You know those design recommendations that urge you, especially when hesitant, to start with a picture and base your color selections on it? Here are some ideas on how to achieve it with a geeky starting point. I’ll select a photo, a painting, a still, a screencap or the like that is geeky in some way, and use mainstream photos to illustrate how a color combination pulled from that model image might work in real life.
House Baratheon is the royal house in Westeros at the beginning of George R. R. Martin‘s epic fantasy series A Song of Ice and Fire and the popular tv adaptation Game of Thrones. The house sigil is a rearing (or rampant) stag with a crown around its neck on a field of gold. The visual created for the HBO tv series is probably the most commonly seen version of the sigil, here on a cookie from the official online store:
House Baratheon Sigil Cookie. HBO Shop.
In heraldry, gold is often depicted with yellow. I will, therefore, include both gold-black and yellow-black combinations below.
The combination of gold and black is luxurious. It can also be overwhelming if overdone. Choosing a neutral background like white, cream or tan and using gold (or yellow) and black as accent colors will deliver just enough of a punch, but not a “Hulk smash!” – like in the white, yellow and black bathroom by Cerasa, for example:
Cerasa; image via Home Designing.
This gorgeous library below by Jerry Jacobs Design actually uses both yellow and gold in addition to black:
Jerry Jacobs Design.
Sherri and John at Young House Love added red brick to the mix when they painted their front door, with great results:
Sherri and John at Young House Love.
Apart from adding other colors, you can also tone down the intensity of the yellow towards softer shades, or substitute dark greys instead of black. Or, like in the living room below, use dark metals to incorporate black:
Martha Stewart; image via Centsational Girl.
Smaller home accents work particularly well, since the amount of color will be limited:
Top row: Mini black with gold interior drum shade from The Accessory Store; custom knobs by Alison Brent on Etsy; color block pillow by Mazizmuse on Etsy. Center: Painted credenza by Kathy at Petticoat Junktion. Bottom row: tiger lily photograph by Audrey; gold and black garland by HoopsyDaisies on Etsy.
You can of course also carry the Baratheon sigil colors on you:
Clockwise from top right: Baratheon eye makeup by Thedethlands; fingerless gloves by Anna Richardson for The Yarn Cafe Blog; custom felted baby shoes by Shannon at The Kitty Pad; Kate Spade Rainey dress; tie from GentlemanJoe; Sears gold bowtie vest suit; Arkel backpack / bike pannier from Universal Cycles.
What do you think – a keeper combo or not?
P.S. Access other posts in the series with the geeky color combos tag.
