Quick Headboard or Wall Panel for Art Display
March 21, 2010 § 2 Comments
Is your artwork getting lost? One of my favorite pieces just seemed to float above the sofa in a sea
of beige until I rolled out a piece of fabric and found my solution. I stapled the fabric right to the wall and trimmed it out with three pieces of painted moulding cut on a 45-degree angle with my miter box (handy little gadget!). Voila! Some drama, instant matting, and a terrific way to add color and contrast to an otherwise quiet palette. Especially good if your furniture and wall color are the same!
This technique is also a great way to create a headboard over a bed. The fabric adds height to the room and texture to the wall, and it is more interesting than a square of paint (although that will work too).
Once I decided what I was going to do, purchased the moulding and painted it, the whole project took about an hour to install.
Good Design Learns from History
February 4, 2010 § 2 Comments
This historic New England barn is original to the property, and its characteristic beauty helps to define the classic regional style. Owning an historic property can be a real joy for those whose passion is preserving the beauty of the past, but don’t think you have to own a historic treasure to enjoy the pleasures of a striking outbuilding.
If you need more space for a workroom or your vehicles, you can add a lot of character to your property by incorporating the unmatched elements, colors, and materials used in previous centuries to make your own history, whether it’s a barn, a large work shed, or simply your garage.
I get lots of questions about how to match exterior colors and blend materials between house and garage, but as you can see from this photo, there’s absolutely nothing matching between this barn and the accompanying house. From the unpainted board-and-batten style siding, brass lighting, and farm-style scale, this barn stands on its own. The colonial house has traditional, painted, horizontal lap siding and white windows. The bridge color between house and barn is black — the black windows on the barn carry over to the accent color on the house (note the black shutters and lighting as well as the black pergola and fence next to the driveway). By painting the wood accessories on the house black instead of leaving them natural, the unpainted barn takes center stage.
Even if you have no plans to build a major additional structure in your yard, keep this basic design principle in mind when you’re working on your exterior. Colors and materials do not have to match.
Contemporary Color Scheme
January 7, 2010 § 5 Comments
This contemporary home maintains its warm curb appeal even in the snowy winter months. It looks like the homeowner started with the fabulous stonework on the chimney and gable area and selected the siding and trim colors out of that. The dark rich chestnut shade is perfect for the body of this large contemporary home. When you are selecting a color for your home, don’t shy away from strong colors, especially if your home is large. Just make sure you choose a color that appears somewhere in nature so that the house fits into the neighborhood. With new construction, you can also work in the window color and the deck stain so that everything coordinates. Even the post light style picks up the pattern in the windows. Nice job! Let’s hope these homeowners have a sizeable snowblower! Yikes.
Color Your Holidays
December 2, 2009 § Leave a comment
If you yearn for a fresh holiday look this season and prefer to leave the traditional decorations in the attic, try a more contemporary color scheme: apple green and silver; coral and gold; robin’s egg blue and white. As long as you add sparkle with shiny metals and twinkle lights, almost any color combination will look festive.
If your neutral or pastel color palette is soft and calming, and bold traditional colors seem to clash with your home’s style, then try using whites for your holiday color scheme: 
white candles, white ornaments (like the ones in the photo available from Amazon.com), white dishes, white wrapping paper, and white lights. All the winter whites against your pastel palette will look quite striking.
If holiday memories are most important, then haul out the boxes and baskets of ornaments and figurines and revel in the nostalgia of your own traditions. No picture-perfect holiday décor can replace the fun of reliving childhood experiences and sharing stories from one generation to the next. Who cares if Grandma’s favorite tablecloth is a little worn around the edges. Use it anyway and enjoy this family time.
Happy Holidays from Your Home & Color Coach
Pre-Teen Bedroom Makeover
November 6, 2009 § Leave a comment
This cork board from the Pottery Barn Kids catalogue was the inspiration for Hannah’s bedroom renovation. We decided to open up her rather small room by painting wide horizontal stripes all the way around the room in three different tones of blue-green with a white stripe between them. The treatment conjured up, at least in my mind, waves on the beach.
Then we punctuated the stripes with random placement of bright pink dot appliques, a perfect way to accessorize without adding anything permanent. White furniture, grass green/blue/white bedding with pink polka dotted pillows, and multi-colored awning stripes on the window completed the room. She was thrilled — so was I. What a fun project!
Traditional Colonial Explodes with Color
October 23, 2009 § Leave a comment
Picking a house color is a little tricky for some people. I realize that. And because I cannot bear to show you a photo of the real house I drove by the other day (to protect the innocent), I have pasted in a paint swatch from www.myperfectcolor.com just to illustrate my point. The color was used on the siding, trim, front door, AND garage doors.
When choosing a house color, paint a fairly large swath of the color on your house before purchasing a 10-gallon container of it. Also, make sure to pick some coordinating trim and door colors to avoid the “this color was on sale” monochromatic look. Ask your neighbors to throw in their two cents before you settle on a color. What you paint on your house can affect the entire neighborhood. And lastly, if the paint you selected does not seem to be what’s going on the house, stop the painter and make sure they have the right color. Don’t just let them keep going with something you didn’t order.
The name of this color is Sunflower Fields (174). Although it has a nice name and it sounds cheerful enough, sunflowers really belong on the front door (perhaps) or in the garden. What is the bright side for these homeowners (no pun intended)? Guests can find the house with no problem.
Paint Your Old Golden Oak Cabinets!
October 19, 2009 § 10 Comments
Saddled with old golden oak cabinets? Why not paint them. I did and it was very easy (though time consuming). I started by removing the doors from the cabinet base and unscrewing all the hardware. Then I lightly sanded all the surfaces. A good primer like Zinsser’s Bulls Eye 123 covered easily and provided a great base for the finish coat.
I used Valspar’s Kitchen and Bath Enamel in a Ben Moore color called Antique Parchment on the top cabinets and a Valspar color called Jekyll Club’s Cherokee Rust on the bottom cabinets (there, I plugged both companies). The cabinets looked great but I wasn’t done. In our house with kids, etc, etc, we tend to bang things up a bit so I mixed up a glaze that included some Cognac Snifter 1148 (a Ben Moore color used in an adjoining room) for the top cabinets and Branchport Brown HC-72 for the bottom. I painted the glaze into the seams and cracks in the doors and wiped it off with a rag. The look is rustic but cheerful and allows the new oil-rubbed bronze hardware to finish the room. And any future little scratches will not show. I love it!!
I tiled the backsplash (white primer in the before photo) with simple white subway tiles from Lowe’s. Not an expensive project, but I did purchase a wet saw for cutting the tile. (Looks like I have more tile projects in my future or maybe I can rent the saw out to my neighbors!) I am very happy with the end result, imperfections and all, and I do not miss my golden oak cabinets! I would highly recommend painting cabinets if a total kitchen re-do is not in the budget or if you’re planning to sell your house and you have ugly kitchen cabinets. The project will be worth it!
Color Your Front Door
October 2, 2009 § Leave a comment
The front door is your opportunity to give your house some personality and with very little money. Especially if you have a neutral color scheme everywhere else, like we see in this photo from Country Living Magazine (www.countryliving.com/…/budget-makeover-0206).
This beige and brown ranch style home comes alive at the front entryway with a glossy orange door, pumpkin accessories, and wrought iron as the metal for the lights and planters. That’s exactly what I’ve been encouraging homeowners to do on this blog for years.
The front door area is (or should be at least) the real focal point that draws your visitors in. A stunning coordinating color will let your friends and family know which doorbell to ring. Orange is a fabulous accent color — you cannot help but feel happy when you see orange. But other coordinating colors will work just as well.
Take inspiration from the colors in your yard, particularly by the front door. Rich blueberry, eggplant purple, sunshine yellow, and rosy raspberry all make terrific front door colors if you have any of those colors in your garden plantings already. Take time to focus some attention on that front door. It’s the easiest change to make on your house and it will give you a huge impact. If you need some help choosing a front door color, I’m at your service. Just email me at bmeglis@yahoo.com and we’ll set something up.
Basement “Man Cave”
July 11, 2009 § 28 Comments
This basement renovation project started with a request for a palette of brown and purple. Coming from a couple with impeccable taste in furnishings upstairs, I knew this would be a fun challenge. We inserted some green into the mix along with a touch of copper and brushed nickel and ended up with more of an upscale version of the typical “man cave” (obviously there had to be two large TVs in the space along with exercise equipment, a bar, a kitchen, and a pool table).
We started with two support beams in the middle of a large space so we built a granite-topped bar between them and divided the space into a media area, a pool table area, and exercise gym.
Instead of putting the large TV on the focal point wall, we decided to build bookshelves flanking a gas fireplace with a metallic tile surround. The Monet print above the fireplace is a nod to “The Thomas Crown Affair,” the homeowners’ favorite movie and the movie of choice on “Opening Night.” The purple and brown leopard print on the little bulbous rocking/swivel chair is my favorite piece in the room. And it’s so comfortable!
Color Your Spirits Bright
March 19, 2009 § 17 Comments
For years decorators have ignored an entire section of the paint color fandeck, labeling these colors as garish, for children only, or just simply in bad taste. Not anymore. Now colors like Mellow Yellow (Ben Moore’s 2020-50 that’s hardly mellow) and Bermuda Teal (2044-50) are making a fresh new statement of uplifting optimism in the design world. A splash of Marmalade (2016-40) or just a smattering of Sherwin Williams’ Gladiola (SW6875) cannot help but lift your spirits. Behr’s wonderful yellow green called Carolina Parakeet (410B-4) is such a happy color that even the name makes me smile.
I wrote about this topic months ago when we started to watch our savings go down the tubes, etc, etc, (no need to drag us through a rehash of events), and today’s Boston Globe has a great article entitled “What is the Color of Hope.” Here’s the link:
http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/house/articles/2009/03/19/what_is_the_color_of_hope/
Even if you’re not planning any massive redecorating projects this spring, adding clear happy color as an accent either on a wall, backsplash, or pillows on the sofa may actually improve your mood, enhance the good feelings in your home, and help you cope. A note of caution: If you decide to paint with these bright colors, be sure to mix in lots of white in trim, furniture and accessories not only to bring out the color but give the eye a little rest if needed.
Happy Spring!
Your Home & Color Coach 