When I travel abroad, I take a few photos of famous monuments and statues. But what I really love to capture are common elements like doors and windows. And the most remarkable to me are not the ornate or gold-plated, but the understated ones on tiny storefronts and countryside homes…the ones the locals walk through and look out everyday. Simple and modest, but so rich in color, texture, and feeling.

It’s fascinating the way that color is used in architecture throughout Europe. Homes and businesses show off their personalities by washing their walls in color, or using colorful doors and shutters as accents. Sometimes it’s nature creating the final color as with the rustic green patina that develops over metallic surfaces. Even if the colors are vibrant they feel demure, never flashy.

Photographs like these inspire me to pause for a moment at the everyday things… and remind me why I love to travel!

–Kristen
PS colors: pool & chocolate
Latest fave: Gold, Pink Dots Nesting Box – great to have around for last minute gift wrapping.

I’ve already professed my love for the farmer’s markets here in Chicago, but if I had my way I would spend my time traveling through the markets across Europe. There’s something about the way they present the food and the idea that locals go there everyday to buy fresh ingredients for that night’s meal. Set up in open plazas or packed into narrow cobblestone alleys, they are always charming and always inspiring.

While looking through photographs from my friend’s recent trip to Italy, I was reminded both of my nostalgia of such magical places and of the incredible colors that can be found in the simplest and most natural of items. Produce especially offers an unimaginable array of colors – even the understated muted tones are exquisite. If I could paint my world in these purple artichokes, I would!

–Kristen
PS colors: pool & chocolate
Latest fave: Gold, Pink Dots Nesting Box – great to have around for last minute gift wrapping.

We talk a lot about color around here, but it really can be inspirational. A room painted in yellow can leave you feeling sunny and pair of great pink shoes can make you smile. The same is true for inspiring memorable details for any event. Recently, we had the pleasure of hosting a baby shower for one of our coworkers. We used her nursery colors – night and chartreuse (gender neutral since the sex of the baby was going to be a surprise) – as the jumping off point for all of our decorations.

Our delightful banner was super simple to make using a roll of solid gift wrap (also great as a table cloth) with clouds cut from large sheets of cover weight paper. To make the letters we printed outlined letters onto sheets of 8.5 x 11 paper, then cut just inside the outline to create perfectly stenciled letters. Ribbons in different colors, widths and textures created a rain effect. The banner was such a hit one of the clouds now hangs in the baby’s nursery!

What’s a baby shower without baby shower games? Read the rest of this entry »

Every Saturday morning I look out my 15th floor window to the tiny farmer’s market that sets up just a block away from my apartment. I can’t wait to walk by each stand to see the fresh produce picked just days earlier. But my favorite is the fresh cut flower selection. Many times I don’t even buy anything, but I still enjoy exciting my senses – the variety, texture, and infinite color combinations nature allows is inspiring.

Something I’ve learned from flowers is that there are no wrong color combinations. In fact experimenting can lead to the most unexpected and wonderful color combinations. This past weekend I picked up some cockscomb in curry, red, dusty pink and deep purple. Accented with bright green leaves, it’s truly perfect. I can’t stop staring at them on my dining room table.

For me the lesson learned is don’t be afraid of color, of mixing colors, and taking tips from nature!

–Kristen
PS colors: pool & chocolate
Latest fave: Gold, Pink Dots Nesting Box – great to have around for last minute gift wrapping.

I wanted to share this cool study in color & texture contrast that I stumbled upon in my magazine archives, from Livingetc (one of my favorite home design magazines out of the UK). Color is such an integral part of Paper Source– if you haven’t yet, check out our colorscope– and the vibrant yellow in this image reminds me of how our curry is a beautiful match for almost any deep purple. This particular vase with its glossy finish, set against the deep dark richness of the flower, and the highlights of its edges and velvety texture… all create a bounty of visual fun! Whether it’s a vase and flower combination like this, or a shirt and a scarf, or a card and envelope pairing…there are countless ways to mix this gorgeous color combo into your everyday life.

P.S. view the photo full-sized to get the full effect.

–Fabra
PS colors: gravel & chocolate
Latest fave: Teflon bone folder

Each year, the PS Design team works together to create a new paper collection. This has become one of the projects we most look forward to– a wonderful mix of inspiration, creativity and collaboration (and long, long hours, thoughtful conversations and many, many revisions…the list goes on!).

After a trip to Asia last year, our founder Sue came back inspired to create a paper collection about India– what struck her most was all the COLOR, everywhere, as she traveled through the country.

We had a long time to reflect on the project before we actually began work, but the idea and thoughts of India stayed with us through the year. The attack on Mumbai, the emotions of the movie Slumdog Millionaire, a wonderful PBS series about India– plus trips to Devon Avenue in Chicago to hunt and gather fabrics and foods, countless books Sue brought back, magazine articles, questions and wonderful conversations…we became more and more enamored with India’s rich design tradition and its storied culture of festivals & celebrations. In the end, all of this helped shape our final collection. Read the rest of this entry »

Though I’ve been doing it for nearly 7 years, mixing and matching Paper Source colors never gets old – I continue to be amazed by how well they work together (despite knowing they were designed with that intention!). Like our color palette, our “Colorscope” is also about coordinating colors– and then learning how those colors reflect your personality. Our founder Sue felt that a person’s favorite colors revealed something interesting about them, and thus was born the Colorscope. Try it, pick out your two favorites (mine, at the moment, are classics Chartreuse and Pool) and read what they tell you about yourself. Just as I’m wowed by how our colors work together, I’m blown away by how my favorites really speak to who I am. Try pulling the Colorscope out at your next fete, we find it’s a great icebreaker – and who knows, could even become a matchmaker!

– Cindy
PS colors: chartreuse & pool
Latest fave: PS Wall Calendar — it’s wonderful to look at across the room.