Home decor has become quite a happening thing that can encompass your whim and personality more and more. It is more widely accepted to make your space a unique one instead of trying to keep up with the Jones'. Let's take a look at what trends became red hot in 2011 and are sure to become more so as 2012 launches off.

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Owls & Birds

The owl is a decor trend that has been there all along in some shape or form since the 1900's. Through taxidermy, design inlay on a leather piece or stitched in to a hanky, these mysterious night creatures have been a part of our culture as a piece of interest for a very long time. I remember my grandmother had a macramé owl in her indoor greenhouse when I was a child and other various owl decor in a very 1970's fashion.

green ceramic | white ceramic | tan ceramic | stoneware | wooden | pillow with print | dish set  | pillow screen print  | coasters | ceramic wall hook | calendar

The recent trend of owls from about 2009 through the present has definitely picked up on a new level of design playing off of vintage styles with a modern day twist that makes them not so tasteless, but fascinating and simply adorable from everything home decor, holiday ornaments, fashion and party decor. People can't seem to get enough owl.

More than just a decorative touch, wreaths have existed since the times of the ancient Romans. Before Christianity, pagan rituals of mid-winter often featured a wreath of evergreen with four candles.

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The candles were placed in each of the four directions, representing the elements of Earth, Wind, Water, and Fire. Rituals were performed to ensure the continuance of the circle of life.

Some Christians use this idea also. The four candles represent the advent of Christmas and the hope of returning light in the Spring.

In ancient Greece, olive wreath crowns were awarded to victors in the original Olympic Games. Today, modern Olympic medals often bear the same olive wreath image. These wreaths stood for Victory over challenges.

The Christmas wreath has much symbolism attached to it. The shape of the circle has no beginning and no end. This circle could mean the eternal nature of God’s love or the Circle of Life. The use of Evergreen branches suggests victory of life through darkness and challenge. Think of the Greek Victors Crown. Think of the hope that light will come back to the world with the advent of Spring.

Color and texture are vividly portrayed in these gorgeous ornament wreaths. They domonstrate how wreaths can be meaningful or just plain fun.

How did we come to hang wreaths on our doors? Decorative wreaths using different floral arrangements were used anciently to identify different families and houses. Whereas today we use house numbers.

Building your own wreath is a lot of fun! There are a myriad of bases to choose from. If you need inspiration then Etsy and Pinterest are amazing resources.

Paper Cone Wreath (cornerhouseblog DIY) | Paper Star Wreath (littlebirdiesecrets DIY) | Yarn & Felt Wreath (Etsy) | Tie Wreath (bedifferentactnormal) 

Wreaths are wrought with lore and tradition as well as whimsy and fun. Whether you hang a wreath on the door to welcome visitors, or on the wall to complete your home’s decor, the splash of color on a cold winters day is sure to add a feeling of warmth, building excitement for the coming season.

I often hear COLOURlovers described as a place to help people find great colors... "Like for when you're looking for colors to paint your kitchen or bedroom." Problem is, it has been hard to take a color on our site and find a matching paint color in the real world.

So, we're super excited to announce a partnership with Martha Stewart Living™ to get her paint colors on the millions of colors, palettes & patterns pages here at COLOURlovers... By far making this site the biggest color resource for paint color inspiration!

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I've had the pleasure of spending some time at the Martha Stewart HQ in New York city and it's like Santa's workshop for creatives. Each room is full of people making awesome stuff... pastries in this room, ornaments in that room... It's the kind of place any creative/crafty person dreams of being locked in over night. Since Martha Stewart and her creative empire are all about crafting & creating... we're thrilled to work with her and all the awesome people at MSLO. The addition of these paints to the site is going to open so many great opportunities for interior designers & decorators, and even just somebody looking to add some pop to a boring white wall.

Finding the Paint Colors Your Love

Wherever a color is displayed on our site, along with the HEX & RGB numbers for that color we'll also show you the closest matching Martha Stewart Living paint color. And every display of that paint color will link you to the Home Depot site where the Martha Stewart Living paints are exclusively sold. From the Home Depot site you can easily & affordably try out a paint tester to make sure you love the color.

Note on Color Matching: Since more colors (16 Million) can exist on a computer screen compared to paint colors... Not every color on our site will be a perfect match to a paint color, but we're working hard on perfecting the matching logic so the color that you're loving here can be the color you're loving on your walls.

Martha Stewart’s 280 custom colors are inspired by themes found in nature and the home. Martha Stewart Living also supports the entire decorating project through an innovative color coordination system. Symbols match color families and themes, and coordinate with other household products throughout the store like rugs, furniture, and storage.

Colorful Story Telling with Paint

Along with adding the paint colors to the site, we'll be showcasing some of the beautiful home images from Martha Stewart in our Home Inspirations & Trends section of our site as well as some write-ups here in the blog. Having the ability to link colors we love to paint colors is really going to add a whole new layer of awesome to the site!

Paint Your Space. Share It With the World!

When you use this new feature to paint a wall in one of the spaces in which you live, make sure you post up a picture in the comments. We'll be showcasing a gallery of awesome painted spaces soon and I hope yours will be included.

Although it is now Spring, it still feels as if Winter is among us. Winter this year has been odd and different than the several winters prior. It seemed as though a snow storm would pop up every Tuesday, right on schedule. But, enough about Winter and on to Spring!

Spring is light, airy and refreshing. It is a time when you feel as though you can start over, a feeling and sense of new beginnings (that's how I always feel around Spring instead of New Year's.)  Relief is near as we enjoy warmer weather and get ready for those outdoor soiree's. There is also that thing we all know as Spring cleaning, I guess it all makes sense now, right?

Everyone views Spring differently,  if you ask one person what they associate Spring with, they may tell you that they think of daffodils, another may tell you barbecue's and if you ask me... I will simply tell you that yellow, tulips and light showers remind me of Spring. This is why I chose the color yellow for this Spring post.

What color do you associate Spring with?

fabric, bowls, flowers, pillow, candle, butterflies, pendant

Some Great Finds on Etsy...

header: fine art photography on Etsy.com and palette, Thatchery...

You could say that I am on a bit of a gray and black kick. This could possibly be influenced by the weather we have been having, but as of  right now I love gray and black and honestly I can not get enough of it. A trio of color that are on my radar as of now are black, gray and white. There have  been a good amount of homes that have been featured online with this trio and they were all done tastefully. The color added such a sophisticated feel. So, taking from that inspiration, here are some black, gray and white accessories that I have  selected.

pendant · vases · pillow · tumbler · octopus · throws

room 1, 2

Customizable highlights allow for subtle color play while maintaining the main color palette and an overall clean and simple contemporary look.

ModernKitchenArt - Suprema | The Suprema allows you to customize your kitchen cupboards with over 200 variations of the panel in glass, wood and metal.  The glass panels are available in many color variations and transformed by LED lights which are diffused into pleasant light and color.

There is so much to color. They can affect our mood, we attach associations they all have associations and meanings. it is all so very intriguing.  So far, this winter has been a very odd one, with all of the snow storms every week and just the strange events that have been occurring. I also have to say that I have lost a loved one last week, so to help brighten the mood and help bring on a soothing effect, it seems white and silver are appropriate. Surrounding yourself with fresh crisp white a nice sparkly silver can be quiet soothing. What do white and silver do for you?

ottoman · ring holder · pendant · mirror · cup and saucer · votive · clock · chair

room 1, 2

Stimulating and energetic or dizzying and overwhelming? Would you use neon colors in your home?

Though we refer to more than one color as "neon", technically speaking neon is only the bright reddish-orange color produced with the gas neon. All other colours are generated with the other noble gases or by many colours of fluorescent lighting.

Neon was discovered in 1898 by the British chemists Sir William Ramsay (1852–1916) and Morris W. Travers (1872–1961) in London. Neon was discovered when Ramsay chilled a sample of the atmosphere until it became a liquid, then warmed the liquid and captured the gases as they boiled off. The gases that boiled off, in addition to nitrogen, oxygen, and argon, were krypton, xenon, and neon. The characteristic, brilliant red color that is emitted by gaseous neon when excited electrically was noted immediately; Travers later wrote, "the blaze of crimson light from the tube told its own story and was a sight to dwell upon and never forget."

The blaze of crimson light from the tube told its own story and was a sight to dwell upon and never forget. - William Ramsay

Bangkok University Creative Center | Thailand

Super Machine

Supermachine surrounds the internet centre with a space-ship like green pod  and covers a 180 square-meter wall a “Lo-Fi pixel wall”. 10,000 custom-made rotating four-sided plastic pieces in differing colors.

Over here in my neck of the woods it has been snowing every week it seems. I love snow, but too much is just well, too much. With too much of these dreary and freezing cold days, it only seemed fitting that a combination of a warm color paired with a cool color would be pretty interesting.

The colors that were chosen were orange and silver. How often do you see that pair? Honestly, I can't say that it is a common pairing around here. So, to add a little bit of warmth, orange and silver it is. The two would seem ideal when used around the warmer months such as spring and summer, but I think it would be great any time of year. What are your thoughts on these colors?

flowers ·  mirror · monkey · chair · lamp · pillow

room 1, 2