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Wishing You a Very Happy New Year
I want to wish everyone the very best and happiest New Year. I am not sorry that 2012 is coming to a close – it wasn’t the best year for many of us {Superstorm Sandy being one of the things we could have done without!}
May you have…
Wonderful family celebrations {here, with my youngest daughter, Jessica, on her birthday}
A wonderful spouse/partner who cherishes you…
As much uncontrollable laughter {as my grandson}
Make new friends as easily as you did when you were a kid{my niece on the left and my granddaughter, right}
Someone to make beautiful music with {like my granddaughter and I}
May you be blessed this year with wonderful family and friends, abundant health, laughter, prosperity…and new roads to travel down that will give you more happiness and peace.
Happy 2013!
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Posted in Uncategorized
Favorite Projects and Blog Posts from the Past Year
Hello everyone! I hope that you are all enjoying your holidays and some much needed time off. I thought I would have some down time – but, as usual, a few clients need my help before the New Year. I don’t know why this happens to me every year – but it does! Not complaining at all…but I was looking forward to some rest. Yesterday I finished a logo on a gym floor (oh my aching knees and back) and tomorrow I am helping a client move into a new home. I had a few minutes, so I thought I’d share my most popular posts…in case you might have missed a few! Happy Holidays and a very prosperous New Year to you all!!
My Dining Room Ceiling: You can read about how I created this step-by step here
A Creative Way to Disguise Ugly Kitchen Soffits: Read about how I helped a client transform her kitchen very inexpensively here.
Here’s how I helped a client transform her ugly commercial range hood into a design statement. Click here for the steps I took to do this.
My how to antique and gold leaf a mantle was pretty popular on the blog as well.
And so was this tutorial on how to do a stried wall treatment and how I transformed a powder room that the homeowner was finally proud of.
Hope you enjoyed this! Comment below and let me know what projects you were most proud of this year!
Sharing this with: Katherine’s Corner
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Posted in interior design, Uncategorized
Color Roundup: Using Sky Blue in Interior Design
Since it’s Christmas time, I thought I would start this Color Roundup with a very pretty sky blue room with a lovely flocked tree and white and silver decorations. When you have pale walls and cream furnishings, it’s best to color coordinate your tree to your decor – instead of going with red and green. Your tree and decorations will then flow with your surroundings. Adding natural elements, like greenery, can be added on your mantle, but keep your other decorations light.
I guess I have started to think about light and airy, more beachy colors lately because I am so yearning for warm weather and spring. I love the deep, saturated colors of winter time – but I need a dose of warmth right now, as New York is so cold right now {I have two sweaters on as I write this!}
I have to admit that blue is not one of my favorite colors, but when used correctly…it becomes one of my favorite colors. If you want a calming and restful space, think about using sky blue. When my husband was in the hospital for his cancer surgery several years ago, I quickly had our bedroom painted a soft blue – knowing that he would need a lot of bed rest and recuperation. The color really helped him to relax, to feel better and to get well.
Even just a touch of blue tint in white paint can give you an airy, sky feel. It can make a room seem larger than it is and that perceived spaciousness helps you feel more peaceful and at ease.
I love this guest bedroom. Simple woven woods on the window…white trim, beautiful floors and the sky blue walls goes so well with the black furniture and black and white and cream bedding.
This bedroom is for a girly girl – and it’s not pink! Love the chandelier!
Sky blue works well with other colors and here’s a great example of using red accents in a blue room. The red really pops in this room.
As relaxing as sky blue is in a bedroom, it’s really peaceful for bathrooms. Designer Frank Roop created a relaxing haven in this beautiful bath. The wall color here is Borrowed Light from Farrow and Ball. Look at this intricate mosaic floor – beautiful.
Another soft and relaxing bathroom.
I wouldn’t normally suggest a blue kitchen…but how light and airy is this space? I love glass tiles and now you can get them in many colors, sizes – even recycled glass for tiles {so beautiful!}.
Here’s an unusual use of sky blue {and deeper blues}. Without the blues and the colorful accents on the spindles, this room would have been pretty dull!
Sky blue is not just for bedrooms and baths. How relaxing is this living room? The beautiful painting, the soft blue side chairs and the blue and cream patterned pillows – everything about it says “calm.”
This room is from Bunny Williams’ home in Punta Cana. The sky blue fabrics help to soften this room. How gorgeous is that suzani on the sofa. Just beautiful.
Sky blue in a dining room can be so elegant. Look at that drapery, the chandelier and the lovely striped chairs – and that millwork!
Another Bunny Williams room from the Kips Bay Designer Showhouse 2009. I remember seeing this room in person and although there’s a lot going on here, the pale blue of the walls lends a calmness.
Some tips for using Sky Blue…
- Use sky blue for your ceiling color in low ceiling rooms. The color will trick the eye into thinking the ceiling is higher than it is.
- If you are going through some stressful times, think about painting your bedroom in sky blue. It helps to soothe emotional problems and anxieties.
- If you picked a blue color that now seems too dark on your walls, stop painting and put white paint or white tint into your paint to soften and lighten the color. I always keep a gallon or two of white paint on hand – it always comes in handy.
- Use sky blue for small rooms – it helps to make the room seem larger
- Already have a blue on your walls but you don’t like it any more? Get some glaze, white paint or tint – and do a soft colorwash over your walls. If you’re ambitious, do a stried glaze over it. Click here for how to do this!
- If your space is mostly white or neutral, think about adding sky blue with fabrics, pillows, painting a piece of furniture or the back of a bookcase or china cabinet in sky blue.
Have you used sky blue for any of your rooms? Let me know in the comments below!
Image credits: 1) Best Home Decorators 2) My Home Ideas 3) Interior Design Room 4) Southern Living 5) Interior Design Room 6) Southern Living 7) House Beautiful 8) Martha Stewart 9) Via Fox Hollow Cottage blog 10) Martha Stewart 11) Via Love and Styles on Tumblr 12) Bunny Williams Via Mark D Sikes blog 13) BHG.com 14) Bunny Williams via Mark D Sikes Blog
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A Rustic Plaster Wall, an Antiqued Bookcase and a Great Client and Friend
I love it when one of my clients becomes a friend. She was a great client to work for (a little picky, but she knows what she wants and she’ll wait to find the right furniture piece, the right wall finish etc). For her wall finish, I must have created 12 or more samples for her – and she almost chose a rich olive metallic plaster (this was before she got the beautiful bookcase) but decided on this beautiful light and warm rustic plaster instead.
Here’s a close up. I first repainted the room then applied a rough textured plaster (FauxTex by Faux Effects) here and there around the space – then I troweled on a smooth plaster (OVilla by Faux Effects) – leaving some of the rough plaster showing. Then I lightly glazed the entire room with a mix of ochre yellow and raw umber. The glaze reacts differently on the smooth and rough plaster giving it that crumbling, peeling layer look. Every now and again I had to go back over the rougher plaster with more glaze because it tended to absorb it a bit more. We then painted and antiqued all the moldings in the room.
When my friend and client, Adele, went down south about 6 months after we did the finish, she found Tara Shaw’s furniture store – and she fell in love with this piece (but the real one, not the replica as this is). She just had to have it. So, months later after ordering – the piece arrived. It looked beautiful in this great room, which is a huge space with 20 foot ceilings. The piece was delivered in the late spring – but by the end of the summer it was cracking in many places. It must have been the temperature differences – not sure if that was the only reason…but the company made good and delivered another piece to her home and retrieved the damaged one.
The antique books (all faux ones!) look great in the bookcase. You don’t want anything to distract your eyes away from this gorgeous piece. The finish is a colored gesso, that’s been antiqued (and the moldings drybrushed off-white and gray). I will be doing a sample of this soon – let me know if you’d be interested in learning how to do the finish on this piece! I’ll be doing it with Annie Sloan’s Chalk Paint and wax.
I will be doing another bathroom in this beautiful home in a week – so be on the lookout for that. It’s a gorgeous guest bath, done in Carrera marble,whites and grays. I will be adding a Crushed Pearl metallic plaster to the walls.
My friend Adele told me this morning that she is thinking about moving to Florida. I can’t believe it (and I so hope she changes her mind!). Who will I go to the New York Gift Show with…and all the Designer Showhouses? She loves to talk design endlessly and we have become so close. Plus – how can she leave all the beautiful walls I did for her? I have to help her change her mind!
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Posted in Tutorials