From House To Home

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If you’ve ever lived in a home that started out with basic white everywhere—on the walls, the carpet and flooring, and even white window treatments—you’ll be familiar with how the owners of this one felt. “All the white everywhere you looked made us feel like we were swimming in a sea of nothingness,” says the homeowner. We loved the house and the layout of the rooms, but we were in desperate need of some color!”

The problem for most of us, however, is just how to go about choosing it and where to put it. And then, having done that, how do you add the little accoutrements that finish the look in a room? The first step, says From House To Home’s interior designer Libby Symons, is: “Ask yourself some questions about what you like to do in that room. How do want to feel while you’re there? Make sure you fulfill the function of the room before you begin splashing color on the walls—after you do, splash away.”

To get a start, Symons worked with the homeowners on two of the home’s several bedrooms, including the master and a guest room. Several initial conferences helped the homeowners develop some basic guidelines for Symons. “I had to choose colors and furniture that would harmonize with all the unchangeable aspects the homeowners presented to me: the moldings, the carpeting, the window placement.”

Decisions were finally reached: warm, seductive colors for the master and bright but earthy colors for the guest room.

“In the master bedroom,” Symons explains, “the decision to paint the south wall in Sangria was partly based on the furniture placement and on the window placement. The red definitely comes alive when the evening sun shines in this room. The head of the bed faces this wall, so the spectacular color really is on display here. It’s not too overwhelming on just one wall, and when I put the dresser with the attached mirror on this wall, it contrasts nicely with that wine red. The fabric selection in the master bedroom was so important to the homeowners to get the feeling of being in a hip hotel. In contrast with the flat, smooth nature of the cool, gray Oyster walls, the bedspread brings out a corduroy-like texture.”

The guest room came alive in shades of bright green and deep brown. “The guest room boasts the Split Pea and Mink colors—earth tones like soil and leaves,” says Symons. “The brown was intentionally put on the wall with the most doors so that it wouldn’t overwhelm the whole room. This room’s bed has a country type of style; I embraced that feeling and spiced up the bedding with the Pumpkin Cloudburst quilt. The embroidery on the sheets is a bit more modern, reflecting the color of the green walls.”

The results? The homeowners were delighted with them. “Now our room feels so much more like us. And our guests have absolutely raved about the looks Libby helped us achieve for them, too.”

Why Flat Is Often Better

“Choosing the sheen of paint depends wholly on the function of the room that you put it in,” says Symons. Benjamin Moore’s Aura paint has a very high washability, so it was a good functional choice in these low-traffic, generally adult-oriented spaces. What’s more, it’s eco-friendly and is low-odor.

“From a design perspective, choosing a flat sheen was almost a no-brainer. The ambient light we chose in both rooms and the sunlight from the windows really created a smooth, almost suede-like finish.” According to Symons, the Aura required only two coats (it has a primer built in, even for the dark colors, and boasts a one-hour recoat time) and “the richness of the Sangria and the Mink is so deep that you’d never know white walls were previously there.”