Annie Elliott Design
Greater Washington DC
I'm a fan of Design Within Reach's Cubitec shelving, as you know. I've used it in my daughter's bedroom - twice, in fact - and I've recommended it for clients' offices, family rooms, and TV rooms.
But here's the thing. It's not dirt cheap. Not if you want more than six boxes, which is what constitutes one kit...
Enter Ikea's Expedit. It's enormous. And it's $199 for aaalllll those little boxes....
This is the final installment in the "How to create the perfect art wall" series.
I believe my living room art wall will be my last obsessive personal project in 2010. Even though (spoiler alert) it might not even be finished.
But to review. Recently, we talked about what to hang on an art wall. Framing. And different ways to hang the art - in a grid, randomly, etc.
Even armed with all of that information, though, there's that je ne sais quoi that tells you whether an art wall is successful or not....
In my last post, thoughtful Gentle Reader Shirley encouraged me to paint the radiator in my dining room:
I hope you don’t mind me suggesting you also paint the radiator in the same colour [as the walls] so it doesn’t stand out so much.
Then Paul Clark weighed in with this:
If you look at the design of the steam register, it is meant to be highlighted as it gives the room character....
It looks beige in the color wheel. I have used this color as beige before. It's pretty.
But I never thought of Benjamin Moore's AC-31 Hot Spring Stones as gray.
Nonetheless, eternal optimist that I am, I was hoping against hope that somehow, in my south-facing-but-still-doesn't-get-a-ton-of-light-thanks-to-the-porch-roof dining room that it would read as a warm gray, not beige....
If ever there were a case to be made for putting giant swatches of actual paint on the walls before making a color decision, this is it.
With many, MANY thanks to all of the Gentle Readers who gave me their thoughts and suggestions, we're working with these finalists for my dining room....
Now that I have a living room I LOVE - or almost love: Mitchell Gold's Mona Sofette is on its way, and someday I'll eradicate the orange on those darn chairs -
I have to repaint the dining room.
I know, I know. WHERE DOES IT ALL END?? Well, I've assured my long-suffering husband that it ends after the DR is painted. But I might have been lying.
Anyway, you can see the problem, looking from one room into the other....
So you're surrounded by old favorite and newly-acquired pictures, all resting comfortably in their shiny new frames.
Now what?
There are about a zillion "right ways" to create an art grouping. But my saying, "Just fiddle around with the layout until it looks right " is supremely unhelpful....