Take a look at Southern Living’s 2009 Texas Idea House. With a consistent theme of light wood and fresh colors, this home is the epitome of beach-chic:

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The light bright living room with white, coral and light blue.

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A small colorful seating area behind the living room sofa

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The kitchen dining area has the same color theme as the living room.

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A light coastal kitchen with dark wood counters and polished marble tops. Citrus fruits works as both yum and decor!

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This loft is converted into a kids bunk!

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Fun playroom with colorful stripes on the wall and turquoise bean bags.

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White, grey and yellow does the trick in this coastal master bedroom.

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LOVE this bedroom to bathroom door solution! Slidin’! Oh, and there’s that bathroom chandelier again!

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See the rest of the photos from this beach-style home here!

These jaw dropping designs by editor, stylist and decorator Margot Austin has me stunned!

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This bathroom is simply gorgeous! A clean grey wall, crisp white floor and furniture with a rich brown accent color. The circle pattern on the tiles is so pretty.

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That bathroom cabinet is perfect! Pretty Diamond door knob.

You can get white ceramic barrel side table here.

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Just gorgeous.

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Wallpapered cabinet interior is such a neat detail.

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Here are some great ideas: The natural fiber globe lamp is placed directly over the bed. Also, check out the genious way to mount bed curtains; on the wall!

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The fabrics are all in a white and beige palette, with linen curtains, wooden mirror frame and bamboo night stand.

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Pretty daybed on sisal rug in a light bright room. The chandelier adds a glamorous touch.

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This white marble shelf is so pretty.

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You must visit the website of Margot Austin, she is insanely talented!

The photos are taken by Donna Griffith, see more pretty pics on her site.

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If you are looking for inspiration to inject some color into your home, look no further than to Frank Roop:

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Neutral background of beige tile walls and green furniture, spiced up with all the colors of the rainbow.

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What a cool corner sofa!!

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Acid green lamp shades for the brave! Nice dresser and black floor.

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The brown dining room is brightened up with blue, red and greens.

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One of the repeating features from Frank Roop’s designs are the multi-color curtains.

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Click photos to wiew them larger, and click here to visit Frank Roops site!!

If you love bright happy colors, Palmer Weiss shows you how to do it right. In this living room Palmer has used a cream color on the wall, and keeps the framework crisp white.

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On the soft neutral background, the living room is composed of three colors; green, coral pink and acid green, all of which are found in the floral patterned sofa chairs.

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Symmetry in pairs. Two simple acid green side tables are used as coffee table, and is matched with two olive green table top lamps in the window sills.

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You can distinguish a part of a room as functionally different by keeping the general color scheme, just in different quantity. In this reading nook, a super light blue is introduced in both curtains and lounge chair. The space looks separate from the living room seating area, but still a part of the room.

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You can visit the website of Palmer Weiss here for more colorful inspiration!

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Blue green and yellow retro living room nook. Twisted lamp!

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Retro bedroom. Hot bedpost!

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Creative living room mural, with matching cushions.

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That’s one hefty lamp installation.

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Multi light bulb lamp. Grapes? lol

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Tight color scheme.

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Cool retro dining chairs!

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See more hot designs by Amy Lau at her site, and at our previous posts here and here!

Yellow is a pretty intense color, so the safest way to use it is as an accent color to a neutral background. If you choose a more neutral tone of yellow, like mustard, you can use it as a background color. Lets take a look at some great ways to use yellow:

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This shade of yellow has a golden mustard tone as it contains a bit of black, making it more neutral and suitable as a background color. Here with black and light blue, black being the accent color.

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Gorgeous tan walls and a bold black carpet makes a dramatic backdrop for a classic piece of yellow furniture.

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Beige daybed on black carpet. Painting the wall halfway up in yellow creates a low, cozy space around this little nook.

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This neutral room of grey and white is made interesting and modern with a pop of yellow.

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A good rule is that the stronger the color, the less you need of it. But remember there are always exceptions to these rules, and playing with different shades and tones of color can give fantastic results!

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All these hot pictures are borrowed from equally hot site House to Home!

Riviera Maison specializes in nautical style decor, and definitely have their own style. It’s simple, light, bright and raw:

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A raw looking rattan storage box doubles as a bench seat in the hallway or veranda.

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Store your gloves and scarves where you hang your jacket.

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Driftwood dining room table.

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A simple buffet with a lot of drawer storage.

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This is a silver shell like the one on the buffet.

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Corn sack style carpet. Definitely raw style here. Do you like this?

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Gorgeous New England kitchen cabinet!

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Cute coastal style side table.

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Gorgeous cotton bedsheets!

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A lot more where this came from at the Riviera Maison site!

Icy cold blue with red hot saffron, all framed by black. Does it get any more dramatic?

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Looks like the orange outter mirror frame is actually painted on the wall.

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More delicious designs by Mary Mc Donald at her site. (it’s a must-see)!

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Click here to see where to get the Drape, Console, Mirror, Zebta Ottoman, Lamps . Get seashells from here.

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Beige’s and creams go perfectly together with terracotta and saffron. To make it extra spicy, bring in a contrast of dark brown or black:

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So hot dining room furniture.

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Super cozy nook for reading a good book (or a cool blog, lol)

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Lovely bedroom. Autumn..

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The serene home office.

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For a sophisticated interior style, go for neutral colors like cream, beige or greige, contrasted by brown or black. Keep the background and larger surfaces neutral, with the darker contrast confined to smaller pieces of furniture like coffee tables and furniture framing. Choose few larger quality (or what looks like it) pieces rather than a lot of small ones. Go for texture rater than pattern. Here are a few examples:

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Creams, soft beige and dark wood. I find it a bit quirky they have used the fire place to store wood in. Curtains hung real high to emphasize the height of the room.

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Layering seems to be key here; layered mirrors, maps on wall and stacks of books. Even so, it manages to stay simple and sophisticated, due to the simple choise of colors.

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Would you layer yout picture frames like that? Greige, white and dark wood.

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Cream, beige and dark wood, with pops of orange. Simple lines, no window curtains.

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