Painting the kitchen red was a fortuitous act because shortly thereafter I finally decided on our decor style: modern meets the Southwest. I came to this realization when the Dude and I attended Interior Design Show West back in October. We went to hear interior designer Kelly Deck give her spiel on how to decorate your home. She said one place to find inspiration is to think about a place that really struck you. For me it was a resort I stayed at in Palm Desert, California a long, long time ago. I totally fell in love with the hotel's decor, which was a very updated, modern Southwestern palette. I used to think Southwestern decor was the tackiest way you could decorate your house, but when I saw how tastefully it was done I was bowled over. I told myself that I would want to decorate my home in that way someday. But then I forgot all about it. Until now.
I'm so relieved I finally have a focus. Ever since we moved into our apartment more than a year ago I've been waffling between various decor styles, and it was driving me up the wall. When you try to decorate without a particular look in mind you end up making bad choices, which have been plenty around here. But now that I know what sort of decor I want to do in our apartment it's so much easier to make decisions on furniture and colours. I'm very excited about my "modern meets the Southwest" idea, especially since I feel like it's genuinely me rather than me trying to adhere to what magazines or the design blogsphere dictate I do. I've always loved the desert, and I want to bring part of it here to rainy Vancouver.
So a rusty red is going to be the main colour accent in our Southwestern palette, or as the Dude likes to call it, "Tex-mex" decor.
