Guest Post: Martha from Leone Designs

Hello all...today we have Martha from Leone Designs sharing with us some of her ideas for two tone furniture.  Take it away, Martha!!

What inspires me and causes my brain to swell with ideas? The elements of design; line, shape, value, color, space, and texture. To keep track of the influx of possibilities, I keep a small sketch book and combine thoughts and ideas to (hopefully) come up with unexpected fresh ideas. I don't know what I would do without my sketch book!

Lately, I've been working with a two-toned color scheme of white and a second color. I look at furniture as a blank canvas and divide each piece into zones (or shapes) that promote a sense of the unexpected. Then I consider how for example, shape and space can relate to one another to produce a balanced appealing design. That's how the two-toned red and white chair was born.

This yellow and white mid-century piece seemed to be asking for a clean application of two colors to reflect its character. But for a small element of surprise, I painted the sides of the dresser different from one another.

A confession: stripping paint is a nightmare for me. Honestly, I haven't figured out how to do it with much success. To avoid it altogether, I layer my desired colors on top and distress them to reveal previous paint jobs. That technique, combined with the two-tone look makes for exciting colorful pieces with lots of texture. Here are a few examples of that look:

Black, white, and red chair: Painted Behr California Poppy, ASCP Old White, then sanded to reveal the red.

Red dresser: Painted dark red, washed with Behr California Poppy, ASCP Provence, ASCP Old White, then distressed.

Black and white kitchen table: Painted Benjamin Moore black, ASCP Old White, then distressed.

And sometimes, it's just good to leave portions of a piece alone and use paint to accentuate the beauty of the wood. This piece needed that treatment.

These days, I'm kind of obsessed with the two-toned look of white + another color, but if we take a look at the color wheel and start pairing up colors that are analogous or opposite each other on that wheel, we'll discover that two-toned combinations are endless. Let's get busy combining colors!

Thanks you so much Martha for sharing with us such great ideas.  Don't forget to visit her blog for some more great inspirations.

xo,

mONICa