What I remember about the city is its color. Paris lives on in my mind as a soft grey-pink city, while Portland, Oregon is made up of an array of cloudy greens and whites. While all kinds of qualities make up the character of a city, lasting inspiration often lies in the uniquely colorful stories we see. So why not create a travel guide based on the experience of these wonderful boards? With the help of the Sherwin-Williams® ColorSnap® Visualizer app, we bring you a series of travel guides to cities by seriously dreaming color palettes.
First up: Britt + Co’s home base, San Francisco. This travel guide was created with two ideas in mind: What places should you go to see great colorful stories that would *also* give you a good understanding of what City by the Bay is all about? Fortunately, San Francisco is full of beautiful scenery, vibrant cityscapes, and crazy beautiful architecture, so there is no shortage of places to find inspiration.
Thanks to the ColorSnap Visualizer app, we have a tool for getting these awesome color palettes out of our cameras into our home. ColorSnap Visualizer experiments with colors from your photos and creates a customizable palette using Sherwin-Williams paint colors. With the help of the ColorSnap Visualizer app, we’ve created the following color palettes from our travels. We even applied one to an office space renovation, which you can take a peek at at the end of this post.
First stop: Twin Peaks. We’ll start at the southern end of town. Twin Peaks offers sweeping views of San Francisco, San Francisco Bay, and even East Bay across the water. Constant fog keeps the infamous Northern California hills a vibrant, brilliant green, and we’re not mad about it. Twin Peaks is one of the best places to see these colorful hills up close. Green and yellow contrast nicely with the misty blue and white of the cityscape beyond, don’t you think?
Watch Famous Informed Ladies. Talk about colorful! San Francisco is best known for its charming Victorian homes located throughout the city, but the most famous is along the Alamo Square in Nuba. We locals are very proud of the stunning shades, pastel colors and ornate faces of these historic homes. Here’s a fun fact: These homes were painted gray due to excess paint from World War I and World War II, but were updated in the 1960s to their colorful state. Swing by the Alamo Square to experience this magical IRL architecture, then go to NoPa for great shopping and great food.
Hop on the cable car in the financial district. Cable cars running through downtown (until 1am!) are an iconic San Francisco sight we try *even* hard not to take for granted. What other city uses life-size toy cars as an efficient public transportation? What’s more, it’s a complete picture: the golden chariots pair perfectly with the reflections of the green sea at the high altitudes that pass between them.
Head to bustling Chinatown. With its bright colors, bustling streets, and festive strings of year-round lanterns, Chinatown is a must-see for colorful people. There are plenty of hues to draw from here, but we’re particularly drawn to the reds, pinks, and cream tones found throughout the store’s architecture and décor. We highly suggest you pick up a steamed ham and a fresh fortune bun while you’re in the lid.
Walk to North Beach. First stop in this famous neighborhood? Check out the Sentinel Building, the small version of San Francisco’s Flatiron. Found on the cusp of Chinatown and North Beach and just a block from the famous Transamerica Pyramid, this stunning emerald building is said to house the office space of famous filmmakers! But you haven’t heard it from us 😉 Personally, we love it for its unique architecture and how it juts into the flowing white and blue heights behind.
Check out the view on Telegraph Hill. You may have realized by now that there is no shortage of steep hills in this small town, which is the reason to search for real estate. There are stunning views everywhere you go – of the city, the bay, the Bay Islands, the Pacific Ocean, the Golden Gate Bridge, the Bay Bridge, and even the mountains in the neighboring counties. This is especially true on Telegraph Hill, just east of North Shore. Take a stroll through this area to see some gorgeous colorful homes, lush garden stairs, and – you guessed it – great views.
Walk up to the Coit Tower. At the top of Telegraph Hill stands the Coit Tower, which offers a rad 360 view of downtown SF, the bay, North Beach, Russian Hill, and beyond. As far as colorful stories go, this stop will save dozens – it just depends on which direction you’re facing! The view above depicts the tree-lined streets of Telegraph Hill, and the funky, bright, whitewashed North Beach homes and skyscrapers that fill the Financial District. We love the ombre effect from green, to white, to blue, with pops of sunny yellow.
A walk in Crissy Field. On the north coast of San Francisco, Crissy Field is a stretch of green fields and beaches that line the bay. Translation: This is the ultimate picnic spot. While you’re hopping on some Sandoz, be sure to check out the beautiful historic buildings that dot the former US Army airfield. We’re about to dig into it for a second, but we have *madness* crushing on the coral/ivory combo of these buildings. They are very capable on Instagram! Whoever the captain of the army decided on this color scheme had great taste 🙂
Ole at the Golden Gate Bridge: Duh! This giant needs no introduction. Be sure to see our proud assets during your stay. This kid is beautiful in all directions, but we’re part of the view north of the bridge at Battery Spencer. The best part of the bridge is its penchant for chameleons: the colors of the bridge, the water below, and the city crossing the border change with the time of day. If you visit on a foggy morning, you are sure to see a sight as beautiful as the one above – the bridge delivering a punch of red in a foggy landscape. If you visit at dusk on a clear evening, the bridge’s traffic lights light up like electric wires under a sunset sky. she’s amazing.
Watch the sunset on Rodeo Beach. No trip would be complete without a visit to one of the cool and beautiful beaches in the Gulf region. We are part of the lesser known Rodeo Beach, which is a Pacific beach just north of the Golden Gate Bridge. why? You’re sure to beat the crowds, and driving is as beautiful as the destination. Stop in the evening to enjoy the pastel sunset the northern California coast is famous for, with peaches, creams, and blue-gray hues. Just be sure to bring a jacket!
Let San Francisco inspire your home décor
Want to see *just* how easy it is to use ColorSnap Visualizer to revamp your design? We will show you! We renovated an office space with the image of the Golden Gate Bridge as our inspiration.
First, we extracted the colors from the image. Those bubbles you see can be animated, so you can create your own custom color palette from any image.
Then we got the drawing! We painted the office walls in three shades – Grape Mist SW 6548, Lite Lavender SW 6554 and Pure White SW 7005 – to mimic the silhouettes of the hills and cityscape in the background of the photo. Then we painted our Raucous Orange SW 6883 desk and Fireweed SW 6328 chair because they’re the focal point of the room, just like the bridge is the focal point of the photo 🙂 We also decked out classic San Francisco sensibilities: a nod to mid-century décor, layered textures, and lots and lots of plants .
be seen? *Easy* Get a vacation that inspires your home decor directly 🙂
There you have it: a San Francisco travel guide with color as a compass, and a *just* demonstration of how easy it is to apply these Bay Area color palettes to your home decor. Stay tuned for more travel guides for our favorite destinations!
Would you use this travel guide on your next trip to San Francisco? we want to see! Share the photos on Instagram and tag #britstagram so we can peek!
Palettes: Maddie Bachelder + Karen Pham
Photography: Brittany Griffin + Adam Napoli
This post was powered by Sherwin-Williams®.
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