Shutters Shatter Traditional Color Combinations
September 6, 2011 § 4 Comments
This house has a color combination I wanted to share with you. The taupe siding has the most interesting pink, almost purple, undertone that changes the way we see the house color depending on the light. The color can go from brown to mauve to gray over the course of the day. The trim is a combination of painted creams and vinyl off-whites (I wish they had picked one color or the other, honestly). But the real surprise (we’ll ignore the green front door) is the majestic blue shutter color. I would never think to pair the mauvey taupe with a royal blue but somehow it works. Black shutters would have been the easy choice, but someone had the bold idea to step out of the ordinary and into a new color combo. New to me anyway…
Shutters provide another opportunity, along with the front door, of course, to express some individuality for your home’s exterior. Although it is customary to work within the neighborhood in terms of palette, if you feel like breaking the mold, go for it. Just be sure that your home’s personality does not overpower your own. It’s no fun to make excuses for a paint job that went haywire. In other words, if you don’t like it, paint it over!
In the meantime, have another spin of the fandeck and see what paint color combinations work for you.
Southern Style Christmas Tree
December 7, 2010 § Leave a comment
When it comes to decorating for Christmas in the South, more is better. And bigger doesn’t hurt either. The Celebrity Holiday Homes 2010 special on HGTV featured Trisha Yearwood’s home decorated with big wreaths made from cuttings from her yard, a rainbow of ornament and ribbon colors, and beautiful hydrangeas perched between the boughs of the Christmas tree! Now that’s an idea that never would have occurred to me so I decided to try it on my own Christmas tree.
I hauled out some silk bouquets I had put away in the closet and selected the reds and creams for the tree. What a terrific pop of color — similar to oversized ornament balls but more textured and interesting. I kept all my other red glass Christmas balls and the children’s ornaments from Nana as well as the little plaid bows. But the silk hydrangeas really make the tree look special even way up here in New England. I’m hooked.
So for those of you who celebrate, y’all have a colorful Christmas!
Flooring Challenges: Working around the color scheme
November 15, 2010 § 4 Comments
Are you living with a slate floor from the early ’80s? Many of you are. Slate is a wonderful material for the foyer as it’s easy to mop up after muddy boots and dogs trample through. But many slate floors have a distinct color palette (the gray-greens, blue-greens, purples and rusty reds) all in one small square footage. Busy? Yes. And out-dated? Yup.
Besides throwing a rug over it or replacing it, the other approach is to embrace the color palette presented to you by the previous owners. Currently, the gray-blue-greens are quite popular in fabric lines and even paint stores. 
And purple is a great accent color. So if you are updating your foyer and are cursing the flooring, take heart. Pull a palette from the floor at least for the foyer area. Blending the floor with the surroundings will make it less of a color feature in your room.
And as always, create a focal point just inside the front door. A large piece of art, a bench, or a mirror– something to draw the eye upward away from the floor.
If you are planning to install new flooring in your entryway, choose a neutral that will stand up to decades of wall color changes and will look just as terrific 20 years from now as it does today.
Brick Historic House: Trim, Shutters, and Roof Made Easy
November 1, 2010 § Leave a comment
For those of you with historic brick homes, you cannot beat crisp white trim and charcoal black for your shutter color and roof. Forget about updating your shutters and installing a new multi-colored, dimensional roof. Basic black and white may seem blah, but honestly, good taste and traditional styling are never boring.
Express your own creativity in your landscaping. Keep the plantings symmetrical around the front door to coordinate with the symmetry of your formal house design, but add color and variety of shapes and sizes. Another tip: if you do not want to match all the window treatments on the inside of the house (even though it does look spectacular on a house like this), then at least have matching white lining on the curtains, white sheers, or plantation shutters. Mixing things up with a rainbow of window colors just ruins the formal look.
Living in a historic home is not for everybody. There’s a certain expectation — I’ll talk about informal living in another post… but for now, viva la tradition!
House and Trim Colors that Make a Statement
October 14, 2010 § 3 Comments
Every now and then I see an accent color that whacks me over the head, and this bold expression of lemon yellow really does it to me this time! Usually a color that does not translate well onto siding or other large surfaces because it’s just too intense, this clear saturated primary color on a shutter paired with black wrought iron hardware on a subdued and sophisticated dark, gray-blue siding is a knock-out! What a statement!
What makes this combination work is the sharp contrast between the gray tone in the siding color and the bright clear shutter. If the siding were another warm clear color, the combination would scream like a caution light. But the calm understated siding lets the yellow attract all the attention. There’s no competition between the colors, just sheer harmony.
Another key to this combination is the “bridge” color that pulls the look together: white. The white trim makes the colors pop — as they say — and it’s critical whenever you use bright colors, either inside or out. White also gives your eye a chance to rest from the intensity of the palette.
But just like other bold statements, be prepared to attract a lot of buzz. And keep the lawn mowed.
Sew a Simple Window Topper
August 9, 2010 § Leave a comment
I do own a sewing machine (a hand-me-down), but I would not call myself much of a seamstress. I sew when I feel inspired or I find a fabric I cannot live without. These window toppers were so easy that I had to share. If you cannot sew a straight line, pick stripes for your fabric. Infinitely easier than everything else.
Cut rectangles of fabric and lining, allowing enough extra for your seams and your rod pocket at the top. Then with right sides together, sew along the edges of your rectangle leaving a little space at the end to turn the fabric right side out. Press the box, turn over one edge and hand-stitch a rod pocket. You’re almost done.
Once you’ve hung your new valances, then you can add a little style by cinching up the fabric in a couple of places (maybe along either edge and in the middle if your valances are wide enough). Use a needle and thread to tack in place. Voila!! Little custom valances in an afternoon!
Farmhouse Kitchen Renovation
August 3, 2010 § Leave a comment
This historic New England farmhouse kitchen posed a challenge to the homeowner when it came time for a remodel. How do you update your kitchen while keeping with the age and style of your home? You cannot simply drop a slick granite countertop into a kitchen whose bones date back to the mid-18th century.
With its layers upon layers of early architecture and more recent updates, the de-construction was bound to expose some surprises, but plans for the new kitchen proceeded. Since the homeowners are gourmet cooks, the appliances were purchased first. Form follows function in a busy kitchen where every weekend welcomes a different group of dinner guests.
The design team, which also included a local kitchen designer and the homeowner who is an artist, went through the wish list and created a floorplan that incorporated everything. The gas range took center stage followed by a bake station, double ovens and a large farmhouse sink. The round table and chairs were replaced by a sizeable peninsula with food prep station and leather-seated bar stools for guests. We chose soapstone for the countertops in keeping with the period and kept the woods and tile in natural tones with minimal contrast to make the rather small kitchen appear larger.
We brought the forest green and grape accent colors in from the wallpaper in the adjoining family room to create flow between the back-to-back rooms, and we added a built-in cabinet to replace the free-standing piece that housed collections and other kitchen clutter. The clean lines of the new cabinet also helped to enlarge the space.
The updated kitchen, even with all its bells and whistles, manages to maintain the old early American character found in the rest of the house and provide its homeowners with a much more efficient and workable space for cooking and entertaining.
Brick Tudor Siding, Trim, and Roof Color
July 27, 2010 § 6 Comments
Brick is one of those design elements that people either love or hate. Well over half of the questions that come to me have to do with brick: How do we work with the brick? How do we pick a siding that goes with the brick? What about roof color and brick? Can I paint my brick? How can I possibly live with this brick?
Here is a photo of an early-last-century, Tudor-style home with the signature brick gabled entry and chimney. The brick is monochromatic (not a lot of contrast between individual bricks), and it is a very pleasant dark muted red color.
The new homeowners chose an olive green siding color which complements the brick and makes it stand out as a feature on the house. (That works great if you like the brick! I’ll address what to do if you hate your brick in another post.) The muted olive siding color balances the muted red of the brick so that the house elements are in harmony (a fancy way of saying “They just work!”). Even though the windows themselves are white, the homeowner chose cream for the trim color. Cream is much softer than white and is preferable to white on older homes or with earthy palettes. And see? You can use cream trim with white windows and not ruin the house.
As for the roof, obviously this is a new roof and the homeowners took advantage of the myriad choices available to them. The muted brown tones pick up on some of the browns in the brick and again pull a very visible element of this house — the roof — successfully into the palette.
Traditional wrought iron sconces and mailbox as well as period hardware on a solid wood door provide the perfect jewelry topped off by a real, not plastic, concrete urn on the front steps for summer flowers.
These homeowners took an old home and modernized it in a tasteful way that pays homage to the home’s original Tudor styling. The result is both fresh and historic. Perfect house synergy.
Inspirations from the French Countryside
July 26, 2010 § 1 Comment
Traveling south of Paris into the French countryside really gives you a feel for how the French live. The quiet little town of Montgeron with its hilly one-way streets, gated driveways, and modest stucco and stone homes, is nestled far enough away from the city to give the town an identity of its own. Gone are the wrought iron railings and the bustling sidewalk cafes of the city. We’re in the quiet part of France where people still buy their daily breads, meats, and vegetables, but tend to live simpler lives tucked safely behind walls.
The public gardens are beautifully tended, kind of a smaller version of the Paris jardins, and the French details like the flowers on the light post are evident. Walking through the neighborhoods conjures up a lifestyle that many of us busy Americans (at least those of us just outside major cities) left all too long ago. It’s no wonder the French live so long!
Inspirations from Versailles
July 24, 2010 § Leave a comment
Honestly, I didn’t think I would be that impressed by Versailles. To those of us who are not accustomed to living in such opulence, Versailles is, to coin a much-used phrase, over the top –the gilding, the marble, the flourishes. We all know that. But the French always seem to do things in a tasteful way. So even though everything is on a grand scale, the overall feel seems somehow appropriate for living and entertaining (18th century style).
Truly, everywhere you look, it’s a postcard, from the oddly sculpted trees in the gardens to the massive crystal chandeliers overhead to the rowboats ready for afternoon visitors. The trip to Versailles was worth it, and it was a great way to learn some French history — all about Kings Louis, Louis, and … Louis. Vive la France!
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