page to allow for any cropping, or to I work to the exact finished page dimensions? Thanks so much. As for your colour scheme. You could go on the Deluxe website and find their room visualiser. That way you can get an idea of what the colour will look like in your particular room.
Hi Pam, I answered this excellent question in a post last week, and in case you aren’t a iPad subscriber we answered it on the Good Ship podcast too. That episode will be out on the 21st February (I think). Helenx
Oh this is a juicy one, thank you!
Oh and I think there's something in there about standard numbers of pages, too?
That should be DULUX in the comment above
Yikes! Not sure of an orange book case. I like to see the colors of all the book spines. Maybe blue as well for the case and the books are your color.
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/ae/c7/f9/aec7f90048d010dfaed9698c53e6d7d3.jpg
Oh yes, that’s true, maybe it will be too much colour overload. Oh nice inspiration pic! Thank you.
Maybe make the doors down below orange, and accent orange up above. The fireplace surround could be orange as well to tie in. If you make the back of the bookshelves a very light color blue it will lengthen the room . I did a quick sketch but cannot send to you.
That will make such a lovely difference and yes to chalky blue with red or orangey red. Super.
Question re picture books. If you’re looking at a page ( single or double), is there any guidance where the text should be placed? Sometimes it’s in a block so you mainly see the image and sometimes it’s more spread across the page. Or just one or two words. So how do you decide where it goes?
🧡💙✔️
Thanks for the juicy picture book question, I can’t wait to answer this one!
Level floors!! Very modern! Exciting times Helen, although I don’t know how I would cope with so many weeks of renovation chaos. Great photos. I came across some photos from 2010 when my husband and his mate decided to take the bathroom out, and pulled the entire ceiling down with it 😱 your renovations look much more organised!!
Oh no! I guess you got a nice new ceiling so maybe it was worth it 😂
They did put a new ceiling up and the kitchen was lovely when it was finished, but it did look like we'd been in an earthquake, or perhaps a bomb had gone off!! I was 4 months pregnant with our daughter at the time 🤣
These are great questions, thank you. Are you making the book to send as a sample to publishers or is it already contracted? I think you mean it’s been snapped up by a publisher, is that right?