Annie Elliott Design
Greater Washington DC
Yesterday a friend asked me about another friend's rental apartment. It's a little sterile. She just moved in, doesn't know how long she'll be there.
"Is she allowed to paint?" I asked innocently. Because, well, duh.
"No."
"No?"
"No...."
Not so long ago, I spoke with you about "art walls." We started with WHAT to Hang, then moved on to how to FRAME it, and then how to HANG it.
Seems I got one of my clients all riled up.
There's a gigantic blank wall in her cheerful gray dining room....
Woo-hoo! Let's hear it for pink! Honeysuckle: that kind of orange-ish, kind of reddish, bright, happy, optimistic PINK!
Today Pantone announces that Honeysuckle, aka 18-2120 TCX, is its color of the year for 2011. They proclaim:
While the 2010 color of the year, PANTONE 15-5519 Turquoise, served as an escape for many, Honeysuckle emboldens us to face everyday troubles with verve and vigor....
It's COLD here. I don't know exactly when it happened, but fall seems like a distant memory now.
It's the perfect time to tell you about a recent fireplace makeover.
Before my clients moved into this house, the family room fireplace wall looked like this...
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....