Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Trim Colors Are Like Shoes!

Do you have white trim throughout your house?  Do you love it and the crisp way it makes your trim stand out?  That's great!  Nothing like fresh white trim to brighten up a room, particularly if you have fresh clear colors...light or dark, doesn't matter, and your fabrics are white or a clear color with white...BUT...

There's always a but....

I am here to tell you that there are trim rules out there that don't exist...like all your trim MUST be white...OR...all you trim MUST be the same in every room...OR all your trim must be high gloss, or semi-gloss, or satin gloss.....

Historically, trims were always a color...have you ever seen an authentic Victorian home with white trim?..color was a sign of wealth...white paint was cheaper to produce...colors were much more expensive...
so....who makes up the rules...personally I think a group of builders got together and said " We have got to convince everyone that white trim is HOT!...that way we do not have to be extra careful with the crown trim against the ceiling...and we don't have to keep up with what trim goes where...and we can buy in bulk and use the same trim in every house we build..." So white trim has been everywhere...all over the built in cabinets which I fondly refer to as The White Elephants....our kitchen cabinet, bathroom cabinets, everywhere the same...until now

The shoe rule:  Paint your trim a color that looks BEST with your walls and your fabric, i.e. furniture fabric and curtains....Take your fabrics and say " If this fabric was my jacket and THIS fabric was my shirt, etc., what color of shoes would look best with this outfit ?"...

You have got to be saavy enough to realize that this is a concept to get you thinking "out of the box" and to not take everything literally to the extreme....i.e. for those of you that would answer " I would wear RED shoes or shoes with GOLD GLITTER" does not apply to this rule...but in most cases it works in helping you with trim and cabinet and built-in cabinets....

O.K. a few examples...you have sage green walls in your living room and your fabrics are a great off-white natural linen with a pattern of a variety of greens, rusts, and soft golds...and let's say that you have a soft natural vintage look going on....I would probably suggest a very soft lighter taupe/khaki perhaps like Benjamin Moore HC-81 Manchester Tan or 956 Temporal Spirit....basically the color of the linen in your background fabric or a little lighter/darker than this tone....much softer than bright ready-mix white which tends to be a little on the blue-gray side....Oh and you will not like a high-gloss perhaps with this vintage look, semi-gloss or maybe the new Aura Satin if you want to go green....move into your foyer...maybe you have some great art to showcase...maybe the walls are the color of your trim, i.e. HC-81 Manchester Tan and maybe I want a soft off-white trim in here that still looks good with the colors next door....I choose Benjamin Moore OC-45 Swiss Coffee...great soft off-white...a little gray,  a little cream w/o going yellow...very flexible...maybe you think this is a little boring...so I am hanging my art up...have a great rug...and I just painted my oak railing..Ben Moore Bittersweet Chocolate...or Mink...or Silhouette (a great iron-black with a touch of brown) ...throw in the back of the front door as well!  The trim around the door (by the way) stays your main trim color, in this case the Swiss Coffee...Now I have a little classic drama going on....across the hall is the dining room...what could it be?

same green as living room, but the trim and wainscoating ( if there ) is the exact same color but in semi-gloss...

or how about Manchester Tan (same as in Foyer) but a sage green trim and wainscoating...

or how about the rust with chocolate brown trim?

maybe a soft-gold (that works with the fabric in the living room) and continue the Swiss Coffee in here...

Or maybe the Manchester Tan again with 965 Temporal Spirit which is just one shade darker....ELEGANT!

Get the point???

Go into your kitchen...can your cabinets and trim all be Swiss Coffee...Yes!   Can your walls be a soft taupy yellow ( Like Oc-8 Elephant Tusk ) with sagey-green cabinets...Yes!  maybe you a great pantry door in your kitchen...want to jazz it up? Paint it a slightly brighter/stronger terracotta or the same as the dark black/brown you used in the foyer....

Treat your trimwork as architectural accents...we are just now getting people to break up the furniture sets and blend pieces a little more...I know its harder to do but SOOOOOOO...worth it....I tell my customers that your home should be like a suitcase...and you are on the greatest journey in the world...and the particular "trip" you are on at that time in life ( i.e. style of home and location..) dictates the clothes (furniture and fabric and art) you take on the trip...and you have to have shoes...several pairs...some dressier , some more comfortable for walking, but you need to be sure that your clothes all work together...maybe mix them up if needed and that your shoes look good with their specific "outfit" but still looks good with other outfits as well...

Your house does not looked chopped up because you are pulling a thread of color from one room to another...this thread can be a wall color, or trim color, or rug color, or curtain panels or a sofa...there is continuity through the layering of colors and textures...

and just a side-bar...if your "suitcase" is in Florida...most of your "clothes" should look appropriate in Florida...i.e. lots of whites, off-whites, soft pebble colors, with jolts of greens and aquas...texture, stone, glass....sisal rugs...maybe the wool plaid and heavy dark leather accents should be used if you ever live in a home where its cooler?  Color reflects and works not only with the fabrics and furnishings you have selected but should also create an ambiance appropriate to the style of house, its' geography, and the people who live within...Color Jedi

Sunday, August 22, 2010

Think Out Of The Box

I was out doing what I love to do today which is to spend the day looking for treasures....first went to an antique auction....great pieces were going if you were in the market for larger pieces....I was looking for a nice antique piece to paint and then to embellish with hand-painted birds...my speciality...then on to two of my favorite shops here in Atlanta...no luck...so I am back on the computer looking for a vintage scarf...I want a Chanel or Versace or Hermes....I need some gold on the piece and would prefer a jolt of berry pinks and black...am I going to wear this? No....I need it for a small antique french gilt bench....I have been looking for antique fabrics for a few pieces in my master and everything was looking a little too fussy...I was wanting something a little more fun and out of the box...I found a few that were reasonable? (what's reasonable when you are looking for the perfect piece once its' stuck in your mind??!!?) and lucked up that the one I really liked was a silk twill so it will be a little hardier.  I have a great upholsterer that is use to my odd requests and I suppose we will back the scarf first and then cover the seat.  I am only looking to be sure that there is not any dry rot with older pieces of vintage or antique fabric (especially silk) because then its' useless. You can usually take an end and put up next to your ear and if you pull apart very gently and hear a crackling then there is dry rot OR the piece will just tear in two and you will know for sure!  When buying on line always be sure that a piece is clean and stated as such...leave the pieces that need TLC to the professionals...

I will see which scarf I end up with and will look for a nice silk flat braid...new or old...and then will have tacks nailed on top of the braid to finish off the piece.....Is this piece meant to be functional?   Not really...its in the entrance to the master suite and not in a place where too many people are likely to sit anyways...but if someone did,  then it should hold up just fine...the purpose of the piece is just to be beautiful and a little funky....so start digging through your relatives drawers for designer scarves..(they make great pillows as well )...Color is everywhere, not just your walls...and when thinking about your wall color you need to think ahead to where you will eventually place color throughout the room besides your walls...i.e. bedding, curtains, rugs, lamps, books, fresh flowers, painted furniture, ceilings, lamp shades and yes perhaps a designer silk scarf...you just have to realize that all these elements come into play and must balance each other in their placement...and we haven't even gotten to texture yet!  ColorJedi

Thursday, August 19, 2010

How Is The New Neutral Woven Into Our Lives?

Yesterday I talked about the re-emergence of gray as a neutral in interior design....classic interiors never stopped using shades and variations of the theme...I likened the color gray as being a color that gave us breathing room...a place where your eyes can rest from oversaturated walls and actually enjoy what's in the room, i.e. art, fabric, rugs, and furniture...

Gray may not work in your home....and all shades of gray are not appropriate paired with all colors....but there is a "gray" that has been hot on the scene for over two years and its here to stay...the wonderful natural color of antique linen sheets....which has morphed into hundred's of shades of linen from white to lime green to brown....Today I am talking about the real deal of linen...that undescribable color that hovers somewhere between a warm gray with hints of red to that of a grayed taupe with undertones of green-golds....

What is so perfect about this color?...it simply goes with everything...Sure, when faced with dozens of linen samples with varying degrees of color and texture, there is one color/texture better for your interior than another....but the natural organic perfect color of linen cannot be denied....earliest documentation of the manufacturing of this product apparently goes back 4,000 years and is believed to have been around as early as 8,000 B.C.  Stories of linen are woven throughout biblical history...it's story is amazing!

Once a customer realizes that the color gray that I am suggesting has the "feeling" of linen on your walls, they usually relax.  Linen can be formal...mixing with silk and velvet or as simple as a covering on an old iron bed...you can dress it up or down and can vary the tones to fit into almost any interior.  Let's go over just a few of these now for you:

AF-100  Benjamin Moore's Pashmina...A wonderful medium strength color...that actually pairs well with muddy golds and yellows..Looks wonderful on walls of course,  but is actually particularly beautiful on trim with a lighter color on the walls...something a little creamy perhaps, like BM OC-8 Elephant Tusk and OC-7 Creamy white...Also looks wonderful with grayed blue-greens that are lighter in value than Pashmina...Lets work with these colors in the scrubbable matte flat for walls to aid in creating that soft non-reflective ( yet durable) feeling of linen and use in the new Aura Satin when Pashmina is used on trim...

Benjamin Moore's THUNDER...grayer than Pashmina, but still has a warm feeling to the color, coming from the touch of red in the gray...works great with so many colors...particularly all those retro muddy purples..rusty orange and acidic yellow green...perfect for mid-century modern furniture with finishes everywhere from chrome to cherry.

OC-14 Natural Cream and HC-172 Revere Pewter....Great colors for exteriors where you want to get away from the bright white and yellowed creams...OC-14 a nice softened trim color with AF-100...and for that lighter fresh look....try them as wall colors...

OC-48, Ben Moore Hazy Skies...Gray? Green? somewhere in between? maybe...love this color with toiles, particularly red and cream and black and white...with authentic linen antique sheets...Trim? OC-45 Swiss Coffee, my new favorite off-white...it has a little of everything...cream, yellow, umber...looks white up, but softer...used it in our Gallery in Roswell, GA, The Upstairs Gallery, where the artists from Son Studios is featured....

Benjamin Moore 1556 and 1557...classic...that perfect grayed blue where the blue has a slight green undertone....I use this color on all of my European Decorative Finishes..the traditional linen fabric I have been talking about is drop-dead gorgeous against this color!

Ceilings with all of the above? I love to use 2138-60 Gray Cashmere...a little gray to this blue-green...exact shade of Atlanta's sky...soft and just there...I consider this color a ceiling neutral...you do NOT have to have blue-green in your fabric to use this color....God picked a similar color for many of His skies and to my knowledge all different colors of trees, mountains, grass and even concrete buildings looks great against our skies...the only time I don't like to use this color is when using a brighter clearer color and then may switch to something like Ocean Air....

What's not to love about these colors...throw in your red's, Caliente by Ben Moore...do a kitchen in a bright green like Grasshopper or Agave , use bright teal pillows with orange and cream tiger stripes or wonderful antique french linens....do nothing but neutrals with huge dosages of cream and texture from shag rugs to coral and sea shells with driftwood coffee tables....Sisal rugs with cherry and/or black furniture....my point? It's a good starting point that will give you some flexibility to experiment with some adjacent rooms in your design journey yet knowing that you can always come back to the warm natural organic colors of Linen...Hope you enjoyed! ColorJedi

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Kim's Art Talk: Femininity

Kim's Art Talk: Femininity: "This latex and acrylic on wood panel painting is called Femininity. Measuring 24” x 12', the composition is composed of a swirling mass ..."

Gray is the NEW NEUTRAL!

Hi to everyone who is interested in COLOR...particularly color in home interior   design...color...everchanging...bold..soft...it makes you feel...it makes your home YOU...Recently invited to do a seminar for a wonderful Pottery Barn store here in Alpharetta, GA (suburb of Atlanta) and I had to decide how to talk about color in just one hour....and it had to simply be about the "color" gray...you know, that scary color that no one likes (they think!)  Everyone is changing their design direction...it starts out small...and then BANG!!!! CRITICAL MASS!!!!and everyone has too much...too much color...too much fabric on their windows...too much STUFF...and I hate to say it...but too much polyresin stuff and fake plants and anything else in your home that just takes up SPACE and doesn't have any value...not monetary value..but personal value...deadspace objects that do not recreate a memory...or doesn't make you smile...or doesn't just look beautiful because of its shape or texture or COLOR!!!  All of a sudden everyone is coming into Northside Decorating ( where Niche By Design resides and where the Color Jedi resides to select colors for your home interiors...all day  every day...where I see it all...) and asking for help in updating their interiors...how do they get rid of their red dining rooms without starting all over...or all that GOLD everywhere...We start by breaking up the heaviness of all their colors by interjecting some interesting neutralizers...those colors that give you breathing room...room to see your furniture, art, accessories...instead of being enveloped in heavy heavy color....Everybody's "neutral" may be different...but I am going to start with a few that work with about 65%  of all of my clients....Benjamin Moore OC-8 Elephant Tusk ( Same color as  Pottery Barn's 239 Ivory Porcelain...same color but another name)...a softer cleaner "off-white" taupe with yellow undertones with a taste of gray...works with the older golds like plantation beige and tobacco road...but is lighter, fresher and feels cleaner...put in your foyer with a dark black/brown color on your railing and back of your front door...throw in some fabulous REAL art...( check out SonStudios) and you are on your way....don't repaint everything at once...start to edit/change gradually....a color that looked too heavy make feel fine after you freshen up and lighten up the color in the adjacent room.  My favorite new gray neutrals...Benjamin Moore's AF-100 Pashmina...OC-14 Natural Linen....HC-172 Revere Pewter...and even OC-48 Hazy Skies (a little green undertone in this great off-white gray)...I'll talk about these grays later and then we will move on to those fabulous European blue-grays that you see on antique sideboards , etc. Gotta go now...Color Jedi