I had an appointment last week with an empty-nester planning to leave the rat race of the metropolitan area of our Nation’s Capital for (literally) greener pastures. My job was to give an opinion on the decisions made in preparation to place the home on the market.
A concern of Diane’s was her deep red foyer. She wanted to know if I thought she should change it to the neutral muslin tone of much of the rest of the house. Once I walked through the entire house, I knew my original first impression was right. The brick tone should stay.
Yes, a deep red foyer speaks to the character of the homeowner, but not any more loudly than the clean, clutter-free, well-maintained rest of the home. And this is crucial. Because the impression the rest of the home gives would be appealing to anyone, the red serves to distinguish the home among the masses that may be viewed.
Builders do this all the time with their display models. Their designers attempt to create subtle themes that will make a lifestyle impression. I have been to model homes with golf themes too many times to count. A few years ago a builder in a new development near me displayed a 2 million home with every single room decorated in pink. It was the talk of the town. Just about everyone I knew went to see it.
You just gotta love the internet. It only took me a few clicks to find it. From Basheer & Edgemoore:
Nature produces perfect color schemes. And I spend a lot of time considering them. If I am outdoors with you, and you find yourself repeating what you are saying a lot, it is because I am distracted. I am noticing the shades of green in foliage, the browns in branches and the blues in the sky. Or as in the case of rainy today: the grays in the sky. I simply cannot help myself.
The sky can produce the most wonderful shades of gray. Complex, heavy, moody and yellow. That’s right, I said yellow. Perhaps it is the sun we know to be hiding behind the water suspended in the sky, but I noticed today that the key to a genuine sky gray may be the tiniest addition of yellow tones.
Using gray in decorating successfully requires a color as complex as those provided by nature. Simply lightened black looks dull because it is. There is a world of color out there. Take off your sunglasses and pay attention.
I found these beauties on Flickr:
*tap tap* Hello? Anyone out there?
I know, it ’s been me that has vanished. Sorry for the unexplained absence. I got so tied up with the musical production that I couldn’t even lift my fingers to type. When it all finally ended, aside from sinking into a mini depression, I realized that I had been writing quite religiously for an entire year. A blog vacation was in order.
So today I will begin with baby steps. I don’t want my fingers to cramp from lack of use.
Here are some fuzzy pictures my client put on my Facebook. (Obviously taken with a phone…sorry.) Somehow we were inspired by the vast collection of pictures stacked from the move in her basement and we determined that a collection of empty frames would fill a blank wall space without closing it in.
These frames were purchased on a family trip in South Carolina. JoDee texted me during the process, so the transcript is gone, but I believe they came from a flea market. Looks wonderful, doesn’t it?
I did myself. It was a little surreal.
And a few others: 
