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!!

NYC Apartment Redo OR We Can Just Call It Emily's Place

Adrienne’s best friend, Emily T. lives in a charming two bedroom apartment on the Upper East Side in New York City. She has lived there a number of years and while she was considering moving to a new apartment, she recently made the decision to stay put. SO, Emily was kind enough to ask for my help in redecorating her space and I was so happy to help.

I traveled to the city in December (perfect for NYC – all the decorations are up and the restaurants are lighted and the snowflakes on Saks Fifth Avenue are fabulous). Adrienne came in from Boston and we got to work.

I visited Emily on a Saturday morning and spent about 3 hours talking to her about how she lived, what she wished for in her apartment and her budget. Then, after asking her a ton of questions, I came up with a plan. We took a lot of “before” photos for you and as we make progress I will keep you updated.

PAINT: Emily knew her paint colors were not cohesive, so that is the first thing we worked on. In NYC, the apartments are very small and each room opens to the next so when you are sitting in the living room, you are also sort of sitting in the kitchen and powder room and bedroom too. You can close doors, but that really makes the space smaller.

As shown in the first photo below, Emily’s living room is painted a lovely butter yellow color - when I complimented her on the choice she responded “Well, you picked it.” I did remember Adrienne and I had helped her a bit a while back. Her main bedroom is painted a deep grey rose color and the den is a sky blue (bottom two photos), so the paint colors needed to be coordinated a bit better.

I suggested she paint the den a deep golden yellow color as in Benjamin Moore’s Concord Ivory (HC 12) or Cream Yellow (2155-60). These are deeper yellows but still complimentary.

Her bedroom linens are a pretty pale pinky taupe in a sleek box pattern and I suggested we paint that room a light mocha color like Benjamin Moore’s Light Mocha (2096-60) or Frosted Cafe (2098-70). These colors are pale but they will lighten up the space considerable since she has only one very narrow, tall window.

I suggested she begin with the paints and as time progresses, we will build on some accessory ideas. Stay tuned, we will keep working on this and it soon will be a beautiful, relaxing space.

Jack and Jill United

I recently had a great design question from a client of mine, S. Ryan from Cincinnati. She writes: “We are emptying our nest and I want to redecorate two bedrooms that have a bath in between, Jack and Jill style. Any ideas for a calm look with a little snap?”

I am very familiar with the spaces in question, as I was the designer for 3 of the Ryan Family's homes. When I worked with her she had a young family and now the two oldest are on their own. I called S. and asked her two main questions—what will the spaces be used for (bedrooms, craft room, exercise area, etc.) and what is the budget?

S. elected to use both rooms as guest bedrooms for their frequent visitors. Our budget fits the economic times and is “moderate” and to a designer this means using ready-made bedding although I always try to add some custom touches so our end result doesn’t look like it just walked out of Macy's. Ready-made choices are limiting and a lot has to do with how you combine elements and what unusual touches you can add to the accessories.

I began my research exploring both department and linen stores as well as the discount types like T.J. Maxx and Marshalls. S. loves color. Her first floor features French country blues and yellows, but upstairs in the private areas, the rooms can be decorated individually and not necessarily in a flow. In my research I was stimulated by the bright combinations of turquoise blue and medium lime greens, with white as the background. This color scheme goes well with any type of bedroom furniture -light or dark woods, painted or rattan.

I was happy to find a quilt/sham combination at one of the discount stores. These are bright colors, but with the correct choice of paint color you can achieve a degree of sophistication and calm. It is important not to select a paint that exactly matches a bright color in the fabrics. Unless it is a child’s room, use a paint color that has been “greyed down” so the color is a background, contributing to the overall effect and not overwhelming it.

The turquoise and green combination will work for the Ryan Family and I suggest we do one room in the brighter, happier scheme and the other in a more subdued tone with the interconnecting bath painted a periwinkle blue. We are using the “watercolors” which are so soothing, yet clean looking with the white background.

In the second room, instead of putting the aqua with the green, put it with cream and use more sophisticated furniture styles. One bedding idea for this room is from Pottery Barn. The Sausalito Stripe Organic Duvet Cover & Sham is a pretty aqua with cream in a nice stripe.

The paint samples I suggest we look at are provided courtesy of Sherwin Williams. Hazel (SW6471) is a beautiful, soothing green. Majolica Green (SW0013) goes to the lime tones and a pretty, sophisticated periwinkle is Celestial (SW6808).

We will use the existing beds in each room, but S. was willing to add a few new pieces. I found a beautiful French dresser in a painted, distressed blue and an unusual table for a nightstand. Headboards are optional, but there are many types to use. If you have an older looking bedroom set, just losing the headboard can update the look. And please, if you have those big double mirrors that match everything else, donate those to Goodwill and replace with a pretty framed one. Later this week we will concentrate on accessories for the rooms.