• Skip to main content
  • Skip to header left navigation
  • Skip to header right navigation
  • Skip to site footer
  • about
    • services
    • team
  • portfolio
  • press
Annie Elliott Design, Washington DC

Annie Elliott Design

Greater Washington DC

  • book
  • blog
  • contact

And the moral of the story is: paint your radiator

Annie Elliott | December 22, 2010

Thanks, Uncle Jimmy! Just in time for Christmas, he painted our dining room radiator!

Painted radiator

Remember when we talked about radiators? Well, I went to the paint store and bought this Modern Masters metallic paint.

Can of metallic paint

I’ve never used it before and wasn’t sure if we’d need a primer, or how much scraping would be required, etc. But James just cleaned the radiator super well, slopped on a first coat, and then touched up with a lighter second coat.

Painted radiator

It’s not quite as light as I’d thought it would be – I thought it would be closer to the wall color – but I still think it’s a drastic improvement over the white.

White radiator in dining room

Painted radiator

Don’t you?

Annie Elliott – aka bossy color – is an interior decorator and design blogger in Washington, D.C. She has been quoted in publications from The Washington Post to Real Simple and is considered an expert on color, residential space planning, and telling people what to do in the nicest way possible.

Category: Color + paint color, Dining roomTag: dining room, metal radiator, metallic paint, radiator

Sidebar

Subscribe

 

Bossy Color Blog

Categories

  • Art + accessories »
  • Bedroom »
  • Color + paint color »
  • Dining room »
  • Furniture + upholstery »
  • Kids »
  • Kitchen + bath »
  • Lighting »
  • Living Room + Family Room »
  • Renovation »
  • Rugs »
  • Wallpaper »
  • Window treatments »

View Portfolio

view Bossy Color's portfolio

Instagram

annieelliottdesign

View Instagram post by annieelliottdesign

Apr 3

Open post by annieelliottdesign with ID 17848603689678580
Q: What is one thing you can do to elevate a room❓💬 The first thing you see when you walk into a room needs to look great. In your office, get a nice, big vintage desk. In a living room, paint all the walls a dark color. Avoid satin brass hardware, pills on sofa fabric, and fake wood!#interiordesign #dcdesigner #decorinspo

annieelliottdesign

View Instagram post by annieelliottdesign

Apr 1

Open post by annieelliottdesign with ID 17918392215338642
This will come as no surprise, but I think about window treatments a LOT. Especially during the transition from winter to spring, with the change in temperature and light…I’m reminded what a critical design element window treatments are. And then I get to thinking about window treatments through the ages. Who invented drapes? Did the Romans *really* invent Roman shades?I decided to do some digging. Check out my blog to see what I discovered!📸 @stacyzaringoldberg📸 @jennverrierphoto#windowtreatments #drapes #interiordesign

annieelliottdesign

View Instagram post by annieelliottdesign

Mar 25

Open post by annieelliottdesign with ID 18088729466185965
It’s Wallpaper Wednesday! Today we feature Brunschwig & Fils’ Les Touches. @brunschwigfils introduced Les Touches in 1965, and the pattern soon became a Brunschwig classic. (Interestingly, “touches” translates to “keys” or “strokes…” I guess that’s close to “dabs,” which is what I’d assumed.) According to handwritten records, Les Touches is inspired by post-WWII black and white photographs, but the connection between this inspiration and the pattern remains a mystery. Referred to most often as a stylized animal print, Les Touches is a staple of the Le Jardin Chinois collection.Today, Les Touches comes in 18 colorways, but the blue colorway remains iconic. I’ve used Les Touches for window treatments and upholstery, but I can’t wait to try it as wallpaper!

annieelliottdesign

View Instagram post by annieelliottdesign

Mar 23

Open post by annieelliottdesign with ID 18102457048819740
Here’s what ✨ I ✨ would do… Instead of matching everything, you balance it. Pull one color. Shift the scale. Let each piece do something different. Here’s what ✨ I ✨ would do… Instead of matching everything, you balance it. Pull one color. Shift the scale. Let each piece do something different. Bonus: Change the rug! Suddenly you’d make a completely different window choice.Did you guess it?!Watch part 1 for the challenge context and part 2 for what doesn’t work.#interiorsandhome #fabricdesign #romanshades

annieelliottdesign

View Instagram post by annieelliottdesign

Mar 23

Open post by annieelliottdesign with ID 17860517745617635
Let’s talk about what fabric doesn’t work ❌ for the Roman shades in this teenage girl’s bedroom with 2 big windows and a statement ceiling. Even though these fabrics are beautiful on their own… they don’t work here. Biggest mistake: repeating the same motif (moths, butterflies, etc.) across the room. It starts to feel themed instead of designed.Watch part 1 for the full context, and watch part 3 to find out what I would choose.#interiordesign #wallpaper #interiorsandhome

annieelliottdesign

View Instagram post by annieelliottdesign

Mar 23

Open post by annieelliottdesign with ID 18038018090572669
Here’s the challenge: a teenage girl’s bedroom. Not huge. Two big windows. Statement ceiling. White walls.Which fabric would you choose for the Roman shades?There’s a right answer… a safe answer… and a couple very wrong ones. Comment your pick before you see part 2 👇#interiordesigner #wallpaper #romanshades

annieelliottdesign

View Instagram post by annieelliottdesign

Mar 20

Open post by annieelliottdesign with ID 18081942074583086
Behind the scenes at an AED photoshoot! 📸. It is all hands on deck — even Tilly did her part! Shoutout to @stacyzaringoldberg #interiordesign #dcdesigner #interiorsandhome

annieelliottdesign

View Instagram post by annieelliottdesign

Mar 18

Open post by annieelliottdesign with ID 18097450855812440
The star of today’s Wallpaper Wednesday is Schumacher’s Acanthus Stripe. If you’ve studied Green and Roman architecture, the Acanthus motif is an old friend: Acanthus leaves were a common ornament on Corinthian capitals as early as 500 BC. Celerie Kemble’s interpretation of the motif in her Acanthus Stripe wallpaper is streamlined and clever, with the leaves serving both as capitals and as the columns themselves. @schumacher1889 has created three types of Acanthus Stripe wallcovering: paper, vinyl, and sisal, with the latter my favorite by far. The sisal roughs up the pattern a little bit, making the paint a tad uneven and the edges of the design blurry in parts. It’s a little more real, a little more appropriate for a spiky leaf rendered in stone exposed to the sun and wind for thousands of years.Acanthus Stripe Sisal in Fog and Chalk is classic (ask Mabel from the show, *Only Murders in the Building*; she didn’t want to go too crazy redecorating her aunt’s apartment, I guess), but my favorite colorways are Turmeric and Mocha. In these colors, on this material, the design couldn’t be more elegant.#wallpaperins #interiordesign #onlymurdersinthebuilding

annieelliottdesign

View Instagram post by annieelliottdesign

Mar 17

Open post by annieelliottdesign with ID 18332961886216904
Does your kitchen backsplash inspire you? It should! Try using patterned or textured tiles, mix bold colors, or partner with an artist to create a special design. If you have a great view or no wall at all, you won’t need a full backsplash, of course ;) Just wrap the countertop material up 4-6” to protect the wall.#dcdesigner #backsplash #kitcheninspiration
Follow

Looking for something?

Don’t miss a single post

 

Where classic and modern hang out and drink gin.

  • Instagram
  • TikTok
  • Pinterest
  • Facebook

© 2026 · Annie Elliott Design · privacy policy