Using Art as a Starting Point for Choosing a Color Palette for Your Rooms

I love to use artwork to inform a color scheme in rooms that I am working on. Artists use and combine colors in such unique and beautiful ways...so it's virtually foolproof letting a great piece of art be your guide to a beautiful color plan. 

Artist, Kathe Frage Via

This beautiful piece, available on canvas or paper, is very modestly priced and it can be the inspiration for a sweet room.  You could frame it in a faded gold - or a cream frame. I then might do a wainscoting and trim in Benjamin Moore's White Opulence (Classic Colors, 879) because it's a warm white that has a little touch of pink in it. Then for the wall color above it, I would think about Benjamin Moore's Love and Happiness (1191).  For a little extra texture, I might do a vertical stried finish on the wall with a creamy pink glaze. For the ceiling - I'd mix the two colors together to get a barely there pale pink - just for a blush color overhead.

Benjamin Moore's Love and Happiness (1191)

For a little girl's bedroom, I'd add a colorful floral, like Quadrille's Henriot Floral as an upholstered headboard. I'm partial to the name "Henriot" because it's the name most closely associated with Quimper pottery (which is such a favorite of mine).  

Quadrille's Henriot Floral in Pinks on Ecru

I'd add a cream or ecru duvet cover (that would match the background of the headboard).  I add a red and cream polka dot for the dust ruffle and for a pillow or two. Duralee offers this fabric - but I'm sure that this would be fairly easy to source less expensively.

Red and cream polka dots for the dust ruffle and a pillow or two.

Some extra pillows for the bed could be...

Robert Allen's Flower Prints in Poppy



A pink velevet - Kravet's Versailles



Robert Allen's Zinging Along in Poppy

I might do the Versailles pink velvet, edged with the Quadrille Henriot fabric as a throw at the bottom of the bed.

Window treatments: I could also see the red polka dot fabric as a Roman shade - with the Quadrille Henriot fabric as the draperies.

Carpet:  I would love to see something that's easy care - maybe a slight shag in a pink or slightly darker to help ground it.

Additional art could be something like these decals from Surface Inspired on Etsy. You can order them in just about any color.

Source

Just Another Idea for a Little Girl's Room:  I would do a vertical stripe with the Love and Happiness color and White Opulence by Benjamin Moore.  We did a pink and cream stripe in a little girl's room that came out so beautiful. My client and I (and her mom) went to the Kips Bay Showhouse in New York City several years ago - and my client went nuts over this room designed by Bograd Kids.  She wanted something similar for her little girl in their new home that they were renovating.



Inspiration Room



She so loved the Showhouse space that as soon as the room was ready, we were in there painting...stripes! A lot of them - it was a very big room!

We also revamped all of the furniture in the room (that was in the family for over 60 years) by painting it a soft cream and antiquing it. 

If you would love to have a Showhouse-inspired room in your home, give me a call at 631 793-1315

More Eye Candy in the Gray Color Palette

I just wanted to show some other beautiful rooms that feature the color gray - which I am learning to love a lot.  One of my "must do's" for 2012 is to do a beautiful room with gray as the star. I am such a color lover, but the color gray will help pop other colors in the room.

How lovely is this?  It makes me want to get rid of my windows where my bed is - so I could do a padded gray wall like this!  If you have never seen the work of Caldwell and Flake, as above, take a look at their portfolio on their website.  Their designs are so simple...but simply beautiful.  I love how an unlikely combination of gray and yellow work so beautifully!

Cynthia Smiley, Via At Home Arkansas

Another restful gray bedroom.  The wall color is Coastal Fog from Benjamin Moore (BM 976)  It's a warm gray that I would definitely specify for a client who may be afraid of using gray. I love how the gold starburst mirror really pops on this wall. 

Two years ago, I used Muskoka Trail (BM 974), which is lighter than Coastal Fog (it's the first color on the strip in their Classic Colors collection). But we did the color in a Metallic Plaster, which has a beautiful luminescence to it.  The client had several Steven Meyer prints which she loved.  If you have never seen his work, he is a radiography artist and his floral X-ray prints are really beautiful. Using BM 947 in the metallic plaster plus these prints on her walls created a soothing monochromatic entry in her home.

Steven Meyer

Brett Design

I just really may be talking myself into doing a gray infused bedroom - with all of these images! But how soothing is the above bedroom?  The paisley wallpaper pattern is from Cole and Sons and it's called Rajapur.  

Via

Another Caldwell and Flake designed room, this kitchen is so sophisticated and unique.  It may be too cold for some people but I feel it would be something that some of my NYC clients would love to have in their apartments. The quilted stainless steel backsplash creates some pattern and texture and breaks the monotony of the cabinetry. 

How would like this for a hallway or pass through in your home.  The colors chosen reflect the tones of the adjacent rooms in the Stately Homes by-the-Sea Showhouse rooms designed by Merilyn Marshall Cullen of MMC Designs.  Merilyn created the wallpaper to reflect the flora and fauna of the area during 1905 time period when the home was built. I love the gray-silver ceiling and how that blue chair just pops against the gray.

That's it for today.  More to come on the color gray...so stay with me.  Let me know how you have used the color gray.  I would love to know.

If you would love to have a room like one of the images shown today, give me a call at 631 793-1315.  I would love to help you create some beauty in your home.

Gray: A "New" Home Color Trend That's Been in the Making for Some Time

Gray, gray everywhere! So what's a color girl like me gonna say about "Gray?"  I happen to love the color when it comes to clothing.  With my blonde hair, the color gray blends beautifully - so I've been wearing the color for quite a while.  But there's not one wall in my house that is gray. I obviously haven't fallen victim (on the home front, anyway) to this "it" color.  I don't have furniture or accessories that are that color.  Oh - I have two pillows that are gray with a yellow, cream and tan floral pattern...and some stainless steel in my kitchen - but that's it.  Everybody's using it, so maybe I should really look into this! It's really not a new trend - it's been building over the last few years.

If any of you are also in the non-gray user category, I will be sharing some insights about the color and how to use it in a number of posts this month. The color has been gaining momentum for awhile and, it seems, that I see it everywhere now - in fashion, fabrics, paint colors, tile, home accessories and more.

Color trends usually start in fashion and then migrate to the home decor arena. Whether it was silver, pewter, a warm or cool gray...slate or sweatshirt gray, last year's Fashion Week showed me that the color had really arrived.

Ralph Lauren

Ralph Lauren

Michael Kors

Narciso Rodriquez

Narciso Rodriquez

Marc Jacobs

In the home color category, gray has been on the radar for quite some time. So this "trend" isn't actually new. Starting quietly at first, gray has been increasingly on the uptake in the design world.

Via Cote de Texas

Sally Wheat's kitchen above caused a stir several years ago when pictures of her kitchen, painted in Benjamin Moore's Fieldstone Gray, was shown on the blog Cote de Texas. At this time, Belgian design was really entering the US psyche and this color was very emblematic of Belgian style.

Martha Stewart also went "gray" early in her kitchen when she painted her island Bedford Gray from her own paint collection.

Thom Filicia and other designers have been on the gray train for quite some time as well.  Below, this sitting room that he designed in 2009 for Designer Visions: Cinema Style featured dark and light gray walls (Palais Royal with Pale Grey by Ralph Lauren on the battens).



A successful use of gray needs some extra pops of color.  Red, blue, orange, aqua will help infuse life in a room that is predominantly gray. I love how Mr. Filicia used the horizontal stripes above as well.  The lighter stripe keeps the room from being too dark and it also gives the space a restful feel.

Via Atlanta Homes and Lifestyles Magazine

Gray is such a great choice of color when you're mixing Cararra marble, mirror, brushed nickle hardware and stainless steel, as above. It's a simple way of ensuring a sophisticated aura in just about any room.

In the above room, I used a deep taupe basepaint and then I stried pearl and a little bit of gold metallic glaze to create an elegant backdrop for the mirrored funriture, silvered furnishing and silvered gray metallic window treatments. I did this room back in 2007 - and I think it looks like it was done yesterday.

Gray popped up in many of the Design Showhouses this past season.  I took part in one over the summer...and what do you know - a gray kitchen!  At the San Francisco Designer Showhouse last year, gray seemed to be everywhere.

Guest Bedroom by Green Couch

Master Bath by Val Fiscalini

Silver handpainting over gray Venetian Plaster Via

Stencilled leaves over gray Venetian Plaster to blend with the gray limestone tile by Artistic Tile (below) in the penthouse bath by Mark Newman

Via Mark Newman


I will be continuing this look into the color gray in more posts this month.  I even have an interview with color specialist and interior designer, Michelle Winick, who recently created a designer color palette for Muralo Paints.  Hope you will stay tuned.

Let me know if you have used gray for your interiors.  Would love to hear all of your thoughts - successes as well as failures.  If you are having trouble with color in your home, just give me a call at 631 793-1315.



Using Books in Interior Design

The great decorator, Billy Baldwin, called books the greatest accessories. Books are one of my favorite ways to bring color, texture, height and interest into a room. Not just for lining library walls anymore, you can use books to add height and color to a tabletop display, place books in tea carts, on a server in a dining room - and much more.

If you are anything like me, you have more books than you have storage space. So, by default, I had to devise ways to 1) organize my books, so that I could find them and 2) use my books in other ways rather than just on bookshelves.

One of the first things that I had to do was to whittle down the number of books that I had. When I got married, I also married into my husband's books. And when my father-in-law passed away - we inherited his vast book collection! That was more than my little house could take! Several garage sales later - and then I had a somewhat manageable number.

A Christmas vignette on my piano.  Books add height, texture & interest

I didn't style the above picture yet in my great room, but I wanted to show how some of your larger books can be used decoratively on a table top.  They add height and color.  Plus people looking at this may think I am smarter than I am with that huge tome of Shakespeare!

Even in small spots around the house, a grouping of books adds a lively note.  On top of a chair next to your bed, stacked next to a reading chair or in piles on a large coffee table, books provide warmth and informality to a space. 

Think of books as accessories and even art!  I advise that you should take off the book jacket because most of the time it's a lot nicer underneath!  Group the colors of books together - and make sure they coordinate with your other accessories and room colors.  Also, combine books by category - gardening, design, travel etc to bolster a theme in a room. Use books to heighten other accessories and objects - you want to stagger the heights in a display for greater interest.

Margot Austin, the senior design editor of Style at Home - the Canadian magazine, uses the following books as her "go to" accessories.

1. I Married Adventure: The Lives of Martin and Osa Johnson

2. David Hicks On Living - with Taste
3. Slim Aarons, Once Upon a Time
4. Century
5. The Way We Live
6. The Garden Book
7. Axel Vervoordt Timeless Interiors
8. Tom Ford
9. The Hamptons
10. Chanel

I would add some of the larger books (like my Shakespeare in the first photo) plus...Domus, Wall Painting in the Roman House, anything by designer Tricia Guild (her books you can keep the jackets on - they are gorgeous) and two great books for the kitchen - Bouchon and the French Laundry Cookbook by Thomas Keller. I'd also add any fun and colorful Cupcake Cookbook - it will brighten up any countertop!

Books can also fill huge, otherwise empty and bland spaces. The hallway, above, would have

looked far too intimidating and vertical without the lively addition of the books.

Instead of filling an entire library, install bookshelves on one focal point wall.

In a family room, books share space with the TV, accessories and family photos

Or...use books to create furniture

Books can also be the subject of an artwork, as in British artist Su Blackwell's work...

So get your books out of storage or off the shelves and use them in interesting ways in your home.  Let me know how you have used books in your designs. 

Sources:  1 and 2) Linda Leyble; 3) Margo Austin 4) bhg.com 5) Absolutely Beautiful Things 6)  Contemporist  7 and 8) LM Interior Design  9) Stylist, Grace Light of Poetic Home and 10) Su Blackwell

Merry Christmas to All: Remembering to Give Thanks

I just wanted to share some thoughts today on giving thanks for all the blessings that have come my way.  You can't package these things and tie them up with a bow and set them under the tree to be opened.  No - these are the wonderful heartfelt things that I sometimes forget and I take for granted. 

I am so blessed to be with my loving husband, Richard and his four children (my beautiful step children - Ryan, Dennis, Timmy and Megan -  who are more like my own now after over 10 years of marriage).  I am so happy that I found Richard (and I found him thanks to the Internet!) because my life was a bit too lonely and unstable beforehand.  I was happy - but I didn't know exactly how happy and fulfilled I could be until I met and married him.  He gave me the freedom to express myself as I never did before (with art, music and design) and he let my creativity run wild in his home that I moved into.  It never looked the same again - it is now unrecognizable to anyone who knew the house beforehand. Thank you for giving up your home as my laboratory.

Richard and I visiting my daughter in San Francisco

I give thanks to our growing family - we have two grandchildren and two more on the way.  I am so very happy that my little baby (my youngest daughter, Jessica) will be giving birth to a baby girl in April.  I can't wait to see this little bundle of joy - I know that she will be beautiful, like her Mommy. And Richard's son's wife, Kristen, will be giving birth to their second child in July.

My daughter, Jessica, and I in Sonoma...visiting some wineries

I am so thankful and proud of my oldest daughter, Krista, for raising my granddaughter, Meghan. She is such a talented and accomplished young woman. It was not an easy task - raising a child on your own.  My daughter Krista overcame so much adversity - I don't know how she did it.  Meghan is now on a 4 year scholarship to Stony Brook University.  I was looking at her chemistry homework the other night - my eyes glazed over this in compete ignorance - yet she understood it.  She's going into the pre-med program.  So proud and so thankful. She already has ideas that she wants to implement someday to cure cancer.  The world is a better place...and will be more so, because Meghan is in the world.

The cutest little girl...Meghan at around 3 1/2

My daughter, Krista...and Meghan

My daughter and Meghan at her HS graduation

These are gifts that I get to have and hold everyday.  "You can't get any better than that!" to quote an oft-repeated phrase of my mother-in-law, Jean - another gift that I am thankful for.  A wonderful mother-in-law!

Thank you to my entire family for being yourselves and giving me joy every day.

I also want to give thanks to all my blogging friends that I have met over the years.  Thank you for commenting and always encouraging me.  I would have never met any of you...had it not been for the Internet.  Amazing in itself.

I hope that we all have a beautiful Christmas and a joyous New Year.  Remember to think about the gifts that you get every day - the ones that don't cost anything.

Linda

Some Last Minute Christmas Decoration Ideas

I just started doing Christmas decorations in my home - meant to do them last weekend but the time just flew by.  I am having my daughter's baby shower this weekend at my home - so I guess that will be a little Baby Decoration Vs. Christmas and I don't know how that is going to fly - but as long as everyone has a good time, nothing else matters.

I thought I'd post some interesting ideas that you could whip up in this last remaining week.  I always need to do something new for Christmas and I liked these ideas.  Let me know what you think of them!

Ever have some old ornaments that have lost their lustre?  What not add some glue and glitter to them - to perk them up, as in these ornaments from Upscale, Downhome. You can buy Martha Stewart glitter at Michaels or any other glitter at arts and crafts stores.

Source

But for a real treat, why not use some Meyer's Glass Glitter? It's ground glass and much thicker than all other glitters.  I've used it on chipboard letters and motifs - for any occasion, not just Christmas. You have to order it online here, but it is well worth looking in to. You can use the German Glass Glitter to add sparkle to pine cones too - these look great in a Christmas tree.

Here's another great idea that's fast and inexpensive.  Take some fabric and place it in a small embroidery hoop, then add a ribbon to hang.

Source

 
A quick and easy floral decoration idea from Martha Stewart is to use cranberries in a clear vase as a beautiful base for flowers.  Make sure you use hard cranberries - or else you'll be in trouble!  Wash them well, place in a clear vase and you'll see that they actually hold your flowers together very well. Looks great on a mantle or on your table.
 

Source

 
Or - use a cloche to hold any number of things: winter branches, pinecones, ornaments etc,

BHG.com

And...another great idea, incorporating greenery

For a fabulous centerpiece, why not place some white, or off white candles on top of a mirror.  It's simple, beautiful and it's double the glow.

www.dustyluinteriors.com

An even easier centerpiece is one made of empty wine bottles and tapers.  Just make sure that either the tapers or the bottles vary in size.  You don't want them equal.  Very dramatic, I say.

Source

Another great idea is to fashion a wreath into a different shape.  Do you live by the shore or do you know a boating enthusiast?  This anchor wreath would make a great door decoration or gift.  There's a tutorial on the site that will guide you in making it.
 

Source

 
There have also been some great book page wreath ideas floating around the web lately.  Living with Lindsay (a great blog) has a tutorial on how to make it on her blog.  It will take a little time and patience, but I think it's worth it.
 

Isn't this beautiful?  Find out how to do here

 
Marion Parsons, aka Miss Mustardseed, has a great wreath tutorial on her site as well.  Her blog is so informative, you will find hundreds of ideas for Christmas and every day. Check out her site here

Artist, Barry Belcher has a great tutorial on how to do a book page wreath on YouTube (along with many other ideas).  He is extremely creative and his how to's are easy to follow.  Check out his wreath video...

So, I hope that everyone will be ready by Christmas.  As always, it came too fast this year!  Hope these decorating ideas help you make your homes look great this Holiday Season!!!