Brighten up your day

Winter is just about here, and I am dreading it as I do every year. It's looking a little dreary outside so I thought I would post about spaces with COLOUR, since I'm craving a little bit of bright and bold these days.

AT Casa	Cindy Ray
Apartment Therapy	Caroline Beaupère
Dexter Hodges	Elle Deco
Lucinda Symons	The New York Times
Shootfactory	Apartment Therapy
PointClickHome	Coté Maison
Vastu	Domino

Marie Claire Maison

Jamie Drake does it again

It's been quite a while since we've posted about Jamie Drake's firm. When I came across this gorgeous apartment filled with their signature bold colour palette, I was in awe, again. GORG!!! With these colours, you can't help but smile.

"The designs for our Manhattan House apartment aspire to replicate the cool, unapproachable beauty of style icon Grace Kelly. Pale icy green frosts the foyer, living and dining rooms with a piquant Kelly green accent panel in the foyer. Refined, couture details such as the ruched trim on the shapely sofa reflect the impeccable manner in which she was always dressed."

Sam's dilemma

Sam emailed us with the following predicament: "I have a dilemma. I just got new curtains for my bedroom whose pattern consists of gold and navy blue. I therefore want to change the design of my room to match (right now I have a green bed frame, white table, lavender carpet... big mess). However, seeing as my bedroom is in the basement and therefore has small dingy windows with limited natural light, I don't want to fill the room up with dark colours to match the curtains. So I was wondering if you would succeed where I have failed in finding inspiring images of bright rooms with touches of gold and navy. It is not a current or popular colour combination, but a pretty one nonetheless, if you ask me. Any help you can give me would be greatly appreciated!" It was a little tough Sam, but here are some photos for you that have some navy and a little bit of gold/yellow (ok, most do), to inspire your bedroom redo.

Chicago Home + Garden	Metropolitan Home
Sköna hem	Raji Rm & Associates
Greg Natale	Antoine Bootz
Cigolle X Coleman	Gregga Jordan Smieszny
Todd Oldham	Domino
Homes & Gardens	Metropolitan Home
Nina Assam	Domino

Killing two birds with one stone

Sorry for the rather murderous analogy but it will all become clear soon I hope. I'm in a retro kind of mood today. It must be due to the lack of retro posts lately. I've also been inspired by Tessa's design dilemma. When Kim bewailed the fact that no one paints a room burgundy my immediate thought was "they used to". The light bulb went on in my head and one name was there - David Hicks. I've paid homage to Hicks before but I realised he was part of the solution. These are his lush rich rooms, not always burgundy but brave in their dark hues.

Imagine that Buddha vignette in a burgundy room! Or that yellow and white abstract canvas.

Tessa leans toward super bright hues (oranges, yellows, apple greens, etc.), Kim had some great ideas and with David Hicks' help I'm going to suggest a few more. White, white, white. Tone it down with white. White furniture - think sleigh bed in white gloss, white sheers and fabric that uses white. Chocolate and white, navy and white, pink and white, black and white and even certain greens with white. Treat your burgundy walls as a deep dark neutral.

Bright colours? Why not! All these fabrics were pulled from Lee Jofa's Groundworks Collection. Many are by David Hicks. Bright colours particularly orange and yellow and pink and green are all happy with burgundy. You don't have to buy these fabrics but they give you an idea. Maybe florals are more your thing Tessa. I suggest a trip to the paint store. Gather together as many burgundy paint chips and every possible accent colour and play to your heart's content. My second suggestion is dark wood with an ethnic twist, suzanis and kilims in rich reds, pinks, oranges and black. Layers and layers of pattern. Cocoon yourself in the mysterious dark. OK now I have retro rooms and Tessa's burgundy dilemma out of my system. Two birds - not bad!

Design dilemma

Tessa wrote us with a design dilemma hoping we could offer some help: "I am writing to you now with a problem of my own. We live in a beautiful 19th century mansion in Washington, DC. It is gorgeous and wonderful, but we rent it and are not allowed to paint any of the rooms. I am about to move into a different bedroom that is gorgeous, but painted one of my least favorite colors- burgundy. I hate burgundy! I tend to lean toward super bright hues (oranges, yellows, apple greens, etc.) when I decorate, and I am wondering (and hoping) that you guys might have some suggestions of what could possibly look good with this awful dark mess. Anything I have tried makes the room look like either a men’s smoking lounge or a cheesy Victorian salon. I haven’t seen you post many pics of burgundy rooms, so I thought you might have some cool ones hiding somewhere. Please help me out."

I went through my photo stash and just as I suspected, no one paints a bedroom burgundy. :) And I hate burgundy too!!! First, here are a few bedrooms that have dark walls (a couple burgundy-ish) that might inspire you to work with what you've got.

Nicholas Haslam

House to Home

Target Living

Domino

James Merrell

Living Etc.

Robyn Glaser

For alternatives, if you're allowed to put holes in the walls, maybe you should consider finding some not-too-sheer sheers and hanging them from those wire systems (Ikea I think has it) around the room (if it's not too big). Also, how about painting some really large pieces of foam core (if you can paint that stuff)/thin MDF and leaning it behind your bed, dressers etc. to hide as much of the burgundy as you can, or you can make a screen, like the one below.

Domino

And the following photo I thought was very inspiring and SO gorgeous. Now the walls are not burgundy, but imagine they were, and maybe the light shade of bluey-green that are used in the large upholstered pieces were a light pink. Sounds crazy but it could work to tone down the darkness, as they do in this photo.

Nicholas Haslam