Interior Design Newton, MA: yellow

Showing posts with label yellow. Show all posts

Anything But Boring. Great Bathroom Designs

I am sick of boring bathrooms- actually I am sick of boring everything. You all know I encourage the personalized, original, inspired, unique. This has nothing to do with style- I just want individualized anything. The bathroom is a particularly fun place to design, you can do a lot without getting sick of it- you're only in there for a minute or two. Think of it as a little jewel box.
Check out these interesting spaces:

Apartment therapy
Notice that many of the bathrooms (not all) used simple classic plumbing fixtures and then added character that could be changed without calling the plumber or costly construction.

Front Door Fabulous

I always love to see what colors people paint their houses - particularly if they are interesting and fun. My husband has a problem with this when I’m the one driving…he’d much rather I watch the road then stare sideways (and sometimes backwards) to get my color fix. Sometimes you come across a house that is so fun you wonder if the mailman needs migraine medicine in order to deliver.

There are many houses more simple in detail that don’t call for a multiple-color paint job. I find that for these houses a fabulous front door does the trick. You have a single focal point, an idea of some personality and a fun little zing to appreciate as you go by.

My last house was an Italianate Victorian from 1847 with tons of detail- we had fun with the colors of that house:

Melissa Gulley Style

My husband and i have gotten quite good at fixer uppers and have one we are in the middle of. Our current house is a more simple Victorian from the 1890’s. I will not stain your brain and risk injuring your eye’s with a photo of its exterior, but it is BUTT UGLY!!! It has aluminum siding from the 1950’s that covers every single inch of it- even over the window and door moldings. If that’s not bad enough we accurately named the color: Pallor. Our house is the color of pasty English people’s skin (I can make fun of this, I’m English by descent) when they have never been in the sun, don’t exercise, smoke two packs a day and don’t eat vegetables (perhaps just minutes away from contracting full blown rickets). There is not much that I can do to improve this until we rip off the siding and reface the whole huge place, and we have SOOOO many other things to do first. The only thing we’ve done is paint our pretty double Victorian front doors Turquoise. Within a week I’d gotten a positive comment from everyone in the neighborhood - they were obviously desperate for something to be done. This little festive color upgrade did so much, I then added various turquoise planters and flowers. Sometimes it’s just a little touch that makes it:

The best part of having fun with the front door is being able to easily change it. It only takes about an hour, so it is a great project for the commitment-phobic!

I’ve Been Clocked!

If you don’t know by now I have a pretty healthy obsession with the color turquoise. It all started with a tiny French carriage clock given to me by my grandmother (who also LOVED the color) This tiny clock was a gift from her father after he returned from a long trip to France in the early 1900’s. He brought back three clocks for his three daughters, all somewhat similar- except for the color. My grandmother Alice had turquoise, her sisters Ines and Winn had pink and yellow. See my beloved clock below:

This clock started my obsession with turquoise, as well as a collection of Guilloche with enamel. According to Wikipedia:

Guilloché, phonetically pronounced gee-oh-SHAY is a French word for the process of engraving either by hand or by machine intricate repetitive patterns. Guilloché, is an engraving technique in which a very precise intricate repetitive pattern or design is mechanically etched into an underlying material with fine detail. Specifically, it involves a technique of engine turning, called guilloché in French after the French engineer “Guillot”, who invented a machine “that could scratch fine patterns and designs on metallic surfaces”. The machine improved upon the more time-consuming practice of making similar designs by hand, allowing for greater delicacy, precision, and closeness of the line, as well as greater speed. Yet another account is that it derives from the French word for an engraving tool, not the engine turning machine.

Further details on Guilloche from e-Bay:

Although Enamel and Guilloché was used, pairing-first, applied by Peter Carl Fabergé on the Faberge eggs in the 1880’s-they are nevertheless two separate techniques and were not applied to one another until Fabergé.
Below is a picture of Guilloche with out the applied enamel:

Next group of pictures below are examples of Guilloche after enamel:

The machines used to create guilloché designs are no longer produced. Today true guilloché can be found in mostly luxury watches and then only a very few companies practice the art. The guilloché technique can be seen in various antique and vintage jewelry and vanity items from compacts, pocket watches and dresser sets to charms.

And then of course, there is my favorite- CLOCKS. See below a bevy of clocks to delight the eyes:

Because this process is no longer practiced, these items have become very desirable, expensive and hard to find.

White Ceiling Beware!

Some call it the ceiling, and some the fifth wall. Thinking about the ceiling as a fifth wall encourages you to consider it in a decorative way. Why not? Who else is sick of boring ceiling white? Oh me, me, me! This is not a new concept, Michelangelo painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel from 1508-1512.

Now that may, of course, be too much for some people to tackle. Let’s look at a simpler variety of ceiling paint.

My friend Carol has a deeper version of this sky in her kitchen and no one walks into that room without gasping in appreciation at the gorgeous and fun ceiling. Yet still some may still want an even simpler approach- say a solid color.

(Melissa Gulley Style)
Above is actually a picture of the family room in my last house. Let me tell you, the ceiling made the room so warm and fun - it changed the feeling of the room entirely.

(apartment therapy blog)

The above all white rooms get a huge boost of character with the red and orange ceilings.

(Sherrill Canet)

Dining spaces, like the two pictures above, are a great place to play with color on the ceiling. People are so absorbed in what’s happening at eye level while eating, that this can provide just a pop of the unex

pected. It pulls the eye up so one can appreciate the entire space.

Inspirationfordecorationblog-paintedceiling

(House Beautiful) (Inspiration for Decoration Blog)

Often people want the feeling of outdoors- a blue sky has a wonderful effect on people’s moods, so why not steal a little of that for the indoors?

(making arrangements blog) (Melissa Gulley Style)

This incredible porch (below) is from the amazingly talented Amanda Nesbit. We have all seen the aqua painted ceilings in porches - well, Mrs. Nesbit took it up a notch with this fabulous purple. Do you know why porch ceilings were painted blue like the sky? I didn't either, until my contractor and old house buff told me. It was to fool the spiders into thinking it was the sky so they wouldn't settle there. Hmmmmm, not sure spiders can even see color?

Color

To me experiencing color can literally change my mood, my day and inspire my thoughts. The idea that by giving my house “flow” and “continuity” might require me to have an overall color and style theme connecting all the rooms is such a kill joy! Sometimes I need warm and cozy, or fun and wacky, or serene and tranquil all in the same house and all within the same day.
Wake up to sunny and pretty: