color – Country Design Home

Mirror, Mirror on the Wall…

…I found a mirror for my new front hall!!! With the Hall of Shame project still ongoing, I have been searching for artwork, occasional tables and other assorted items to fill the space once it is completed. (and, yes, it is still a work in progress- but good things come to those who wait, right?) Along with my usual trips to HomeGoods and the various local antique and junque shops I frequent, I do make an occasional stop at my local Salvation Army Store. With a large furniture showroom in the back, you never know what you might find- like my fabulous new $10.00 mirror!

It’s a horrible brown circa 1970’s faux wood grain, but it’s the perfect size and the top detail is exquisite-it actually mirrors the curved shapes of the soon-to-be-hung damask wallpaper. You would almost think that was intentional, right?

Time to hit it with a coat of Kilz to cover that faux wood paint and the faint odor of mildew/smoke that often accompanies a cast-off piece of furniture, origins unknown. Looks better already! So I grabbed my Ipad and started searching on Pinterest and some of my favorite blogs for color inspiration.

Thinking bold and bright

or soft and dreamy

daring (not sure what happens when your toe hits those mirrors!)

or darling

Mirrors can open up your space (Ah,Versailles…)

Reflect your true face

And welcome you into a warm, homey space (hopefully mine : )

And then I saw this Jonathan Adler mirror and this entryway with pieces from Oomph! and that was it-color chosen.

Tangerine Tango is the Pantone Color of the Year, and what goes better with the Smoke Blue I’ve chosen for the walls than its complementary color, orange? So I chose this yummy shade called Mesa Sunrise from Behr. Now, Benjamin Moore is my go-to paint for just about everything, but Behr sells these little custom mixed sample pots for $2.95, with just enough paint in them for a small project. Here is a sneak preview of the Mesa Sunrise Mirror that will soon be welcoming you into my new front hall. And if Pantone comes out with the newest “color of the year” I can always change it! Total investment for this project: $12.95 + tax.

Mesa Sunrise Mirror in the making

Enjoy your Friday- and just remember to make each day a reflection of your best you! Susan

Color My World

As Petula Clark (for those of you unfamiliar with the 70’s pop princess, click on the link) once sang: “Oh, you can color my world with sunshine yellow each day, yes you can color my world with happiness all the way. Just take the green from the grass and blue from the sky up above, and if you color my world just paint it with your love..” So many of the colors we choose for our homes are culled from nature’s immense beauty, and those colors are a reflection of who we are, and that makes us happy and content in our spaces. My mother always said that when you walk into your home at the end of a long day, it should make you smile.

When I imagine “blue from the sky up above”, I think of a sunny day with brilliant blue skies filled with fluffy white clouds, whereas someone else might imagine a dark, treacherous horizon over a stormy ocean, turning the brilliant blue to a deep gray-green. Nature’s furious beauty provides an unendending variety of colors, well beyond those seven featured in a rainbow.

Recently, my mom asked me to help her re-do her master bedroom. She complained that the lack of color of the walls made it difficult for her to sleep, and that the space felt uncomfortable to her. She is an artist, painting in oils, pastels and water-colors and has lived a color-filled life. She lives in a townhome built in the 70’s, around the same time as Petula released her number one single “Downtown“. The townhomes are very nice, but are essentially devoid of architectural details- neutral beige is the standard color palette.

Enter Mr. Benjamin Moore, with a gallon of Blueberry Hill (hmm, just wondering if that’s where he found his thrill…). The color description?

blueberry hill 812

Reminiscent of picking sun-ripened blueberries on a warm summer day, this deep, saturated blue captures the purple cast of a bowl of fresh berries.

Yum! Right?! You don’t even need to see the color swatch to know exactly what color this is, but just in case:

So we painted the feature wall Blueberry Hill, the remaining walls White Dove. We transformed her bedroom with many of her existing furnishings and a little help from HomeGoods, from a blah, beige box into a space that makes her smile. And isn’t that what coloring your world is all about?