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Annie Elliott Design, Washington DC

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Thanks, Washington Post! Advice for grads decorating first homes

Annie Elliott | June 18, 2009

Thanks, Washington Post, for including a bossy color nugget in today’s article about decorating first apartments (or houses).

Can you guess which advice is bossy color’s?

Oh, all right. I’ll just tell you.

After thinking way back to when I first graduated and was renting a beautiful (and back then, affordable) place in the Kennedy-Warren, here’s what I gave the Post.

– No color is more depressing than “rental unit cream.” Definitely ask your landlord if you can paint a room or two (walls only). Choose a super light color: mistakes don’t show as much, and it will be easier to paint over when you leave. Even a light color can have a dramatic impact.

And second –
– Liberate one “good” piece of furniture from your parents’ house – a dresser, a desk, a coffee table – or buy something unique from a store like Good Wood. No matter how much Ikea and Target furniture surrounds it, this special piece will distinguish your apartment from everyone else’s.

Although you can’t see the cool detailing in the picture below, this is the piece I stole from my parents – ok, they gave permission – when my husband and I moved into our first condo together. It’s a mahogany sideboard from my English grandmother’s house. We had little else, so it really stood out.


Picture of the Kennedy-Warren from Wikipedia.

Category: Furniture + upholstery

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Sep 9

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It’s Wallpaper Wednesday! This week, feast your eyes on @timorous_beasties Fruit Looters. TB claims that William Morris’s Strawberry Thief pattern inspired Fruit Looters, but only the name indicates the connection: Strawberry Thief, Fruit Looters…get it? Whereas Morris’s iconic pattern is medium-scale, rhythmic, 2-D, cartoon-like, and muted, Fruit Looters is the opposite in every way but subject matter. The scale is huge, with the foliage “stripes” providing a geometric order, and it oozes TB’s trademark edginess. The crisp pattern is finely drawn; pull it apart, and each element — a flower, a bird — could be in an English botanical print. Fruit Looters comes in vivid, saturated colorways, some with a metallic sheen, and dramatic black is present in all.Recently, a client (who originally introduced me to Timorous Beasties!) and I used Fruit Looters wallpaper in her stairwell, in the Alabaster colorway. The drama. Oh, the drama!

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Aug 26

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Happy Wallpaper Wednesday! There’s no better paper to feature in August than Schumacher’s Citrus Garden 🍋 🍊.The Swedish designer, artist, and architect Josef Frank created the Citrus Garden pattern as a fabric in 1947. The hand-drawn, whimsical, quintessentially mid-century, irresistibly cheerful design exemplifies Frank’s philosophy: “The freer the pattern, the better.” I’ve used Citrus Garden fabric a few times, but shockingly, the pattern wasn’t on wallpaper until 2017!! 🤯 Deprived for so long!! As soon as the opportunity arises, I’m running, not walking, to get my hands on this wallpaper.@schumacher_midatlantic 📸 @angieseckinger

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Aug 19

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Aug 12

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Happy Wallpaper Wednesday! Let’s talk about Cole & Son’s Acquario, shall we?Iconic Italian artist Piero Fornasetti designed Acquario for Cole & Son in the early 2010s. He was going through an ocean phase, captivated by its mysterious depths 🐠, so he developed this fish design and put it first on plates and fabrics, and then, luckily for us, on wallpaper. We just installed Acquario in the Print Room Blue colorway in a client’s tiny practice room (he plays classical guitar), and we LOVE it! That big old blowfish, just gliding along…he kills me.Featuring: @cole_and_son_wallpapers @fornasetti

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Aug 9

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Green, light blue, and a touch of navy come together to create a room that's bright, welcoming, and incredibly summery 🥰 🥰 🥰 #interiordesign #summercolors
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