An Enchanted Evening - Sara & Walt are Married

One of Adrienne’s closest friends from high school was married recently to her sweetheart, Walter in an enchanting, magical manner. The natural beauty of Lexington, KY, home of rolling hills, bluegrass and manicured horse farms, was the setting for the ceremony and reception. A beautiful day, a soft breeze and the amazing landscape made everyone feel truly blessed to be there.

As guests arrived they were directed through a large manor house to the backyard setting, where the ceremony chairs were set up under a huge draping tree from which were hung small origami birds, made by a friend of Sara’s. The breeze caught them and they swayed and added a special touch to the area. When the ceremony began, the bridesmaids, dressed in perfect pink dresses, carrying lovely bouquets of roses and greens in all the soft colors, pinks, peaches, creams and yellows came through the lawn, followed by the spectacular sight of Sara on her father’s arm beaming with happiness matching Walter’s waiting smile. Sara’s dress was a beaded, fitted top with a drop waist that went into the most lavish confection of tulle and satin roses beneath layers of lace and a train. To say she was beautiful simply doesn’t capture it properly.

The reception tent was adjacent and it was a truly magical sight. The entire ceiling of the tent was hung with giant paper lanterns and flower balls in the floral colors, made by the bride’s family. Martha Stewart should get this creative group on her team without a doubt.

The tables were draped in pale green silk with floral centerpieces that were garden fresh and included all the soft colors in roses and stock and lisianthus, hydrangeas and green bells of Ireland. Surrounding the main centerpiece were multiple tiny arrangements in silver julep cups (we’re in KY, remember) with smaller cut versions of the main flowers and twinkling votives. As the evening continued, the lanterns were lit, the delicious food was eaten and the cake presented. As a guest, you truly felt you had been part of a loving family event.

Sara and her family are so welcoming and everyone felt included – relatives, friends, children, horses and even a blind, deaf dog, their beloved family pet. It was a truly enchanted evening.

A Pretty and Functional Den

I was visiting Mom recently and she gets pretty much every magazine there is. She had a copy of the Dec. 2010 issue of a really good home magazine, Southern Living.

I spotted a room makeover in this issue and was really impressed with the attention to detail, palette and design of the room. The article appears on pg. 72 and is called “Meet The Hassingers.” It is a story about a couple that met and married and then had to mesh their own personal styles. I am not sure what happened to this world, but apparently men also have opinions on design and style. When I was first married this was all considered the woman’s prerogative and frankly, my own husband never cared what I chose.

But, it’s all different now and that is a good thing. Anyway, if you take a look at the “before” photos, they are comical at best. They feature two giant brown leather recliners and for added measure a huge green leather (pretty sure we are talking faux leather here) wing chair, a sad window treatment and a super-sized TV above the fireplace. This must have been his home, not hers.

The transformation is fantastic. The designer chose a soft neutral grey green for the walls, a large sailcloth sofa big enough for two or four with masculine tacks and then to feminize the space, added bright pink and green pillows, hot pink vases with roses and colorful art to the walls.

But what most impressed me was the window treatment. So many people are skittish about anything but beige fabrics and this designer chose an ikat design drapery in a green, red, pink and gold palette. It totally pulls the room together. The TV is still atop the fireplace, which is ok since there are other interesting things to focus like the jute rug, artwork and accessories.

Of course, I have a few areas I would have treated differently. While the fireplace is not centered on the main wall and is flanked by bookshelves, I think the choice of recovering books with white or off white covers is weird. These shelves would be better suited with some interest, like greenery, and vases in the accent colors or even plain white vases mixed in with real book covers. I think the art on the left wall is hung way too low, as if only a three year old could appreciate it and the giant lamp hanging over the sofa is really difficult to sit beneath. A really big lamp in red or pink on the table behind the sofa would be great. I do like the comfy upholstered chairs that flank the fireplace but I am not wild about that cocktail table.

That said, the overall transformation really captured what the clients wanted – a comfortable and functional room in which they could relax and entertain.

Photos from Southern Living

Baby Andy's Bachelor Pad

In our latest blog I introduced you all to our newest family addition - Adrienne and Jim’s baby, Andrew Joseph, born Oct. 2. Before the arrival of little Andy, Adrienne and I worked together on preparing his new room.

Adrienne purchased the Owls Sky collection design from Dwell Studio, a company with interesting patterns, (not standard issue Babies “R” Us) with beautiful color combinations. Stephanie, Baby Jackson and I were visiting about 5 weeks before Andy was due so I could help with the baby’s room décor.

Their Boston apartment is done in greyed turquoise and deep lime greens with raspberry accents. Since it is a city space (which means smallish), she wanted to use a color for the baby’s room that worked with the rest of the place – no jarring differences when you entered his room. But, we also wanted to make it very special. So, when Jimmy frowned on wallcovering I came up with the idea of painting it in stripes that would echo wallcovering.

When I was married in 1973, I wanted to make our first apartment very special too, so I striped the walls in the bathroom in a hot pink and white. This was way before I knew about blue painter’s tape, so the results (I loved this room) were uneven and very circus-like. I also made the stripes too narrow in this tiny room so the optical effect was very present. Many a guest, who might have had a bit too much wine or beer came out of that bathroom looking glazed and dizzy.

Well, time has passed and now I truly do know how to stripe a room by hand even though I had not done it in so long. Here is the plan:

You will need your supplies – a good ruler (I think a yardstick in too difficult to work with), two rolls or more of ScotchBlue Painter's Tape in 1 ½ “ width, a pencil with a good, clean eraser, a ladder and then all of your regular painting supplies.

First, paint the entire room the color you want the alternating stripe to be – in our case, white. Then, allow it to dry and leave it alone for a day or two. If you start taping too early, the original paint will peel. We chose Sherwin Williams' Baize Green for our alternating color.

Now, the difficult part is deciding on how wide you want the colorful stripes to be. You have so many choices – they can be the same width, or really any size you prefer. I was originally thinking of making all the stripes about 8” – thank goodness my daughter-in-law was also visiting, as she reminded me how optic a narrow stripe could be. I happened to have a 15” ruler with me, so that is what I decided to go with.

I began by starting in the corner behind the door – of course our room was not going to be divided evenly at 15” so it was important to start in the least noticeable area. When you finish and have to adjust the stripe width, you can do it where no one will really look.

Begin by measuring out 15” widths down the wall, marking your way with little pencil marks. Do one line at a time, then tape that line. Do not try to get ahead and measure more than one line at a time as you will drive yourself nuts and make mistakes.

Here comes the tricky part. When you tape over the white, remember you have to put the tape on the inside line of the white, (which means it is the outside line of the green) so when you remove the tape all the stripes are even. I would constantly check myself to make sure the tape was in the right place, by putting small pencil arrows showing direction at the top each stripe. Always check yourself in a project like this so when you start painting all goes smoothly and you don’t find out midstream one stripe is the wrong width.

Tape the entire room before you start painting unless you have a partner. In my case, I had Stephanie with me (Adrienne was working). When I had about 2/3 of the taping done, Baby Jackson fell asleep so Steph started the painting behind me, which was a huge help. At the end, I did have to adjust the stripes - all you do is measure the distance remaining (remember I was behind a door) and divide it. I ended up with two stripes being 12”, hardly a noticeable problem.

We had great success!! Peeling off the tape is the most wonderful, satisfying feeling. There were a few areas where the green paint crept under the tape, but those were so easy to fix with the white base paint. Baby Andy’s bachelor pad was ready for his furniture and all the rest! Check out the finished product in the photos below. In the next blog, I will tell you how I made an adorable window treatment and night light out of a shower curtain!!

Color, Nature, and Design

Guess what? This is NOT a blog on BACON. Yes, I am finally back to writing about color in design, something I really do know about. (Not that I don’t know a lot about bacon of course).

This weekend I went to a local farmer’s market. It is a little early to have all the vegetables out (I saw very few tomatoes and they were very pricey) but the vegetables and flowers I did see were gorgeous and colorful. The flowers, ranunculus mixed bouquets, were deep, rich and vibrant in tone.

People often choose colors because they relate to them in a personal way, but while they have a “favorite” color they can’t always seem to figure out how to find a companion set of colors to integrate. That is why I always suggest we look to nature. Nature and natural are pretty much the same word and the colors produced in nature seem to have a natural fit with each other.

For instance, I saw some glorious sour cherries (what a yummy pie THEY would make) right next to some orange carrots just pulled from the ground with their long curly green tops attached. Those three colors, red, orange and green work beautifully together – then add some yellow squash for another accent. What a happy room that would be!

I saw the most spectacular rainbow chard with a terrific fuchsia and cream stalk and green tops that looked like kale. They were next to cucumbers, and some wonderful purples – potatoes and eggplant. Think of it all together – dark green and pale beige with accents of purple and hot pink. Your sofa can be dark green and your chairs can be beige with a design of green and maybe purple or deep pink. The area rug and pillow can pull in all three colors! Then add a big bunch of mixed fresh flowers on your cocktail or sofa table. Invite me over – I would love to see how this turns out!

Next time you are at the produce section of the grocery, farmer’s market or even in your own garden, stop for a moment and just enjoy all the colors and the way they unite. It will bring a smile to your face.