Inspiration

This fabric is the inspiration for my color scheme. It has the warm gold, rust, and green that I love, plus cool eggplant and gray-blue for contrast and depth. I'm hoping there's enough of the fabric for window toppers. I bought the whole bolt, but that was only about three yards at 60" wide. Even if there were enough for full-length drapes, I'd probably stick with blinds and window toppers. Too much fabric would make this small room feel even smaller.



The window toppers will look like this, if I have enough fabric. The scallops should look nice with the arches.

The walls are butter-yellow with a subtle medium-gold color wash. To give the built-ins a feeling of depth, I used the medium gold for my base color, with a deep gold color wash. All washes were prepared 1 part paint, 1 part glaze, and 1 part water. They were applied with a sea sponge and smoothed with a blending brush. The brush was pricey but worth it, because its super-soft bristles are perfect for blurring the color wash without leaving brush strokes.

Having heard that color washes need a coat of varnish to protect them, I started applying a Valspar satin varnish. The satin turned out a lot glossier than expected, which causes just enough glare to obscure the color wash. Hopefully, there's something available that's a little more matte. Shiny walls were not the effect I was going for.