Salmon and Brass (and Chartreuse)

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You didn't know you needed these colors (with this finish) in your life. But you do, you totally do.

OK, so maybe that's a pep talk for myself as I take some design risks in my office. I tried to live with what I threw together as seen in earlier posts, but it's just not me. It's not working to get my creative juices flowing. Part of the problem is that I painted the bookcases a color that was recommended to me by a friend, and the hue is a much more earthy shade than what I'm used to working with (it's Puddle by Behr).

Want it? Buy it here from J.Crew.

I was at a loss for what to do about my current situation (I refuse to repaint), but then inspiration comes from unlikely sources. I got the 2015 J.Crew Winter/Spring catalog and boom. Check out those shoes. I want to build my whole office color scheme around them.

ERIN WILLIAMSON

I went on to search for more examples of using salmon in home design (you need to specify this otherwise you'll get dinner recipes) and found the above bedroom that has me swooning. The brass is so hot and relates to the fixtures on my bookcases. I also started having strong feelings for the faux-fur throw.

Come to mama, you fake snow leopard.

So imagine my delight when I saw this on SUPER sale at PB Teen. Yoink. I picked up that top throw really quick for less than $30. I intend to drape it over my office chair and wear it like a cape as I work at my desk.

Rugs USA Ottoman Vintage

The next step is to find a complimentary rug. I've got to be careful with the pattern play since the animal print throw is going to be so close to it. I fell in love with this one, but it's out of my price range. Still on the hunt.

Looking back at the gym shoes (that's what we call them in Chicago), I decided I'll throw in little touches of chartreuse, as well. In a funny turn of events, I wanted to reassure myself that bold colors would help me become more productive and daring so I looked up what Jenna Lyon's office looks like. See for yourself. That lady is influential.

Addendum: In the print version of the J.Crew catalog, the accent color appears to be salmon. Online it's reading as coral. I prefer the former.

Monique's 2015 Design Predictions

Each year I give my predictions for what's around the corner and I think it's loads of fun. As Charles Barkley put it, I may be wrong, but I don't think so! What's exciting about this year is that we're gearing up for the next decade and making a more noticeable departure from what was trendy in 2010.

HERE WE GO:

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Gray is done. SO done. I know you all love your Revere Pewter and it might be drying on your walls this very minute, but the future is now. Sadly, it won't be long until gray rooms - especially kitchens - get put on the shelf next to espresso brown sofas as we ask ourselves what we were thinking. - I know the answer. We thought it was safe. Black and white are classic, but on opposite ends of the spectrum. . . Put them together and you have the equivalent to the golden retriever of paint colors, right? I still have love for gray, of course, but like everything else it got over done and without warm complimentary accents it reads as cold, plain, and so 2011. 

Also, may chevron RIP. May I just say there is this tinge of sadness about its departure that lies waaayyy beneath a mountain of resentment for how this design was treated in the past 5 years? I remember first seeing chevron in this post from Cococozy back in 2010 and thinking it would be such a nice element in moderation, as it is done in Mexico. But then all the Live,Laugh,Love types took it and essentially vomited chevron all over the place. We need a break, guys.

So what's the big color for walls this year? Wrong question. 

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It's all about the trim and cabinets! Creamy or bright (i.e. modern) whites are going to be the anchors to a room. The wall color and background is meant to stand back and support that. You're going to see a lot of washed out neutrals in terms of paint color. Or in other words, "What color is that? I can't even tell."

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Hot right now is, of course, black and white. It's stark, minimal, and the hipsters will ride that as far as it goes. (Note above the Aztec-y elements, I fear this will meet the same fate as chevron.)

Live, laugh, love is replaced with something along the lines of Carpe That F'n Diem. (I won't even mention 'Keep Calm' because like Voldemort, I fear that its mention will beckon this once ubiquitous sign.)

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Plaid and gingham are the new stripes. It's true. Get your hands on some black and white plaid and all the design elements will collide. (You can't even handle this.)

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Pleather pants and normcore are holding strong, but in spring a sateen finish will be seen on jeans and I think the Carolina Herrera (masculine/feminine) look will emerge again. 

For baby names, -er and -o are replacing -an, -en and -a. Or in other words, Aidan & Emma will welcome little sibs Harper and Leo.

Is this freaking you out yet?
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On the subject of babies, The Duchess will have another boy (take your pick of Edward/Alexander/Henry/John), and given that copy-cat Chelsea Clinton already used the name I had picked out, I fear Charlotte Diana will never be. Waaaaah.

Yep, that's a cheesecake cookie.
(You're welcome.)

In food, donut will share the stage with a return to cookies (with a twist). Bacon is holding on to its special place in the world, but I sense that the egg has something in store for everyone (except vegans). 

Enjoy! (And we'll see if I'm right.) 

Down Low

Low as in the basement.

We inherited this thing from the previous owners.

Here we have the room for the pool table. The felt table surface is green with some bright blue elements in it. Visible from this room is the camel colored sectional with grey, cream, and blue accent pillows. The current flooring is definitely not here to stay. We have plans to get rid of the tiles in the. . . I suppose you'd call it the billiards room --how fancy does that sound?-- and stain the concrete in a coffee color, maybe. The built-ins need to be painted, as well.

With all these things in mind, what do you recommend for a wall color here, and in the living space (the area with the sectional)?

Progress in the Office

Things are finally starting to fall into place. Actually, change that to move into place. "Fall" makes it seem like all this progress happened passively when really a lot of planning, sorting, cleaning, organizing, staining painting had to take place beforehand.

I did end up painting the walls after all. That dingy taupe had to go. When I went to pick up some fresh paint, Home Depot Steve wasn't there and I got H.D. Mark, instead. Oh, Mark, he humored me as I agonized over the subtle difference between Martha Stewart's Pure White and Glidden's White on White. Eventually the latter won out because I felt it had a better balance of red and blue tints. I mean, obviously, right?

I should say that I made some interesting choices when it came to picking color(s) for the office. At the end of my staining debacle with the office cabinets, I conceded to paint and couldn't even process what I was about to do. In DIY survivor mode, I asked a friend who has an affinity for painting furniture what color she used last and simply copied what she did. No weighing the pros and cons, no pondering the undertones, nada. I just did it and hoped for the best. I ended up with Behr's Puddle as I mentioned earlier. 

Since I was feeling kinda crazy gutsy, I didn't stop there with the bold choices. I took that purple/brown/grey color and paired it with red accents. RED! That color already has a reputation for making a scene, but keep in mind that right now in the design world we are hooked on greys and subtle neutrals. This red is coming out of nowhere. And I like that.

So without further ado, this is what things were looking like when I realized those walls needed to be painted:

And this is what we have going on now!

I won't advocate for painting wood, but I think this turned out OK.

Temporary desk chair, or not. We'll see. 

What you see on top of these surfaces is not permanent either. Just stylin'.

That file cabinet is the real workhorse here. 

Gratuitous library shots

Had to zoom in on our cuddles. 

Mas mejor, ¿no? I might actually get some work done these days!

Keep Calm and . . .

Don't freak-the-heck-out over the middle process. Sherry over at YHL talks a lot about the transition period between starting from scratch and completion of house projects. I have been letting her words stew in my mind quite a bit lately. 

Most of the walls are painted now. That was a watershed moment for us because now the house is feeling more like our home. The problem is, there are still a lot of fixtures that need changing and, related to that, the lighting is so bad it makes it hard to appreciate our efforts so far. There are moments when I start to lose hope that it will all look OK in the end, but one must have hope. 

This is the nursery. That pebble rug from Land Of Nod looks crazy in there, I know. The plan is to paint a contrasting half-wall in there and switch out the window treatments (the latter is true for the rest of the house, as well). We're also going to go with this fun pendant and add another light source in the corner of the room.

Nursery in transition.

Below is the boy's room. This was our first time painting the ceiling something other than flat white. The room is quite long and we wanted to close it in just a little, make it more intimate and warm. I'm pleased with how it turned out and can actually visualize it as a great kid's space.

Boy's room wall color combo

The future big-girl room looked electric pink/peach when the paint was drying, so I didn't even snap a picture. It was too overwhelming. That room gives me palpitations (in the nervous, pathological way) and makes me wonder if I have the skills to treat it right.

I'm also not sure if I chose the right color for the kid's bath, but it really is hard to say when you still have a muddy yellow tub in there spoiling everything. (The tub paint guys come today!)

House Paint Colors

Paint scheme, colors not true to life. 

We've decided:

• Hallway = Valspar's Satin Snow (7004-17) 
• Kids' Bath = Valspar's Ante Meridian (5005-1B)
• Girl's Room = Ben Moore's Pale Oats (2166-60), closet Behr's Chocolate Froth
• Boy's Room = Martha Stewart for Home Depot Tobacco Leaf Walls (MSL208), Gull ceiling (MSL256), and Picket Fence trim (MSL057), closet Martha Stewart Lilypad?.
• Nursery = Half wall Ben Moore White Dove (OC-17) and Gray Owl (OC-52)
• Master Bedroom = Valspar (Nat'l Trust for Historic Pres.) Woodlawn Bedroom White (6004-1A) walls, closet color opposite of the outside wall. 
• Master Bath = Ben Moore Hot Spring Stones (AC-31) walls
• Office = Glidden's White on White

Finishes: Bathroom and trim are semi-gloss; the rest is satin. 

Trim (unless otherwise noted) may be off-the-shelf white. If that doesn't look good, then we'll dip into the White Dove. 

Left to do:

• Outline the half-wall []
• Spray-paint old closet shelving
• Test samples in the Dining and Living Room (examine ceiling) during the daytime, Valspar's Woodlawn Dewkist vs. Pittsburgh's Delicate Pearl? 

Work in Progress Home Paint Scheme

Original

Blocks of paint color options denote the samples I'm looking to test drive first. Any thoughts, comments, or recommendations?

Note to potential burglars: I am not showing doorway entries and this scheme is not true to scale or layout. Also, we invest in things like tile, not TVs or jewelry. How did you end up on a design blog, anyway?

"Final," click to enlarge

Taupe is Dope, Yo

Benjamin Moore's Taos Taupe 2111-40

I can't get away from this color in its much lighter shades. I really can't. I never knew I needed this purple undertone monster in my life until now.

As such, I did some investigating and came up with this really great how-to-work-with-taupe summary from this forum, by DonnaMP14 :

Taupe Loves 
- Pure white paint 
- Dark stained wood 
- Purple undertoned natural linens 
- Stones that contain grey or blue 
- Metals such as silver, chrome and stainless steel 
- The companionship of grey or brown 
- Dramatic accents of green, purple or red 
- Clear glass 

Taupe Hates 
- Anything that contains yellow, such as buttery paint 
- Golden woods, such as oak 
- Yellow-hued linens 
- Tan leathers 
- Stones that contain beige 
- Accessories that hint at yellow, such as dark cream porcelain.

Good stuff, huh?

Half Rad

I saw this on, where else?, Pinterest and my interest was piqued. I think I might go for this half-wall paint look in the nursery.

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Since I already know what rug is going in there (got it on super sale at The Land of Nod outlet, SCORE), I tried matching up some paint samples last night.

You'd think matching a neutral with a neutral would be easy, but sadly this was not the case. All of those things Maria Killam preaches teaches came into play: Hue, intensity, clean/dirty, undertones. It's like I understood why most paint sample weren't working, but I wasn't clever enough to come up with a solution. The sample shown above is my best match so far. Still not sure, though. The tricky thing here is I think if I choose something too saturated then the room will look heavy and choppy. Must proceed with caution, or be prepared to abandon this idea and go all the way with color.

A Peachy Keen Girl's Room

I think I'm going to switch it up for the girl's room in the next house. Instead of gray-lavender walls, I'll be choosing peach, and hope to incorporate it with the following colors.

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More Textbooks

I'm going to do it. The whole premise to this House Call Daily lifestyle is that, like medical school, studying pays off. With that in mind, I must purchase the following E-Book:

Maria Killam

I've come to accept that in order to save money, I need to spend a little. In this case, it's less than $30. Let me explain.

First of all, if you're not familiar with Maria Killam, you need to get on board. She's like the professor of color. Or as the Canadian spells it, 'colour.' The woman has managed to break this subject down into simple, almost mathematical principles.

I'm hoping that by reading this book, I can make better decisions about what items I bring into my house so that I don't make expensive mistakes. Check out what's already happening and note the potential for a slippery slope (pictures pending):

• Picked out floor tiles to connect the mudroom to the kitchen. Double Triple checked them to make sure they went with the existing maple cabinets by bringing an entire drawer with me to the store.
• Received the heavy shipment at the new-to-us house.
• Held the tile up against the cabinets (they have an orange undertone), tile still looked green-gray, which is my preference.
• Laid out a pattern on the floor.
• Noticed that where the tile meets the wall, the existing color makes my tiles look PURPLE.
• Visions of an orange and purple kitchen had me squeamish.
• Realized the kitchen would have to be repainted if we're to keep these tiles.
• That's easier said than done because the kitchen is VAULTED with crown molding. Oy.
• Must pick out new paint color, and even consider a professional to apply it.
• Kitchen meets up with dining room, its walls will also need a tweak based on kitchen paint color.

See what I mean? This can get out of control very easily. Time to go back into student mode and figure this color-conundrum out.