It can be all too easy to get stuck in a “decorating rut” and do the same old comfortable thing each time you redecorate a room… or in any other visually creative activity, for that matter.

The best way I’ve found to jolt yourself out of that comfort zone, to open up to new ideas and new looks? Play with colours!

More specifically, put together an idea board of images in a colour (or group of colours) that you don’t see very much, when you look around your home or into your closet…

Chocolate and lime, for example, is not a colour combination you’ll find in my old house.

But today — inspired by the cover of John Loecke’s new book on Grosgrain Style — I’m going for it, seeking out inspiring images in that trendy chocolate brown and lime green combo, and putting them up on my idea board to see how it feels…

One interesting thing you’ll notice is highlighted by this little creative exercise — “lime green” can be interpreted in a great many different ways.

From an eye-popping bright fluorescent green…

To a pleasant mid-range green with a yellow tint…

To the colour of the striking Gia lime table lamp (with chocolate brown lampshade, above) — now, what do you say? Maybe more of a Benjamin Moore key lime colour there, almost a celadon?

We can all agree on the particular deep rich brown that’s reminiscent of a dark true chocolate — more or less — but what colour do you see in your mind’s eye, when someone says “lime green”?

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