I love talking color!
And so, it was the high point of my week and of my visit to San Francisco to sit and talk about all our new house colors with Kelly of ArteStyling. If you will remember, I had asked Kelly, as a fellow blogger, a virtual friend, and an expert on color, if she would be willing to help me with the colors in our new house. Now, I do, of course, know something about color....but this house has so many tall, interconnected, light filled, related spaces that I was having trouble! I'm used to 100+ year old houses with well defined rooms and spaces. To now have cathedral ceilings, stairs with space that soars to the roof, transom windows above the already long windows, light from both the east and west in the main areas, an open floor plan.....well, it was just a lot to take on!
We had been back and forth about all the possibilities. She had me send pictures of my present house and what I would be taking, and using, in the new house. Did I want the same color story again? No. What were some adjectives I would use to describe my new place? What words to describe each room and the feeling I was trying to achieve? Did I want to paint the cathedral ceilings to bring them down?
Even before we started our talks I had my eye on gray. And yellow. And deep rusty red to punch it up. I'm not a blue person. Maybe some green somewhere.
- amulet
- fog mist
- mysterious
- chestertown buff Don't you love the names?
- moroccan spice
- marblehead gold These are some of the finalists!
- edgecomb gray
- iron mountain
- pale avocado
- yellow bisque
There are so many rooms to walk you through, so let's start, once again, with the lavatory. Here is the post I did to introduce the lav.
And here are some pictures:
Here's the original lav picture. The mirror has got to go!
Here's the primer (didn't have a roller that night, so I had to brush...yes, brush it on!)
It's difficult to read, and more difficult to get the color in a photo, but this is "Mysterious". The walls were super smooth: we had removed all the hardware and had the walls professionally taped and sanded. I used a semi-gloss in the Benjamin Moore Aura. Have I told you just how MUCH I adore the Aura paint? What a difference. So smooth; perfect, really perfect coverage; cutting in at the ceiling is so easy; almost no odor. I can't recommend it highly enough.
I am open to any and all suggestions for this "skirt". It's wooden with that panel around the center. I could stencil it. I could cover the panel in a fun paper. I could make a fabric skirt to the floor. But no, I can't remove it! Anyone want to help me here?
Master bedroom:
I did several testers right on the wall. And the winner is.....ta da....."Marblehead Gold".
Levelor blinds are being replaced with white "Plantation Shutters". Thank you Tammy of InStitches: another blogger friend who lives and works in the area, came to the house earlier in the month while I was there, and arranged for the shutters!
A corner of the room shown here with the one and only piece of furniture in place at the moment...the new dresser from Pottery Barn, "Valencia".
My husband was in dire need of a new dresser. We don't need anything too tall or wide, as the closet is really a dressing room at 7' x 14'. Now, that is the subject of an entire post: what to do with the dressing room....I'll save that for later.
After our delicious lunch, sitting in that great sunshine, at the Ferry Building:
btw Kelly: that half sandwich I took home was my entire lunch on the plane the next day! No food at all: not even for sale. Thanks goodness I had it!
Thank you, my new friend, for all your help thus far!
And stay tuned, everyone, for the next installment.
