A Colorful Home Tour: Woman in Real Life {Color My Home Summer Blog Series}

Welcome to Day 5 of my Summer Blog Series:  Color my Home!  I have an amazing line up of fabulous bloggers who will be sharing how they incorporate Color into their Home this Summer!  I am so excited to have Joann from Woman in Real Life on my blog today, giving us a tour of her beautiful home!  I especially love her pink Audrey Hepburn art!

Hey everybody! My name is Joann and I'm a freelance writer living in the Toronto area. I blog about thrift store finds, daily life with kids, great books and yummy vegetarian food over at Woman in Real Life. I want to thank Ashley for inviting me to share my views on colour in the home. Like Lee from New Zealand, we Canadians spell colour with a "u." But, as a freelance writer, I'm used to spelling it the American way too. So that's what I'm gonna do!

Years ago, my husband and I had a wonderful little apartment in an old walk-up building in the city. Although it was small, our apartment was a riot of color. Four rooms painted three different colors - bold, bright yellow in the living room and the bathroom, rich, dark blue in the bedroom and a deep green in the tiny, mid-century kitchen. It was bright and cheerful and I loved it that way.

Funny how things change when you buy your own home. Not so brave anymore, huh? In our current home, we decided to go with a mostly white backdrop on the main floor. Don't get me wrong, I'm totally fine with it - it's peaceful and bright and it makes up for a lack of natural light in some of our rooms. But the white palette required us to be a bit more creative with our decorating.

In the family room, an area that gets lots of use, we have added color through pillows, framed prints and accessories. My sister and I fought over the blue velvet ottoman (above, right) at a liquidation store, but she eventually gave it to me for my birthday. Nice sister, huh?

Our kitchen has white walls and white cupboards. Being too lazy to put up a backsplash, we decided to put up framed pictures instead, including the colorful red and green portrait that my son drew. I also like to punctuate our rooms with family treasures and thrift store finds like the vintage floral canisters on the counter.

Our front room is a living room and home office combination. Because it's mainly used by me, I decided to do a black and white color scheme with touches of pink and blue. We added color with pillows once again.

I love books and I think they add great character and color to a room.

I think this pink Audrey Hepburn portrait adds a nice feminine touch for me without making the space too girly for my husband.

Accessories, office supplies and a thrifted jar add more color on a side table.

I found a floor lamp with a shade in blue and pink to match my room's color scheme. Of course, every office needs an inspiration board for when those fabulous ideas strike.

The dining room is a bit of a departure. We went with a buttercream color rather than white and highlighted it with a thrifted Modigliani imitation and colorful curtains.

This colorful armoire that we got at auction holds some of our inherited and thrifted china.

I hope you enjoyed the house tour. All the best, Joann.