HOME INTERIOR DESIGN-LIVING ROOM DESIGN

Dear Annie,
I have a cream-background wallpaper in the dining room and have painted the trim with the same [cream]: Benjamin Moore Mystic Beige 2162-60. I painted the wall below the chair rail a deep red (Ralph Lauren's Nobleman VM74), which picks up color in the wallpaper and drapes.


The wallpaper is old, probably vintage 1967 from the year the house was built, but it's in great shape and my family all voted to keep it. I'm painting everything else around in an attempt to rejuvenate the room. The living room, visible in the cream molding photo, is painted Benjamin Moore Atrium white with bright white trim.


What do I do with the ceiling and the crown molding? They are both a bright white and it looks odd. Should I paint the crown the same creamy trim color and the ceiling white? Both the cream? All the rest of the ceilings, crown and trim in adjoining rooms are bright white. Thanks for the tips and I love the blog.
-Dale Glass, Potomac, MD


Dear Dale: Wallpaper is back in a big way - especially in dining rooms - so your question is quite timely.

The short, easy answer is CREAM: go with your instincts and paint the crown moulding the Mystic Beige in the semi-gloss finish, and paint the ceiling the same color in a flat finish.

But that's not a very bossy answer, is it? Tasteful, yes. Imaginative, not hardly.

Here's why I couldn't let go of your question. If you and your family are bold enough to keep wallpaper from 1967, I think you should set it off a bit more. The deep red wainscoting is perfectly nice, but paired with the wallpaper - and the alluded-to drapes - I'm getting an 80's vibe.


I don't think the wallpaper is kitschy enough go the ironic route...by, say, painting the wall below the chair rail an outrageous contrasty color like hot pink, or a bronze metallic. Judging from the sliver of living room we glimpse in one of your photographs, that's not how you roll anyway.

So a better route would be to channel our inner Brits and ask ourselves, WWF&BD? (What Would Farrow & Ball Do?)

What if we painted all of the trim a greyish blue (Oval Room Blue #85) and the wall below the chair rail a greenish grey (Pigeon #25)? Neither color would match the wallpaper exactly; these are intentionally more muted.


So what would happen? I'll tell you what would happen. Interesting but elegant gorgeousness, that's what would happen. (And you could keep the ceiling cream.)

I know you just finished washing the cranberry paint out of your brushes, but if the wallpaper survives another year, maybe you'll be ready for a new approach next Thanksgiving.

(Some people are weird that way, repainting their rooms all the time. No one *I* know, but I'm pretty sure I read it somewhere...)

The '80s living room photo is from Maria Killam's fantastic blog, Colour Me Happy.

Gentle Readers: a story like this comes along but once a year. It would be cruel not to share it with you. Here it is, the back story on the drapes featured in Wednesday's post.

"Then came the curtains. I'm from no-where Illinois and my favorite aunt has made it big and bought an amazing $5 million house in North Atlanta that looks like a country french wonderland:


"When she moved in, her designer girlfriend immediately took down the custom window treatments in the kitchen and dining rooms. She left them on the floor in the three car garage next to the matching jaguars.

"Then my Beverly Hillbilly family came to visit the big house. Grandma Betty saw those fancy curtains on the floor and couldn't believe the girls were going to just throw them away. She threw them in the back of the 1983 Crown Vic they had driven down to Atlanta in and took those bad boys home.

"She thought she'd be able to use them at her place that my Grandpa built himself over 60 years ago. Unfortunately, the 12 foot high panels didn't really work in her little ranch house with 10 foot ceilings. She can't sew and they ended up in a cabinet above the closet in the extra bedroom that was originally the garage but converted when they had kids # 4,5, and six (the triplets).

"The curtains stayed in the unheated Illinois closet for the last 13 years-except for two panels that escaped when Grandma put them in a garage sale.

"In early January 2009, I went to visit Grandma Betty when she got out of the hospital just before she passed away. She had me rooting around in the closet looking for some old photo albums and I came across the curtains. I immediately knew they had come from my rich aunt's house and asked Grandma how they came to be stuffed up in the closet. She told me about the visit and the garage and the trunk.

Any Gentle Reader who sends me an e-mail saying, "I've had a glass of wine and am getting ready for Monday night football..." has a special place in my heart.


Here's some background information from her original e-mail, to which, tragically, I couldn't respond right away:

I just discovered your blog and LOVE IT. I'm hoping to write something witty or interesting enough to get your attention and advice. Tonight, I'm going to ask about the dining room.

Background: I live in a beautiful two story Victorian home built in the late 1880s in a historic neighborhood (Grant Park) near downtown Atlanta. There are only a few real two stories in the neighborhood (mostly bungalows) and I have one of the oldest houses in the neighborhood, so I feel like I need to respect the house and its history.

The house was renovated in the 80's ...The next owners did all kinds of unsexy but important work on the house like reinforcing the floor joists and replacing bad exterior boards and repainting...

And here's the next e-mail:

Hey Annie!
I've had a glass of wine and am getting ready for Monday night football, so I thought I'd try to narrow down the request for help in my previous email...

I'm working backwards, as I already have curtains and paint colors I love in my dining room.


The question: what to do for the rug and accessories? The pictures don't make the paint look great because it's so dark and I'm a bad photographer. Paint on walls is Restoration Hardware "Slate." Paint on ceiling is Duron Millenium Plantation Beige.

Floors 100+ year old 5" pine plank.


I've got a great old table with original chairs and my husband's mom's china and hutch:



Only other thing to consider is the green tiles in the fireplace:


I hate the fireplace surround, but that's a conversation for another day (I think). I'm all ears on ideas for rug color and accessories. Also, I could also use help in deciding which metalic collor to use (silver, gold, platinum, bronze, etc.) wherever possible.

Best, Jenna


Dear Jenna,

And this is why we always start with the rug :) No, no: I'm not here to chastise. My job is to help. Happily, we have options.

Your house is beautiful, and I absolutely love these wacky drapes! The back story is so great that I'm going to do a separate post about it, if it's ok with you.

I also like the wall color, and good for you for painting the ceiling a warm beige. (You know white ceilings aren't my fave, and they would have made this room feel very cold.)

That's our primary challenge here: warming up the room. The beige ceiling, gorgeous reddish floors, and wood furniture help a lot, but a rug will help, too. Think warm: camel, gold, orange, dark pink...red is going to be awfully traditional, which leads me to...

Our second challenge, which is adding a dash of modern. You could use a traditional deep red Oriental or Persian rug in here, and it would look lovely. But we don't want your house to feel like a museum. (Or maybe you do, but you shouldn't. You're too young and cool.)

CLASSIC UNSTODGY SOLUTION

A seagrass or sisal rug is a perfectly acceptable, no-risk solution. It's not thrilling, but it's fresh, contemporary without unwanted edginess, and visually if not physically warm.

Choose a herringbone pattern to offset the casual feel, and please do NOT add a contrasting binding (border, edging, etc.) - too beachy. Omit a binding altogether if you can, actually.

From a practical standpoint, it's easy to move dining room chairs over flatweave rugs. It's extremely important that you use a rug pad, though; over time, sisal and seagrass act like sandpaper on wooden floors.

A BIT MORE COLORFUL BUT STILL SAFE SOLUTION

A custom-cut carpet in an allover pattern is another option. It's no edgier than seagrass, but it's uncontroversial and effective. Robertex is terrific; I use them all the time for wall-to-wall wool carpeting and stair runners. Look at a pattern such as Maggie in the color Tuxedo Park:


A distinct advantage to this approach is that you can get exactly the size you need. Very important in a dining room: the chairs have to be able to slide away from the table without slipping off the rug.

BOSSY SOLUTION

Naturally, I'd love to see you go all out with a contrasting color to jazz things up. Madeleine Weinrib Atelier is the place to go for beautiful, colorful cotton flatweaves. (Dash & Albert is great for cotton stripes, but that's too beachy for you.)

Here is Madeliene Weinrib's Rose Mandala:


Coral Otto:


Orange Brooke, which would blend into the floor in a good way:


The Indigo Chi Chi Kari is subtle and elegant:

A bit more whimsical is the Stilton Jellybaby - the background color will NOT match the walls exactly, and that's ok:


And for the bossiest of all, the Celery Olivia. I actually love this color with grey, and remember, it will be underfoot, not right in your face:


Colorful art - watercolors, oils, pastels - will be critical in pulling the room together. I'm picturing contemporary but representational pieces in gilded frames. No mirror unless it's in a big fat gold frame...even then, though, mirrors can be cold.

Good luck, Jenna! Please let us know what you decide.

Hi Annie-
I am thrilled to be writing to you because I LOVE your blog, and I finally have a BIG problem I would love your help on! We built our home two years ago, and painted our fairly large, two-story living room Ralph Lauren Reisling, and my husband and I both detest the color.


We are finally going to have the room re-painted, and would love your opinion on a color.


It looks into both our dining room...


...and kitchen, which are green, and nutmeg colored, respectfully.


I am thinking some sort of brown, and as you can tell from the pictures, my swatches are not helping me.

Can you suggest a great color that will help me tie in the dining room and living room together? We will be putting a leather sofa in the living room, and it gets bright morning light.

I would greatly appreciate your expert opinion!! Thank you so much!
- Stefanie Bradshaw, Louisville, KY


Dear Stephanie:
Ahhh, Louisville. A city that is near and dear to my heart...when my husband and I were engaged, I visited him in Louisville, where he was working on a campaign. We stayed at the utterly charming Seelbach Hotel,


and a big wedding was happening there...the lieutenant governor and Miss Kentucky? Something like that. Royalty. Anyway, it was one of my favorite weekends of all time. It was there that I also met my future right hand at the Smithsonian, who sealed his fate by saying, upon meeting me, "I love your shoes!" Awesome town.

But back to your living room. BROWN IS WRONG. I understand the impulse to go darker after that anemic yellow (Ralph, don't go screwing up my favorite color, ok?), but darker is simply not consistent with the architectural intent of this soaring space.

Light, airy, open...these are the effects you want to preserve. Especially because the side rooms (the dining room and kitchen) are rich in color, let's keep the living room light and neutral. I know it sounds like a cop-out, but it's the space, not the color, that needs to do the talking here.

Try to match the kitchen cabinets, but keep yellow out of it. This might mean you're looking at the very lightest taupes your paint manufacturer has to offer. In Benjamin Moore, take a look at Benjamin Moore's OC-35 Spanish White, shown on the innermost picture frame moulding below, or good old OC-17 White Dove, which is outside the picture frame moulding.

Either of them should look soft but NOT yellow; if it does, reject it. (Its feelings won't be hurt, I promise.)



In any other paint line, pick up swatches that look like your kitchen cabinets and see what works.

If it were me, and I had a free weekend (or a free few hundred bucks to pay someone else to do it), I'd also paint my banister and newel posts high-gloss black to emphasize the contrast between them and the walls. (Aren't the balusters black wrought iron?) But that's me.

I'd probably also change the ceiling fan to something white or silver so it doesn't draw attention to itself. But spend your time - and your money - on the walls first, and then see how you feel.

Thanks for the great question, Stephanie. This may not sound like an inspiring solution, but I guarantee you'll love the space when you banish the yellow. Keep us posted!

"Whites" photo from decorati.com, courtesy of xJavierx's photostream on Flickr.

Have I told you lately how much I appreciate you?


Your readership, your loyalty, your thoughtful comments, and your good looks. (Not that I've seen you, but one has a sense about these things.)

There must be something in the air, because I have received many, MANY excellent questions and photographs from you recently. About crown moulding, about wallpaper, of course about paint colors...and I hope I have the opportunity to answer each and every one of them.

But there's a chance I may not.


The good news is that this season finds business booming for bossy color. (No extra charge by blogger.com for lame alliteration.) It's going to take a Herculean effort to attend to my clients AND to you, Gentle Readers.

If you've written me with a design dilemma recently, I will try my very best to address it. But in the event that I simply cannot tackle all of your worthy design challenges, please accept my apologies in advance. I am flattered - nay, humbled - that you place your design faith in me, and I never want you to feel that I take that for granted.

Please stay tuned, and thank you again for reading. And for writing.

Love,
Annie

Hi Annie,
I have just moved into a room in a rented townhouse. The good news is that the room is quite large at 19’ by 12’ and has three nice-sized windows.


The bad news (part 1) is that the bath is wallpapered in this so-hideous-it’s-almost-great wallpaper, which has a silver geometric pattern with a light blue, sage green and pale pink floral pattern over the top of it.


The bad news (part 2) is that I can’t take it down and I can’t paint so the walls will stay apartment white, but I have lots of art so it’s not that bad....

My dilemma is that I’m not quite sure how to construct a color palette that I can live with (I’m so not a pink person) or what scale of pattern will work for the bedding, rug and windows given how busy that wallpaper is...

I forgot to mention that I’m a total mid-century fanatic and constantly have to pull myself back from the brink of way-too-period in order to keep it contemporary. So looking forward to your reply -

All the best, Alison


Dear Alison: Until I read the "mid-century fanatic" part, I'll admit I was getting a little panicky. But now I have a plan. (Why can't you paint, exactly? Because you'll have to re-paint before you leave? It's still worth considering, chickie...it's amazing what a bunch of friends can accomplish in a weekend when plied with pizza and beer.)

But assuming there's a really good reason you can't paint :) , let's do this:

Ignore the wallpaper.

I appreciate that the hideousness of the wallpaper has sent you into a tailspin. It's pretty bad. Not old enough to be kitschy, not new enough to be cheeky. It's just bad. BUT it's in your bathroom/dressing area, not your bedroom. And although you can glimpse it from your bedroom, it won't dominate the space unless you let it.

And we won't let it.

Our new palette is brought to you courtesy of this inspiration picture:

Love the green for you. The painting is blue-green, the painting on the left has yellow-green in it, the chairs are yellow, your furniture can take care of the orangey color...


...and your walls provide the wide expanses of white. Think big blocks of color; I wouldn't do pattern at all since you have a lot of art.

You know I usually suggest starting with the rug. That's especially true if the rug has a pattern with more than one color in it. For your bedroom, I suggest a BIG, solid color shag or Flokati rug in a yellow-green or a real blue-green. (Not sage or mint).

I wish your 3 windows had a single bar going across the top, but you're not willing to change that in a rental, are you? Shoot. Well, it was worth asking.

Let's hang floor-to-ceiling drapes (or in this case, floor-to-curtain-rod-that's-already-there drapes) in solid yellow. I say this partially because an off-the-shelf solid color is going to be easier to find than a good pattern. (Now, if you're handy with a sewing machine and see a fabulous HUGE SCALE patterned fabric in yellow, green, and other gutsy colors, then go for it.)

Barring that, let's just do yellow drapes however we can find them: cotton, linen, velvet...I don't care. Hello - a pair from Ikea just waltzed in.

What was your name, dear? Aina? Aina, meet Alison. You two are going to be very happy together.

After that, I suggest buying white bedding, hanging your art, and then filling in color gaps - orange, brown - with pillows on your bed. The nubby fabric on these Modern Materials Design pillows has a mid-century feel...and naturally I love the bold colors:


And these are from InMod.com:

Good luck, Alison! Please keep us posted.

Inspiration picture taken from Coco+Kelley's photostream on Flickr. Green shag rug from RugsUSA.com. First pillow picture through Grassroots Modern.