Megan Hornbeck miniature found on Shapeways
The Neutrals: A Room With White Walls
Consider your miniature white room a blank slate, an opportunity to do whatever you want, and go wherever your creativity will take you. This positive approach is a lot better than being intimidated by what, at first glance looks like a colorless space.
Rainbow At Your Fingertips
There are hundreds of potential color schemes in a white room because every wavelength of the visible spectrum is in the color white. A rainbow is actually fractured white, showing every color in beautiful bands. That is why white will go with any color. There are bluish-white and whites with green, pink or beige undertones. Winter White (gray) and Bone (beige) are so popular that designers and paint manufacturers conspired, using those names to identify a product. Smart marketing!
The Room Rules
In real-world decorating, we let the room inspire us to see what the room wants us to do. Are there beautiful ocean views? Then a color pallet of water tones is indicated: blues, and greens, with pops of fuchsia and orchid for accents. Does the client live in the desert Southwest, with a terrace facing mountains that reflect every imaginable earth tone at sunset? The color scheme could have dark red, burnt orange, gold, bronze-like browns.
Also, in the real world, decorators have to deal with what the owner wants. Miniature enthusiasts have no such hurdles. We are in total control of our projects, creating our own environment. Where do you want your dollhouse to be?
Your Personality
One of the greatest assets of working with the color white is the ability to showcase your own personality and style in your interiors, without having to compete with the color on the walls. An extreme example might be a one-of-a-kind piece of artwork. You love it. You want all eyes to go to it immediately when a visitor looks at your miniature. Display it on an all-white wall, over an all-white fireplace mantle, or over your all-white bed. All eyes will have to go right to the artwork because there is nothing else to look at.
To make it more realistic, choose two colors in the picture to use as accent colors in vases, lamps pillows, and trim. With white as the primary color in the room, the artwork will still be the focal point. The same concept is valid with any element that commands attention, in a real room or a room box.
Too Much Freedom?
When redecorating a room in your home, you have the entire universe of color to allocate between walls, furniture, floor coverings, accent pieces and trim. But what do you do with all this freedom of choice when you’re in the paint department store shuffling the color swatches and feeling like you’ve got a losing hand in a card game?
A Decorating Trick
Before going to the Home Depot, do some homework on the Internet. There are a number of interior design and paint manufacturer sites that have free tools to play around with color combinations. Better Homes & Gardens has a neat tool called Design A Room Online.
Using such tools in your miniature project can give you a starting point, but that’s all. It’s just a start. What you see on your computer screen is not what you’re going to get in the paint can for all sorts of electronic reasons. But it sure makes changing your mind about combining colors easier. You may find my article “Creating A Color Scheme” helpful. Have fun!
Patrick Owens
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