I received a series of emails from Suzy in Maryland yesterday. I will copy the first here:

Denise –

I came across your website looking for ideas for my kitchen/family room.

We are in the process of redoing the kitchen.  The layout of the area is very open and includes the kitchen, a nook for the table, the family room (with a reddish brick fireplace – brick to the ceiling) and a hallway area that connects the kitchen to the ½ bath and foyer.  This hallway area isn’t really a hallway, it is more an extension of the kitchen. The family room is one step down.  The family room has a vaulted ceiling on the fireplace side.

The whole area is southern exposure with lots of windows and tons of light.  The family also has 2 skylights.

The space before had very little color.  White walls with a stenciled design around the top.  Cream sofas with small colored pin stripes. Cream tile floor in the kitchen, light oak cabinets…you get the picture.  BLAH.

My goal was to add lots of color.

The new kitchen cabinets are a medium-maple shade.  The counters are “verde butterfly” granite – a grey/green/blue with black, gold, cream and specs of deep red.  The deep red you really only can see when the light hits it right.  The floor will be a 13 x 13 porcelain tile – colors vary from deep grey to light grey and various shades of beige (i.e. LOTS of variation in the tiles).  The backsplash will be fully tiled with a natural stone tile that is creamy colored.

Now I am trying to decide what to paint the walls.  I have already added a lot of color just with the cabinets, granite and floor.  So perhaps I no longer need to worry about putting lots of color on the walls.  I don’t know whether to paint each distinct area its own color – (1) nook (2) kitchen/hall (3) family room, or if 3 colors is too many, given all the color in the new kitchen.

The colors I am drawn to are earthy reds, greens, tans/browns and golds.  Although the granite has a lot of grey/blue in it, I really do not want grey or blue on the walls.

I would like a bold color in the nook – 3 sides of the nook are all windows (the 4th side being open to the kitchen)…I was thinking of something in the deep red family.  But then I am lost as to what to put in the family room (which has LOTS of wall space) and the “hallway”.

Any advice or ideas?  I can send pictures of the space if that helps.

Thanks-

Suzy in Maryland

Ok, deep breath. This is not as hard as it seems. First off, I want to congratulate you on your Kitchen remodel. You have made some wonderful choices. I am especially delighted in the backsplash. Using a darker tile as a border and then rotating the creamier remainder will be unusual and interesting. And your choice for a variegated tile floor will be very dynamic. 

Your biggest challenge is finding a way to blend the older but still pristine wallpaper with your more current choices. Since the Dining Room wallpaper is so visible from many angles in the Kitchen, it would be a mistake to just ignore it. The good news is the teal tone below the chair rail, though dated, coordinates well with the new granite. The bad news is….the very 90’s burgundy in the stripes make using red virtually impossible. Today’s reds are very “earthen”. In other words, they have a lot of orange in them. Plus, you already have a lot of tones of red: in the brick fireplace, in the cabinets and, of course, in the wall paper.

 My solution would be to paint the Eat-in Nook, which butts to the exigent wallpaper, Waterbury Green. (HC-136 from Benjamin Moore). This tone is bluer than the sage green choices you already tried, but it will act as a perfect connector to from the old to the new. Plus, it is really beautiful. I believe it will draw some color out of the granite and will harmonize perfectly with the orange undertone in the cabinet and the teal in the wallpaper.

The Kitchen proper, and the hallway containing the Mudroom and Half Bath should be a soft but strong gold. Try Henderson Buff (Benjamin Moore HC-15). A soft gold that is not too yellow or bright will set a perfect note that allows the cabinets to sing. The cabinets should steal the show here, not the wall color. (Ok, enough with the theatre metaphors.) You should also sample Summerdale Gold (Benjamin Moore HC-17) since there is a lot of light entering the room. Repaint all the trim and doors and ceilings white. My favorite is Cloud White OC-130.

Now for the finale. Oh no, I said I was done with the metaphors…I want you to paint the Family Room a deep rich brown. Don’t be scared! This will be stunning. You have all the elements to make it work— A tall vault in the ceiling, skylights, and a pair of glass doors. Use Middlebury Brown (HC-68, also Ben Moore). This brown has enough red it in to make it lively, and will bridge the three colors of tile and the accent stain in the ridges on the cabinets with the reds in the brick on the fireplace. If facing the fireplace, paint the wall to the right brown all the way to where it ends on the short wall to the left of the refrigerator. All sides of this short wall will be gold. You can decide which of the three colors you would like on the half wall on the back of the second island.

Bold reds aren’t forever gone. They can be added back in on furnishings and in accessories. I would love to see a huge piece of art on the long Family Room wall with brighter, bolder tones of all the colors we used.

Thanks for writing, Suzy! Remember to send pictures of the “After”!

I caved.  I’ve had an active Facebook profile for over a year now, and I update my status daily.  But for some reason I have dragged my feet creating a page for Decorate Your Space.  I don’t know if I was afraid I wouldn’t work on it, and it would be embarrassing.  Or what if I only have like 20 fans?  That would hardly scream success, now would it?  And I am pretty raw on Facebook.  I post my real life, without a lot of filter.  So maybe I have been afraid that potential clients would friend me—then WHOA. 

But I’ve had a lot of encouragement, and what the heck.  I realized that most of my clients come from referrals, anyway.  And by that time, my work speaks for itself.  I have always wanted to revive a series I used to send via email, back before blogging was the rage.  A few years ago I used to send out Quick Tips–short decorating snippets of advice.  Facebook will be a perfect venue to try this again; the 420 character limit will ensure I stay succinct!

So here’s the link.  Become my fan!

We are snowed in.  And may be for days.  Another 4 to 6 inches is coming on Tuesday!! What in the world did people do before they had the world in front of them on their computer screens?  The internet is the reason I am (semi) sane right now.  There is so much to learn out there in cyberspace.  Today, for instance, I found out that Aubergine is the British phrase for Eggplant. 

So in honor of my newly found knowledge, here is a room I designed for a client that is crazy about purple. 

Sofa  Chair  Rug  Ottoman  Endtable  Drapery Panels  Lamp  Pillow  Pillows

Cinde and I have worked together for many years.  She originally hired me immediately upon our meeting  at a Chamber of Commerce function. Only a few days prior, she had closed on a beach house still under construction and  she had some pressing decisions to make regarding the cabinets and counters.  So our meeting was fortuitous.  Since then, we have done many projects together. 

Her family room is the latest.  We chose the paint colors at least a year ago.  A deep sage covers three walls, and the far, fireplace wall is a russet. 

I gave her these two options.   

Option 1: Sofa  Chair  Rug  Drapery Panel   Media Stand  Coffee Table  Console  Pillow  Vases

Option 2:  Sectional  Chair  Rug  Ottoman  Side Table  Media Center  Pillow  Pillows  Vases

It may have been a snow day, but that didn’t keep me from standing in a dripping construction site.  I just have to share pictorially:

A spark landed on my eyelid and burned me. I moved.

Construction. This is where the bar will be.

These huge rounded windows are the front of the building.

Wet, nasty construction.

Looking down from the mezzanine.

The floor--very hard to walk on dry, yet alone wet.

Yep! I went up here! The Rooftop bar--- well--eventually.

Three stories up and NO BARRICADE!

From the roof, this is the hole back to safety. I am not afraid of heights...

Soon the facade will have my design.

I don’t read a lot of decorating blogs anymore. I used to read them every day, but it got tiring—you know, like coming home from work and WORKING. I have moved on to a more esoteric topic that winds me up just enough to be relaxing.

I do read a few, and most are not written by other decorators, but by lay people, renovating their own homes.

I discovered something. Apparently, if you blog, (or at least, if you blog and I read it) you must use white subway tile.

From Door Sixteen

From Addicted 2 Decor

From Making it Lovely

From Decorno (The picture that made me notice this whole trend.)

From Young House Love

I met again with JoDee and Jonathan a few weeks ago, and they have been finishing projects faster than I can assign them. This is our second home together, and this time the vision is RANCH. JoDee wants the house to look modern, yet timeless. Cozy but Clean-like a vacation property out west, without the requisite kitsch.

Working beyond the usual triumvirate of furniture, wall color and window treatments, we are adding some unique touches to the structure of their new home. Texture is a key element in creating a warm and cozy space, especially in homes with larger square footage. Their home has upgraded elements such as picture frame molding in the Second Floor Hall and in the Dining Room, and while these are beautiful on their own, we decided to kick it up a notch.

The upper section of the Hall, above the chair rail, was painted Tavern Taupe from Sherwin Williams. Normally I am a fan of leaving the entire lower area, moldings and all, high gloss white, and we did this in the more formal Dining Room. But the Upstairs Hall needed that all important texture. Unconventionally, I chose a lighter shade, Stone Lion, for the bottom beneath the chair rail. And here comes the fun part: JoDee, at my suggestion, upholstered the framed area with batting wrapped in burlap.

Although I have yet to see it, here is what she said as she sent these photos from her iPhone. “Perfect!” “AMAZING!!!” “You have GOT to see this!” Yea, I think she likes it.

I am having some issues with my scanner, so as I wait for my printer software to reload—grrrr—I wanted to write a quick post about a discovery I made yesterday.  For some reason, my neighborhood is the constant target of solicitors who leave paper ads on the door.  I believe this is the work of a service, because I have seen one person placing multiple ads.  Now it isn’t the copious amounts of litter that I am protesting today.  It’s that one of the ubiquitous cleaning service postcards featured a picture that I just noticed on my competitor’s website.

 It only took a few minutes of digging to find out:  Yep. It’s a stock photo.  ON A DECORATOR’S WEBSITE. 

Now before you get all, “We have come to expect faked -up photos in the advertising world.  Since when does a Big Mac look like it does on the side of the tractor trailer?”  Let me say:  This is unconscionable.  This is flat out lying.  This makes me sick to my stomach that someone would be out there, right here in the Metro Region, passing work off that is clearly not hers. 

And for the record: Every Image On My Business Website (DecorateYourSpace.net) Is MINE.  EVERY.SINGLE.ONE.

Last night my clients and I took a field trip to a new sports bar that has become extremely popular since its opening last May. Public Bar has many features are similar to our plan, which is interesting since as of yesterday my clients had never heard it. Proves the whole “there are no original ideas” meme, I guess. Rooftop bars are all the rage, so why NOT combine it America’s favorite pastime?

I liked the décor. It reminded me a lot of Chipotle: raw wood, stainless steel and a deep earth tone dominating the walls, although in this case, Basketball Orange instead of Roasted Pepper. The cleanliness of the place left of the strongest impression on me, but that may be saying more about my own issues than the overall design plan.

My clients’ initial impression was that the owners’ budget had been tight. Stock stools and easily fabricated tables, along with little other than paint and reclaimed wood led me to agree, but I do feel that if that truly was the case, then the designers did a great job with what they had.

All of the walls were painted orange and trimmed with deep brown. An entire side of the first floor was wallpapered with vintage sports scenes that had been blown up to giant size. Every image was lightly blurred and of sepia tones only, so what could have been overwhelming in such a narrow space blended nicely with the orange and brown theme. A few old trophies, balls and other tchotchkes were displayed on narrow, industrial shelving on the first floor. I didn’t recognize any sports theme on the second floor. The roof was not in service since it was 37 degrees, and is was too dark to see it well. The only thing I noticed was high wood walls.

BlackBook.com calls it “a tad of over-thought” Ok, now I’m scared…43 reviews on Yelp, and only 13 mentioned the décor. Should I be worried about this?

I teased out anything that even slightly mentioned the interior and layout, expect for the nearly unanimous mention of the three flights of narrow stairs. Not our concern, we have an elevator. (Quotes not edited.)

The roof deck is very nice; everything else sucks.

Its sad, because the building has a lot of potential. The layout is great, but Public bar is just not well executed…

…only downside, they plastered too many small screen tvs on the walls. They should have gone with fewer screens but bigger. You have to squint to see em.

It was extremely hot outside, meaning all of us were sticking to the leather couches on the roof deck. We ended up rotating seats so each of us could benefit from shade time. But that’s not the fault of the bar, unless they made an effort to provide larger umbrellas that were more easy to move and provided more coverage.

But anyway…the roof was nice, but not very conducive to a large crowd. It’s pretty narrow, so there’s not much room to move around. There is basically a slim walking space to get to the bar, flanked on each side by leather seats and umbrellas. I would not enjoy it on a crowded night.

Though I liked the decor (nice and airy, with a nice roof deck)…

Anyway, cut to the rooftop: it’s actually pretty nice. Well-decorated, expansive and functional with a bar on each end…

In my opinion, the lack of decent sports bars in this city is a crime. As a sports fan, I appreciate the multitude of really nice flat screens artistically placed on the walls and those that are in the booths for private enjoyment…

The decor reminded me a lot of a loft done sports style. Exposed bricks walls with an insane amount of Tv’s all on the wall with games on. I also really think the sportsbar theme is a problem. You don’t want ads for athlete’s foot medicine on four tvs around you when you’re trying to dance and have a fun time at a bar (yes this actually happened).

The interior has a great atmosphere. There is alot of seating, each booth has a small HDTV with channel changer mounted into the wall!

Positives: lots of TVs with lots of different sports channels; each booth has its own TV with its own channel control; the booths fit 8 comfortably and the seats’ material mimics that of a basketball (which is uniquely cool); three floors; rooftop (the rooftop bar is now open); no cover; TV in the bathroom mirror so you don’t miss any of the action; did not get annoyingly crowded

The decor is modern yet comfy…

Tonight we are going to Georgetown.

My appointment for this evening was rescheduled.  The owner of the restaurant I am designing, the soon-to-be manager, and I were supposed to meet in Dupont Circle to bar hop.  Yea, you read that right.  I’m getting paid to order fancy drinks in cool, DC night clubs. 

Okay, if I haven’t yet clicked away from my obnoxious bragging, I have to confess that it really isn’t THAT glamorous.  My task isn’t to have fun. I’m along to catalogue the reactions of the others with me.  And here comes the work:  I have to take those reactions and apply them to our establishment.

Bottom line:  It is apparent without any more gallivanting that a clean, masculine aesthetic will prevail. But we still need to check the competition.

Don’t blame me if I tap my toes and sip a trendy cocktail.  It’s RESEARCH.