I can somewhat play with colors and patterns via happy accidents. If I have a bunch of pillows and I sort of randomly group them together, I may be surprised with it even though if I'd actually stopped to think about what I was doing, I would never have put them together.

I have a very analytical nature. I know I over-think, and get rutted in analysis paralysis. I focus way too much on the details of things, instead of seeing them for their overall go rather than match. But at the same time, I've gotten some great advice here that has been ALL ABOUT those little details that I sometimes try to disregard.

I do try to use an accent color 3x in a room. I've never read a theory on that, but it seems to anchor it well. I understand the psychology of pairs but I don't know if color is involved in that as well, or if it's trulyt JUST anchoring the color, as a tripod anchors a camera.

Loving these threads. :)

The second works for me although I wouldn't do it in my own house. But red white and blue is a classic American combination and the patterns have a nice interplay in their scale and rhythm. Drawbacks: it's a bit too "done" - professional does summer home for magazine, not enough of the personal there.

The first one has too many small, busy patterns with dots - even the braided rug has that effect - the floral pattern on the chair is also small and busy. Colors could work in different patterns though. Change the lampshade, the chair, the band on the curtain, and switch to a solid green spread and it would be fun. I like the blue nightstand, the red chest, the pillows on the bed and wall decorations. It does have an individual look to it - someone's own quirks shaped this room.

I really like the second room. The first is way too busy. I would change out pillows and curtaind and use solids. That would be a start anyway.

Avesmore, thanks for the phrase "analysis paralysis". I can so use that!

Neither of these rooms works for me. There is nowhere for my eye to rest. Plus, I dislike the authoritarian tone of the READ sign. What if I don't wanna read?

I like the bedstead; too bad it's covered up with those fussy bullseye pillows.

I love the first room because it *is* busy, but with coordinating colors, green being the main color. Everything matches perfectly.

My brother had the second room when we were kids so I now find red white and blue boring. lol

I would love to have the 1st bedroom. The 2nd is too sterile looking for me. I like a mixture that keeps it interesting. The color pallette is lively and all the colors are repeated several times so that nothing looks out of place to me. It all has a cottage look which I like the informality of. I probably wouldn't do the READ lettering, thats a little over the top for me, but I like the casual arrangement of the art over the headboard. I like the wall color as well, it looks like a pink-beige which complements the colors. I think it looks like a teenagers room because of all the bright colors but I would feel good walking into that bedroom.

I think they both work.

The first is ad hoc, and girly, not an adult room, so much. I don't like being told to READ, thats' a bit trite, but it's a feel-good room. Switch out the accessory textiles and it could be a boys room, too.

The second one is a bit stiff, but the textiles work together because they are small, medium, large and jumbo in a tight palette. The second one is still much less stiff than a lot of the rooms I see in the threads, because at least it Does mix pattern.

palimpsest - I like your observations about the words. I'm not a fan of the random words, or the vinyl quotes (though begrudgingly I do have one - DH was very close with his grandmither who died a few years ago, and he saw one of those vinyl quotes that was exactly a quote she used to say BUT she's Swedish... and it just happened to be a perfect translation. So anyway...)

You're the only other person I've (knowingly) found who tends to take the words as "commands." When I walk into a house and the first thing I see is a big mirror with "DREAM" on it, I'm like... no thank you...

I don't like "words" either. I do have a pretty framed plaque about family given to me which I hung.

I think at my age when I walk into a room which has "Believe" I want to say, riiight. It's the pessimist in me. lol.

Katrina, sterile is the right word to describe red, white and blue.

Same here for the words. I guess that's yet another trick--how to inspire instead of bringing out the rebel.

The first works for me. I'm one of those who has trouble recreating what I like in my own rooms, but I think part of it in this case is that all the colors contrast in hue but mostly harmonize in value. Softer values, as in the large pool of rug, I guess bring it down a bit...

The second, more rigid, but really red and blue just isn't a favorite combo. I might like it a lot in lime with the red. :)

As soon as I saw the spider in the first pic I scrolled down..don't even remember what the room looked like.

I agree with other posters about the first room being too busy...it just doesn't feel relaxed or coordinated, too many small things going on, so in my mind, doesn't 'work".

Second room is OK but also very busy....I guess it works because there are fewer, larger patterns.

The first room doesn't work for me. And I'm not even referring to the colours and patterns; that lamp is way overscaled for the little table it is sitting on. The scale of the red plaid pillow is too big and bright against the pattern of the chair.

The curtains are awful. And I'm not liking the overall mishmash of colours: the fresh apple green and youthful pinks in the bedding don't go very well with the muted chair or the muted, army fatigue colours in the braided rug.

I don't like words on a wall either; they feel like an order to me and I feel like rebelling:)

OTOH, I'm LOVING the second room....

PS - I like the 80/20 rule in decorating.

Mira

I love bohemian chic styling and playing with scale, but I don't find the first room's balance to be pleasing. The chair is too small, the rug is too dull, the draperies are a mess, etc. My humble and very personal reaction is that the first room is a lesson on how NOT to put together an eclectic room.

The second room has a nicely balanced mix of color and pattern. You could use the same mix with completely different colors and have a fresh look.

I love reading all of your thoughts, so interesting! I wouldn't have guessed that so many take the words as commands, or that they ellicit such rebellion! :-)

I think the first room is a little busy, but there are definitely things I like about it.

I wonder if the second room would seem less sterile if there was only one bed? I think maybe the fact that both beds match makes it seem more over-decorated and perfect, like it's out of a magazine. But maybe one bed would seem more realistic or something. I am not usually a red white and blue person, but this room works for me because the patterns are modern (pillows and rug for example) and it's not stars and stripes or anything like that.

Interesting comment on the size of the patterns (small, medium, large)...

Just came across this on Pinterest....way too much for me...

{{!gwi}}

Source: designsponge.com via Maddie on Pinterest

I have to say I don't think either room works. I really don't like anything in either room with the exception of the rug in the second one.

The second one looks like the decorator tried too hard; the first one like the decorator didn't try hard enough.

I think they both work overall, but there are issues with both.

To me,the first room works pretty well at first glance. But when you take a longer look, I think there are a couple of issues. It looks like a room that a 'real person' decorated, using things they had in part. The chair shape is great, but the fabric on the chair is wrong for the room. Not because of the print, but because it is done in 'dirty' colors (and actually, looks like an old chair),a fact the pillows on it highlight. Were the chair done in a white duck or a lime and turquoise stripe, it would be fine.

The rug is again a 'dirty' color, more olive; a plain cream or white rug, or a colorful large scale modern print, would do more for the space.

I love the READ on the wall, because I believe the framed pieces are favorite books (one is Eric Carle's "The very busy spider"). But I guess that to me would be better on another wall, near a reading chair or beanbag in a kid's room, and a bookshelf. Then again, if the child is a voracious reader, nothing wrong with celebrating that fact!

The second room is fine, except for the fact that all the color weight is low in the space, and the lampshade disappears against the wall and looks awkward with the little built-in above.

Instead of the lamp on the night stand, I would have hung reading lights of some kind centered above each headboard, done in brass (for the nautical feel) with lampshades in a print with deep blue (no stripes to compete with the beadboard) or a solid dark blue.

It also looks like the rug is running in the wrong direction for the pattern.

I would have also preferred to mix up the decorative pillows on each bed, so they weren't matching but complimentary, but that is not a big deal.

The first room looks like someone was given $100 and told to go shop at Goodwill. "Make it work." That chair is horrid - not the lines, but the fabric. Looks like a street find that needs recovering... and a good steam to get rid of infestation. I also don't like how it was pulled to this place to photograph.

I like the second room, but I was born on the 4th of July. lol I'd rather see the accent pillows on the beds not match. Ditch the sailboat bookends and paint the door/niche above lamp navy blue.

There are too many greens in number one. The olive-y ones of the rug and the grotty old chair vs. the acid green of the bed linens. I think the olive tone blends better with the dark blue and red furnishings.
Perhaps we're reading too much into READ. It may not be the imperative tense, but rather the past tense. "I read a great novella the other night"
The R/W/&B room is great, if cliched, for a young boys room.
#1 belongs in one of those trendy design on a dime magazine articles.
#2 is so "timeless" (forgive me) it could have come from a mid-80's Architectural Digest.
Casey

I loved the 1st room (it's been on my pinterest for awhile!) at a glance but now looking at it through GW eyes, I'd prefer it minus the chair upholstery & braided rug. They are too country for what looks like a young, fun vibe otherwise. The bed cover could have been smoothed out for the shoot, lol. Overall, I like the colors and personality of the room.

I find the 2nd room to be entirely too symmetrical and the beds too close together. It seems very cramped even though the photo clip would seem to show just a portion of the space.

#1: READ (even in past tense-- LOL at sombreuil)is too much. It needs to go-- that's all I see! Beef up the trim/moulding, change the wall color and the curtains (wall could have some fancy wallpaper, curtains solid), and I'd like it. The rug color also bothers me. BUT, I like that it looks like the room belongs to an actual person vs. a magazine.

#2: Yawn. Boring. I'd love to see those classic colors in a NEW twist . . .like hey, how about the beds "go" but not match? Looks like the decor is too "safe."

I really like the second room. The first is way too busy. I would change out pillows and curtaind and use solids. That would be a start anyway.