Better in Person

Don't you just love it when you order something online and it turns out to be even better in person than you expected? I recently ordered a rug swatch from Pottery Barn for an area rug I wanted to use in a client's family room. It arrived this week and I was so pleased with how it looked up close that I actually squealed with glee when I opened the box. It was was one of those times when you could tell that the online photos weren't giving an accurate depiction of the color or texture, and you suspected the real live thing could go either way: it could be awesome, or totally meh.

From the PB website

Well, I'm happy to report that this rug is awesome, and perfect for the project I'm working on! The clients love modern design--leather and chrome are their favorite materials--but their home is architecturally quite traditional, so my challenge was to design a room that would reconcile the tension between the two styles. This rug is a perfect bridge piece. The color is a muted gray-blue, quiet enough that it won't look incongruous with the traditional detailing (they have a big fireplace and AMAZING coffered ceilings), but at the same time rich enough to stand up to the sleek, dark brown leather sectionals we're having made. But my favorite thing about the rug is the soft, thick, chunky, nubby texture. It's like a thousand tiny pompoms, the kind of rug that just begs to be walked on barefoot (or sat on, or just sprawled across with a big floor pillow for your head). I can't wait to see it in the space!

Here's hoping your next online purchase turns out as well as this one!

Testing the Waters

Hola, friends. Just thought I'd throw out a little post to see if I might feel like getting back to blogging. Since my last post I've been busy with this little thing:

Photo courtesy of the talented Greg Katsoulis

In there somewhere.

It's quarter past 10 on Monday morning, and I've had the car serviced, done the grocery shopping for the week, and picked up a book that was waiting for me at the library. So it seems the week is off to a pretty good start! I really do love the flexible schedule that self-employment brings.

On the other hand, I only got about 4 hours of sleep last night, thanks to a mysterious shoulder injury that kept me up 'til the wee hours, trying to get comfortable. (No idea how I hurt it, although the pain appeared suspiciously right after a round of mini-golf with friends on the 4th of July. I'm sure my one-woman test-painting marathon in our apartment on Saturday didn't help matters.)

Also wholly unhelpful in the sleep department was a fascinating blog, which I discovered yesterday evening and could not stop reading. Beauty Schooled is the account of a magazine journalist who is currently enrolled, undercover-like, in a 600-hour course in esthetics (makeup, facials, etc.) to get an inside look at this corner of the beauty industry. Spellbinding, I tell you.

I, meanwhile, have been up to research of a different sort. It is time to have our apartment painted, and I spent the better part of the weekend figuring out what colors we're going to use. Because the casita is not our forever house, we want to go with neutral shades that will welcome potential buyers when the time is right. But as you might imagine, I can't stand the thought of blah beige. Also, it's a small space, so I wanted a tight palette with colors that progress naturally from room to room, creating a sense of calm and cohesiveness. We'll use stronger colors for fabric and accessories, which we can change relatively easily and also take with us when we move, leaving a nice clean palette behind. (Although, note: a small accent wall is not out of the question!)

So I sought out assistance from my favorite color book, Choosing Colors, which I blogged about here. Let me start by saying again that Kevin McCloud is a genius with color. Happily, I opened the book and saw that I had already marked a palette I loved a few months ago: 

The scanning and rendering on the computer have altered the colors quite a bit--they all appear cooler here, so the top right color is way more of a coral and less of a pink--but you get the idea. I got paint samples mixed in two of the gray-taupes (numbered 5 and 8 above, though the numbers are hard to see) and I was blown away by how great they look on the walls. The top left color especially, Ben Moore's White Winged Dove, is one of those subtle-but-breathtaking chameleon colors that changes with the light and keeps you guessing. Is it gray? With a hint of purple? Or is it more of a milky white? I don't know, but I love it! Although it did leave me with that Stevie Nicks song running through my head over and over.

Here's how the colors look in our living/dining room:

White Winged Dove is at the bottom, with my other favorite, Ben Moore Frosted Toffee, on top. (In the middle is a peach color that we'll probably end up using in our kitchen.) 

Yesterday evening, my paint testing finished for the weekend, I went outside on the balcony to eat dinner/plan our dinner menus for the week/watch the sunset. And looking up at the sky, I realized that the elusive White Winged Dove is in there somewhere, just on the cusp where the warm pinkish-white of the sun on the clouds gives way to the cooler purple-gray of the evening. See what I mean?

Hope everyone has a good week (and gets more rest than I did last night!). And to my friend and client C., I went through the color book and found a few great palettes for your basement too, which I'll be sending your way shortly!

Bounty

 We just hit up the farmers' market in Harvard Square:

On a whim, which is the best way. We'll figure out later what we're going to make.

Happy Fourth of July!

Monticello Makeover

I originally hail from Virginia and am always happy to give a shout-out to my home state. (Seriously, it's a little ridiculous: I get excited every time I see a car with Virginia plates driving around Boston. Every time. Bonus points if it's sporting a UVA sticker.) So you can imagine my delight at seeing this famous Virginia room appear in the pages of my most recent Elle Decor:

Image via Elle Decor

Yes indeed, that up there is Monticello, Thomas Jefferson's home. It's located in the Blue Ridge Mountains, just a short drive from Charlottesville, where I had the privilege to live for three years. If you haven't been there, it really is a beautiful part of the country and worth the trip.

So why is Monticello gracing the pages of Elle Decor? That would be because of its recent dining room makeover, featuring a smashing new paint color called "chrome yellow." I can just hear the old guard tsk-ing in disapproval, but I think it looks fantastic. And it turns out to be authentic as well. Apparently the Wedgwood blue that was previously on the walls dated from the 1930s, and the historical preservation folks discovered that the room was actually painted chrome yellow around 1815--while Jefferson was still alive. Who knows how they figure this stuff out, but there you go.

Here's what it looked like before:

Image via The Blushing Hostess

Very nice, but a little sleepy. I can picture a historical re-enactment here, but it doesn't put me in mind of a real flesh-and-blood person, lover of food and drink and all things French, a revolutionary thinker and a brilliant statesman. In the yellow room I can see all of those things.

NB: Jefferson was a lawyer and an architect--he designed Monticello himself. I am obviously following his lead with the whole law/design switch, but someone please stage an intervention if I start talking about architecture school. 

Mally Skok Designs

I can't remember what first brought me to local designer Mally Skok's website a few months back, but her recent feature on Boston Design Center's Style Watch had me running back to her site to take another look at the gorgeous printed fabric she designs:

Mally's designs are inspired by her travels in India and by the fabrics she grew up with in her native South Africa. Maybe it's my never-sated wanderlust, but I go weak in the knees over a good exotic print.

You might expect Mally's design work to be a riot of prints and colors, but she manages to come up with fresh, calming rooms that don't feel the least bit theme-y:

 

 And check out her amazing beach house in South Africa:

That bathroom makes me want to get on a plane right now, let alone the crazy view from the bedroom!

Eat Dessert First

It's here, Cambridge:

The new Flour bakery, featuring the lovely culinary stylings of one Ms. Joanne Chang, opened this past Friday on Mass Ave near MIT. You'd better believe I got my breakfast on there yesterday morning.

The new space is lovely, familiarly appointed like the Fort Point and South End locations, but with fewer people, so you can admire the beautiful polished concrete floors and fun chalkboard quote.

They even have a fun nerdy clock, which I don't remember seeing at the other locations, a nice nod to the new 'hood:

Sadly, they're not open on Sundays yet, so you can't rush over this morning. But when you do make it there, I highly, highly recommend the sugar brioche. Which I got instead of my usual pain au chocolat because, you know, I was feeling like something "light."