Creating a unique vintage colour palette is a great way to get started if you want to incorporate a touch of vintage into your home. Look at how I’ve used seventeen-century-style textile art, shabby vintage fabrics, Victoriana-style dried flowers, 1950s postcards, retro dresses and Art Deco-style haberdashery to craft one-of-a-kind colour palettes. With so many sources available that fit the ‘vintage’ category, there are bound to be the perfect tones in something vintage that will evoke the timeless bygone feel you’re seeking.
WHAT COLOURS ARE CONSIDERED VINTAGE?
Colours taken from any vintage source are considered vintage; that’s the beauty of vintage; anything goes! There are no ties to colours that have achieved accolades for being the ‘colour of the year.’ The only limits bestowed upon you are the limitations of your imagination or the resources from which you draw your colours.
HOW TO DESIGN VINTAGE COLOUR PALETTES
- Find something vintage with colours you love; it could be one vintage item like an accent chair or a collection of vintage items in colours you love.
- Take a photograph and draw out several colours you love to make your colour palette.
Give your colour palette a name from the mood and the colours it evokes.
SOURCES FOR FLORAL VINTAGE COLOUR PALETTES
1. Vintage-Style Curios
Colour Palette Name: The Shabby Linen Cupboard
Colour Palette Description: Ethereal tones of stacked French linen intersperse richer tones and duskier hues.
2. Vintage Dresses
Colour Palette Name: Floral Flapper
Colour Palette Description: It is defined by vanilla chiffon and balances striking primary hues and fairytale greens.
3. Vintage Ephemeral
Colour Palette Name: Ephemeral Florals
Colour Palette Description: A prescription of punchy traditional rose hues and flowery tonic.
4. Vintage Pressed Flowers
Colour Palette Name: Ethreal Velvet.
Colour Palette Description: Play with these rich, delicate hues of violets, dusky purples, berries and woody undertones.
5. Vintage Linen
Colour Palette Name: Primary Details
Colour Palette Description: A covetable vintage linen palette with playful pops of colour in sophisticated primary hues.
6. Vintage Furniture
Colour Palette Name: Soft Sanderson
Colour Palette Description: Faded Sanderson linen in hues of pastel blues, buttermilk, sage greens and faint mint tones.
7. Vintage Haberdashery
Colour Palette Name: Downton Revival
Colour Palette Description: Cutglass cocktail glasses, black tie, diamonds, luxury and floral razz ma jazz.
8. Real Flowers
Colour Palette Name: Old Fashioned Pink Gin & Tonic
Colour Palette Description: An old-fashioned tonic of pin gin and fizzy sweet hues alongside cafe au lait ripples and fern green shades.
9. Vintage-Style Art & Embroideries
Olga Prinku is known for being the first person to use dried flowers in Embroidery, and you are spoilt for choice when choosing colours from any of Olga’s hoops. They often feature natural foliage as well as more brightly coloured flowers. I see this piece teamed with sumptuous rich, heavy velvets.
Nicki Franklin is a maverick at creating embroideries in muted, soft colours. Her embroideries are exquisite and filled to the brim for me with nostalgia! She is a designer to explore when searching for soft linen colour palettes.
Contempfleury is an art studio creating embroideries that incorporate pressed flowers’ hues in their natural and printed form. Their floral, dried flower colour palettes are stunning and worth exploring! Also be inspired further by reading the blog post Flower Art – Collecting & Finding The Essence Of A Great Portfolio.
10. Vintage Stores
- The Linen Garden describes itself as a department store for creatives!
- Permillion 44 for vintage and hand-crafted goods
- The Country Brocante for a vintage rustic chic
11. Vintage Magazines
- Vintage Home magazine by Country Living is a treasure trove of vintage colour inspiration
- Daphne’s Diary vintage lifestyle and craft inspiration
12. Country Brocantes
Check out our post The Appeal Of The Country Brocante In The Search For Art And Rare Paraphernalia for information.
How To Use A Vintage Colour Palette
Decide how many colours from your colour palette you want for the the room’s main feature. Below is a colour wheel example for a living room:
Other Useful Vintage Resources
Farrow & Ball have great advice when choosing paint for historical features and recommend their limewash, Casein Distemper and Soft Distemper paints.
Dulux has a timeless paint collection of 112 colours called ‘Heritage,’ inspired by bygone eras of design history.
Little Greene allows you to browse their paint colours by period and include Georgian paint colours, Regency paint colours, Victorian paint colours, the 1930s paint colours, 1950s paint colours, 1960s paint colours and 1970s paint
Coloured Accessories
Fancy making picture frames to match the colours in your vintage colour palette? Check out our guide How To Make Professional Bobbin Frames and get to work making picture frames in the colours of your dreams! Or be inspired by our post, Creating A Unique Red Aesthetic With Frames.
Conclusion
So no more wondering how to create a beautiful vintage colour palettes! Give this method a go because it could become your new way of choosing and using colour!
Don’t Miss A Thing
Follow me on Instagram, Pinterest or Etsy.
Contempfleury
Contempfleury is an art studio run by Leah Nikolaou from her home and garden in Somerset. She works extensively with pressed flowers to create her one-of-a-kind artworks, pressed flower prints and pressed flower embroidery kits. She uses her pressed flowers to create the vintage colour palettes she uses in her home and art.
