With camera in hand, I went for a walk through Ottawa's Arboretum and Ornamental Gardens, and was reminded what I have always known; Nature is one of the best places to get inspiration for a colour palette.

I read somewhere that there are no bad colours, only bad colour combinations. There's a lot of truth in that. Nature never gets it wrong.

So the next time you're in the mood for a change, whether it's your wardrobe or the colour palette of a room in your home, get influenced by flowers, rocks, trees, sky and water.

From neutral to exuberant colour schemes, Nature provides them all. Capture the images on camera and take your photos to a paint shop where you can match paint colours with your images.

There is also a neat blog dedicated to matching and identifying different colour palettes with beautiful nature scenes and landscapes. Find it at http://naturalpalettes.tumblr.com/