It’s springtime in the Pacific Northwest which means the weather changes daily between bright and sunny and sudden downpour. It also means the hills are covered with every possible shade of green, leaves are popping and LILACS ARE IN BLOOM!
The older I get, the more obsessed I become with flowers. They’re all my favorite. But lilacs. Oh my. They rank way up at the top.
I love their droopy shape, their bright green leaves, their varying shades of purple (especially the dark ones up there!) and of course, their heavenly scent. I just want to sit and smell the flowers all day long.
My love for lilacs got me thinking about the color purple. Do I like it? Do I not? It’s not a common color in home design or fashion and usually reserved for sweet little girls.
When I posted this picture of our bedroom on instagram, someone asked where our plum quilt was from. It’s actually gray (from Target) but it got me thinking: purple is actually a really pretty color. Maybe not all shades – at least in this neutral-loving girl’s mind – but muted or deep or dusty or pale, these are all pretty hues.
If you’d like to add a little bit of purple into your life, here is a round-up of products with lilac-hued inspiration:
1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 / 9
What do you think of the color purple?
I love purple – especially lilac and lavender shades, they seem to be soothing and calming. I love the way your gray quilt looks lilac.
When I look at this post before clicking on it, the lead pic seems to be two sheep in the road but I don’t see that pic included in the post. Do you see it or am I crazy? I love it and would love to know the source.
Thanks!
I love the color purple! I’ve always had a touch of purple somewhere in my house. Some rooms more than others! One of my outdoor areas is planted with all purple and green flowers and plants. I also have lots of purple hanging in my clothes closet. I think purple looks fabulous with silver, gray, gold, mercury glass. ..I could go on and on!!
I’ve always been a purple girl! Love all shades from pale lilacs to deep plums and amethyst. It pairs so well w/silvers and grays.
Lilacs are my favorite too. My parents have big beautiful lilacs all around our childhood home. A few years ago when they came to visit, my dad brought me some shoots from their plants and we planted them around our house. This was the first year they bloomed and I think of my parents whenever I see them. :) Love the way they look and smell!!
Love Lilacs! The garden is the only place the color purple doesn’t stress me out! My piano teacher’s home growing up was filled covered in varying shades of purple – in a Laura Ashley kind of way. When I see purple I think of theory, classical music and recitals at the Claremont Colleges. Way too stressful for 10 year old me.
I have to admit purple was my favorite color as a kid– I wanted so bad for my birthstone to be amethyst instead of boring old emerald and I even chose a purple stone for my class ring…! As I got older, I tried to deny my love for purple but it’s coming back with a vengeance. I absolutely love the shades you chose in your post and the lilac in my yard is my favorite too! Beautiful site Emily! ♥ Loving your aesthetic!
I love purple. Last summer I had the interior of my house painted. One wall in the dining area and on down the hall has been painted a beautiful shade of purple. The other walls are green. I love it. I never realized how much purple I had in my life until I “organized” my closet. Nothing blaring, but lots of purple here and there! Purple is such a lovely royal color.
The earrings are sooo pretty! And I love the purple mason jars too. Such an elegant color =D
I love all shades of purple, from the lightest to the darkest, from bright to muted to dark
Purple is my husband’s favorite color (I think it’s a royalty thing). My grandmother was CRAZY for purple and it was everywhere in her house — for years I avoided it because even though I adored her she just went overboard with it. Recently I’ve been re-thinking my feelings about purple and deciding that I like it a lot!
I love lavender and most shades of purple in general. I have used it in all of the different spaces/places we have lived over the years. From a vibrant purple couch to purple/gray walls to my daughters room in foxglove. I am so happy the color is getting some well deserved attention! As far as flowers go – love them all. Thanks for a post about my favorite color!
Decorated a bedroom with purple and white wicker furniture in a shore home. Some people see blue sea, but look further the color changes with the light or cloudy day. Love lilacs too! I think I’m going out and finding a lavender tee shirt. Thanks for aspiring.
Purple has always been my favorite color!
First off, I love those earrings! I have a February birthday and amethyst is my birthday stone. I love to throw in a little purple or plum in my decorating. I used to think it was just for a girl’s room, but pairing it with green makes a lovely combination. I’ve always loved lilacs too. There is something so sweet about them. Maybe it’s because they bloom for such a short time and they are such a precious little flower we can only enjoy briefly.
I love lilacs, but I’m so allergic to them, I have to enjoy my neighbors lilacs from afar. Your “do you like purple” question got me thinking! It’s funny, I don’t wear purple often, I have a couple of cardigans but that’s it. I don’t decorate with purple, yet I really like it. I realized this week after buying plants for my yard, that every time,I come home with something purple, I’m drawn to it, so I guess I really do love it! I also love those anthropologie earrings!
I can smell your lilacs through my monitor! Lilacs have been my favorite flower for as long as I can remember. When I was a little girl, my grandparents had a large side lot that was flanked on 3 sides by a “fence” of purple and white lilacs. I could smell them three houses before I got there! Don’t lilacs make the most gorgeous cut flowers? They work in any room of the house. To answer your question, I love purple! I love shades from light to dark of truly pigmented purple. I love this color much to my husband’s dismay, but he has learned to live with it and I think secretly likes it. I did our guest bedroon in lilac and a light spring green. It is SO fresh and lovely. My niece loved it, so she recently did her soon to come baby girl’s nursery in those same colors. It is precious. I love your bedding and when I saw it on Instagram, thought it was a beautiful shade of dusty purple. I hope you have a huge bouquet of purple lilacs in your lovely bedroom!
Love love love purple. The deeper, the better. Too much can be a bad thing, but just the right amount offers a richness and beauty to just about anything.
I am definitely a purple person – it is afterall, a sign of royalty. Hee, hee I would not do purple walls, rugs, furniture, but I love to accent my neutral beds with some purple occasionally and being a quilter, I am not at all opposed to purple quilts. They just make me happy. Thanks for sharing your lilacs – we aren’t as fortunate to have them yet in our new yard, but working on it. Judy C
Lilacs have been a favorite of mine since I was a child. We had a purple lilac tree in our backyard and our neighbor had a white one. We would always bring in lilac bouquets for our teachers! To this day the smell of lilacs is my favorite scent by far.
I have never really been a ‘purple person’. But my dad remarried after my mother passed and his new wife LOVES purple. So for mother’s day this year I crocheted her a set of washcloths (per her request). I did a purple ombre set and as I crocheted them I thought, hmmm, purple is really pretty! :)
I love lilacs. I had a beautiful collection in our garden before we moved outside the US. Have you seen Sensation lilac?? Get one! It is a med purple with a white edge. I found a purple/grey linen duvet cover at Restoration Hardware Outlet last year. I couldn’t resist it.
I LOVE purples. There are so many, and I’ve loved them since I was about 11 years old when I got a bedroom with what must have been called lavender….a new bedspread and “drapes” as my mother called them. I still love it and have touches of it here and there. I also love the purplish gems, amethyst, tanzanite, pearls with lavender hues, or beads. Whatever it is, when out shopping the purple items catch my eye and I stop and look; saw a lavender purse last week and was seriously tempted! Loved your photos, Emily, of those lilacs, reminded me of the lilac trees along the tennis courts at my alma mater. : )
My whole entire house and most of my wardrobe is purple! I love purple. My carpet is even purple! My walls are a very subtle Greek Green to balance all the purple – well, except for the 2 purple walls in my bedroom with splashes of gold all over! Purple and gold have such a rich quality when paired.
From decorating with purple I’ve found there are 2 very distinctive families of purple. Those with red undertones and those with blue undertones. Since my husband likes the red undertones better, that’s what I went with. That way, when friends want to buy you something for your home, they know the direction in which to go so that it will reasonably match.
Purple is my passion!
Purple is one of those shades that allows for your mood. Now lilacs hold a special place in my heart, along with violets, and Lilly of the valley.
Growing up in Detroit along side Huber Foundry Plant and with a side and back alley made things a little bit stinky at times, but my mother was a very smart women and planted violets, lilacs and Lily of the Valley right under our windows and along the fence by the trash cans. She also would sweep the alley to keep it safe for her brood of 13 children to play in. Low maintenance with a great smell was her main goal, and you know what, it worked. She was a good woman and an awesome mother, who endured so much raising us basically on her own while my father worked 2 jobs (Wayne County Deputy Sheriff and short haul driver with Dunn and MavisTrucking), but she always stayed a virtuous women (Proverbs 31). Strong, beautiful, and a true women of God.
Even with all of us she made time to help the neighbors who were the outcasts because of extreme physical or emotional problems. She was one classy lady, that as I grew older learned to appreciate more and more the sacrifices she made to bring a little bit of God’s beauty to a very hard life.
She resides with the true Lily of the Valley now, and I’m sure she herself is now a sweet smelling savour unto our Lord Jesus Christ.
By the way Emily, I save all your emails and file them in a folder titled “A Virtuous Women”. I enjoy your work and you are a true inspiration for me.
Well, I love shades of lilac with white and turquoise ever since Yardley of London used that color combination in the 60’s. Maybe when I see that combination, it takes me back to a simpler time. Whatever the reason, I love the crisp clean look of that color combination.
I absolutely love all of your purple! It’s all put together so well! I especially love your bedroom and the beautiful lilacs!
Thanks for sharing your inspiration with us!
Purple is a color that takes my breath away, especially the deep rich purples. I love lilacs too, and am currently using one of your interior design tutorials with free template to stencil my bathroom wall a refreshing lilac leaf green :)
It would make a good name for a film! Love your blog.
I love purple, especially with the color gray. Just got a new floral cardigan with a couple shades of purple in it, found a purple tank that matches perfectly, can’t wait to wear it. Maybe on Mother’s Day?
Love all of the items in your blog, favorite item pictured?…the pillow.
It was a great movie!
I Like to wear a purple cardigan or top but I am not sure about decorating with it. I have noticed on HGTV shows like Property Brothers and Love It or List It they paint walls lavender a LOT. I don’t care for that at all. Everyone is different. I do like gray though and depending on the light some shades can look a bit lavender.
I have been in LOVE with the purple color for as long as I can remember! And not just purple alone…any shade of it, plus varying shades of it, TOGETHER!!! I don’t care if it’s many little girls’ favorites, I still am wild about it, and will always be! I really like the purpleish items you posted above, and like all their differing shades! Thanks for asking, Emily :)
Next to Royal Blue, purple is my favorite color, and well it should be, since my daughter and I both have birthdays in February. I love the amethyst birth stone, and I have several beautiful pieces of costume jewelry in that stone. l am very fond of lilacs (and like you, especially the dark colored); however, since I live in a condo I do not have the space for a big lilac bush.
I’ve used purple in my bedroom on and off since I was a girl – and that was many years ago! I just painted my bedroom from a shade like the green of your pillows to cream and changed out the bedding from shades of purple to cream. It was dramatic. All cream in there now with the exception of the accent pillows. Seeing your room got me to thinking perhaps a purple throw and some beautiful green pillows would look nice. I didn’t not like what I had – just got tired of it. Now with the cream I can change it out whenever I want with a quick switcheroo to the pillows. We are still waiting on the lilacs here in MI. A couple more weeks and I can’t wait for that heavenly smell!
Isn’t that the best part about a neutral foundation?! You can add in those extra accessories and change the whole look without having to purchase the big items.
I LOVE the smell of lilacs! I totally thought the stunning purple and gold posts were earrings too! WAHHHH! I can’t believe they are cabinet knobs! Someone should totally make earrings like that, they’d sell like crazy!
I have started wearing purple more – have several shades of purple sweaters and accent scarves. Purple is a FUN color to wear. My youngest daughter got married last June and Purple was her color. I wore a lavender dress with sparkly purple heels – very fun!
I have the mason jars and they are gorgeous! The shorts are my favorite (too bad they are too short for me). Also, I thought the last picture was a pair of earrings, just as Natalie did. They are drawer pulls y’all. Still pretty, but now I am on the hunt for a pair of earrings that look just like them.
I am not huge fan purple, but it is refreshing now and again..especially in the pictures above. Thank you for sharing Emily!
Wouldn’t those be pretty earrings?!! I kinda want the drawer pulls though, too :)
I wonder if you might enjoy the book “Where Lilacs Still Bloom” by Jane Kirkpatrick. The story takes place in Woodland, WA and is based on a true story about a woman and her love of lilacs as well as the challenges she faces as a woman, wife, and mother in her time.
Oh, Thank you for the suggestion! I’ll look it up!
I love Purple!
Those earrings are stunning! I don’t have a lot of purple in my home either, nor do I really wear it. But it’s so beautiful!
I love purple (especially the deep plum variety), wear it whenever I can find it, and use it as an accent in our green bedroom! Might have to check out that necklace—so pretty! Thanks for sharing!
Yayyy I love this post! Purple is one of my favorite colors! My garden is full of many varieties of purple irises. And ur dining room was just painted a deep eggplant/aubergine color. The wall color gets more elegant at night time with candlelight.