{Home} Neutral ground

12 Tuesday Jun 2012

Posted by Karen B. in Decorating, Paint Color, Renovating, Trends

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I’ve always enjoyed color. I admit, when we moved into our smallish home 30 years ago {I was but a child :-)} a designer friend of mine gave me some very good advice. She recommended that I choose a color palate and use it as a guide with each room. A small house, she explained, will feel more spacious if there’s some uniformity within the overall décor. {Thank you, Gretchen} I would say it has worked well for us. I’ve always kept the baseboards, door casings, raise paneled doors, paned windows and French doors painted the same white throughout the house (Antique White to begin with, Porcelain now).

Maybe the sofa IS looking a little tired, it’s not that old but it does see a lot of wear.

Overall I had a cohesive color scheme that originated with hunter green as the bold color for carpet and even the walls of the family room. Later, as we added oak wood flooring throughout, the carpet was changed to a neutral and kept only in the bedrooms. Years passed and I needed a change. I switched the color combination to red, khaki and black, and boldly painted our family room and kitchen Benjamin Moore, Classic Burgundy. That was probably over 15 years ago. I bet you can see where this is heading.

I’ve recently been attracted to neutral rooms. I don’t want to go overboard with a neutral palate, and with budget constraints and upholstered furniture that isn’t overly worn or in need of re-upholstery work, will remain as it is right now. But somewhere down the line I think I’d like the family room and kitchen walls painted a taupe/gray. I would also love to introduce a bit more blue and white. As you can tell from the photographs, I’ve got a few items but I could see blue and white ginger jars on the mantle, maybe a neutral sofa at some far-off date, with some blue and white tapestry or other fabric pillows.

Tina’s shop at The Enchanted Home had these lovelies:

…and the most recent online issue of Lonny Magazine featured Christy Ford’s home, the author of …and George blog…isn’t this lovely…

There’s been no end to the inspiring neutral rooms and as I said, I believe I’ll always want color but I would like a change, and with it, maybe some calm in my surroundings. Early inspiration came from fellow blogger Joan, for the love of a house. I found the room’s of her restored farm house to be what my mind’s eye had envisioned…

John Saladino creates an understated beauty with his simple and neutral rooms.

This next room (I believe I found the image on Cote de Texas) features burlap curtains, but it’s the casual comfort and neutral color palate the room displays that draws my attention.

I fell in love with Michael Bastian’s apartment when adventures in tartanscot shared some of the space with his readers.

This room from a post at The Enchanted Home has neutral and blue and white touches {sigh}

I would love beams in our home, I have one that was created when we remodeled but check this dining room found at Ivy Clad…so pretty AND neutral.

Any Pam Pierce room is beautiful, this one is especially remarkable.

Mary Ann at Classic Casual Home lives in California, as do I, and I’ve noticed she shares some beautiful rooms, many of them have this neutral look I’m talking about, like…

And this final image I can’t recall where it’s from, but it sure is pretty.

{via Maison Decor}

I will always lean towards some amount of color within the room’s decor, but I might be ready for a more neutral palate.

All input and opinions are welcome. Share your thoughts with me, I love our chats!

xo, Karen

I’ve attached the link to the image above, {thanks to my blog friend, Kifus, at Inspiring Interiors)

I’m visiting Savvy Southern Style at her Wow us Wednesday, join the fun.

{Home} Paint colors…making a difficult choice

12 Friday Aug 2011

Posted by Karen B. in Decorating, Renovating

≈ 2 Comments

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guest bath re-do, paint color

As some of you may know, we’re finally renovating our guest bathroom. It’s a bit of a good news/bad news deal. Good news: I have many of the major components [vanity, wall sconces, canned lighting, fan, bathtub, toilet, crown, base and door casing selected; bad news: I’ve decided to select a paint color with a hint of gray to it to go with the Carrara (thanks to Vignette Design for setting me straight on the spelling) marble vanity top and floor.

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The vanity we have ordered (below) is a Pottery Barn design. Due to limited space in the guest bathroom we choose this little 26″ wide piece. The counter-top is Carrara marble, and is part of the reason I’m looking at gray paint.

This is the recessed mirror/medicine cabinet we’ve ordered. The wood looks aged and has a little white/gray to it.

The wall sconces we’re using are these Pottery Barn beauties. Again, I think they lend themselves to the gray I have in my mind…yet to be found!

I visit a lot of blog sites and am almost always impressed with how lovely rooms can look with gray paint. However, I get to the store and am overwhelmed by all of the shades of gray to choose from, not to mention the samples they offer are the size of a postage stamps and it can be difficult to select from that sample.

While I love this bathroom by Jill Sharp Brinson, I believe it’s too dark for my small space.

This paint (below) is “Natures Essentials” by Benjamin Moore…its very close to what I imagine but I couldn’t find the color at my hardware store today so the search continues.

This gray and white (below) is lovely but may be a little dark, the room in the image is quite bright and cheery so it can handle the darker paint.

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What’s that you say, just buy the little sample pots so many paint companies offer? Let me just say this about that…they rarely have the color in sample size that I’m interested in and when they do it can be pretty pricey. Does this ever happen to you?

I love the gray of this room (below) and the black and white accents are something that appeals to me.

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This soft gray is perfect but I don’t have the name of the paint so the search continues.

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Polished Pebble recently redid a bathroom in their Ojai home and I love the Cararra trim accent used with the white subway tile. I’m following her design idea and using 12″ Cararra tile on the floor.

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This is a pretty pale shade of gray that accents the blue and white beautifully.

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This taupe-gray (below) is what I really envision. Love this room!

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Heirloom Philosophy painted her living room recently a Farrow & Ball color called Hardwick White. I like the contrast with the white trim, which is what I’ll be using on the crown, base and door casing. What do you think? It’s hard to see the actual color on a computer screen, don’t you agree?

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On the right (below) is Hardwick White; on the left (below) is Lamp Room Gray, both by Farrow & Ball

So I’m doing my due diligence and revisiting some of the beautiful gray rooms I’ve seen on various sites and then I’m going straight to my friends for honest input and advice. Isn’t that always the best anyway.

I will be posting before and after photos once we’re underway. Meanwhile, while I try to compile all of the components I welcome any and all input from you, my faithful readers.

Meanwhile, if any of you have a wonderful gray paint color you’d like to share please email me.

Images: 1. Vignette Design; 2., 6., 7. & 8. Heirloom Philosophy; 3. & 4. Griege ; 5. Polished Pebble

Paint color…too many choices!

28 Monday Mar 2011

Posted by Karen B. in Decorating, DIY (do it yourself), Renovating

≈ 6 Comments

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paint color

I’m in the process of renovating our library (or sitting room, or very small living room, whatever I call it on any given day).

The room was wallpapered with a Ralph Lauren paper made to look like aged plaster (not a really good imitation, but fairly neutral and I liked it for quite a few years).

The print between the plates (above) is the print that now hangs in the dining room…as you might imagine, quite a large patch of original colored wallpaper in a sea of faded paper, not a good look!

About a month ago I decided I wanted to move a framed print from the library into the dining room. I had a little vignette all figured out for the space and was pretty excited for the change. {I do love change!} I moved the print and was amazed at how faded the wallpaper had become.

I confess, I love the new look Restoration Hardware (images above and below) has been promoting and the gray they use became an inspiration for upcoming (and much needed) upholstery fabric for the sofa, window seat cushion, and ladder back chair and ottoman.

Since the library was wallpapered about 8 years ago I thought it was a good time to take down the paper and paint (more on the renovation in a future post).

Image via Elle Decor

I knew I didn’t want the paint to be too sunny since the room has so much natural light, sunglasses indoors isn’t a good look for me!

Image via John Jacob Interiors

…I know this is a bathroom, but the color on the walls reminded me of Restoration Hardware paint and I really liked it. So I bought a smallish can of Restoration Hardware’s Graphite (it was similar in appearance to the above wall color.

Image via Atmosphere blog

Additional inspiration…

Image via Atmosphere blog

I have a gray-ish basket trunk from IKEA that I use for a coffee table so this image was additional ammo for the whole gray paint idea.

Many of you probably figure that finding paint is easy, right? Well, I have seen more paint chips over the past 2 ½ months than I care to mention and ultimately, I have decided to paint the room the same color the dining room is painted, “Inside Passage” by Dunn Edwards.

Image via Country Living

I didn’t think white paint (as in the image above) would be a good fit for the “look” I ultimately wanted to achieve, however, I love this room by Kolene Spicher.

Meanwhile, I looked at Pottery Barn paint chips (Benjamin Moore paint), Restoration Hardware paint chips, Behr from Home Depot, Martha Stewart paint chips, also at Home Depot, and my head was aching by the end.

There are a lot of paint tools online and House Beautiful has one that works well, but there is nothing like painting a good sized patch on the actual wall and standing back to determine its merit. I ultimately called by good friend and designer, Gretchen, to weigh in on the sample. She saw green in the Restoration Hardware gray sample. Knowing her eye is better trained than mine I went back to the Inside Passage by Dunn Edwards.

Image via Jackye Lanham – website

The wall color in the image above is what “Inside Passage” looks like. It has a bit of gray and taupe in it. I like it because it changes looks with various light.

Have you had to select wall color recently? Was it as challenging for you as it was for me?