What the Room Next Door Can Say About the Color of the Room You're In...

On a recent visit to a client's house to look at the cozy den off the kitchen, she showed me some inspiration fabrics, along with several swatches of Benjamin Moore's Santorini blue she had painted on the walls.  The plan was to paint the entire room, trim, and three walls of built-ins this same lovely color to give the room a cozier feel.  This is a very appropriate way to treat the room given the style of the home (older Colonial) and her personal taste.  She needed my help with furniture and fabrics for the upholstery and window treatments.

I was surprised by her choice of this color (which if I could photograph it properly (!) is a mid-tone blue with a bit of gray in it), given the blue-green direction we had gone in her previous condo.  All of the furniture from that project is now in her new living room.  As I was looking at this proposed color, I was ten steps ahead in my mind as to how to make it flow with what else she was planning to do in the house.

As we were discussing where the new sofa would be placed in the space -- and given the bones of the room there was only one appropriate spot -- I suddenly suffered an "Oh. No." attack.   As I stood where the sofa would go, the permanent view was of the television directly in front of me, and to the left, the opening to the kitchen.  Below is the color of the kitchen cabinetry, which was framed by the lovely Santorini blue paint. (Her counter tops are creamy, not the gray of this picture).  The cabinet color is Pickled Oak -- do you recognize it?  It is a stain wash that brings out the pink tones of oak.

Now anyone who knows me well knows that I couldn't possibly let this blue/pink affect go unaddressed.  (I hear you laughing out there.) I had to say something.  I cannot bear to have a client invest in something new that will instantly look dated.  With the exception of the few who can complete projects from start to finish using all current materials and colors, we all need to make the best choices to enhance what we don't intend to change.  I felt that my client only needed to tweak the paint color a little for better flow, and to make the view to the kitchen fresh.   When I pointed out the blue/pink affect, she was amazed.  She hadn't seen it, but once she did, that was it.  I suggested that when we met again, and I presented fabric options, we would revisit the paint color.

The rug is by Stark

 The first photo above represents some of the fabric selections for this room.  The sofa is the linen-textured beige/wheat color, the chair the soft brown leather, the floral the window treatment fabric, and an animal inspired blue-green print is for big down toss pillows on the sofa.  All of these sit atop the soft, textured wool carpet with thin stripes of  muted green-blue and blue-gray against a wheat ground, shown in the second picture.  (When it is complete, I'll post pictures).   The wall color I suggested as the cozy backdrop for all of this is Ben Moore's Stonybrook, poorly photographed here:

Stonybrook  is a gray with both blue and green in it.  She will have the affect of all three colors with this one, it doesn't exactly match her fabrics or her rug -- a good thing -- but creates a feeling of harmony and of pulling the space together. (Both paints look darker here than they are but I hope you get the idea.)

Once the room is accessorized with books and framed pictures in the built-ins, art is on the walls, and whatever else says "family" to them is placed around the space, this client's room will be complete.

So if you're looking to freshen things up a bit in your own home, stand in one room and look into the room next door.  Does the color of the room you are in enhance or detract from its neighbor?

Happy painting! :)

Talk to you soon,
Carol