What did YOU do over the holidays?
Really? Fun!
Me? Oh, the usual…ate too much…drove too much…got a little jiggy with metallic paint…
Let me back up. I haven’t yet confessed to you that I went on a bit of a decorating bender at the end of 2011.
It was precipitated by a force-fed renovation project involving a falling-off back porch…so not what I want to spend money on! So unsexy! So…so NECESSARY! Anyway, in some kind of cockamamie rebellion, a purchasing flurry ensued, which culminated in a Christmas present to myself: new wallpaper for the foyer.
Honestly, isn’t it gorgeous? It’s not the most original idea – I’ve seen at least one designer photographed with it – but ever since my friend Iantha Carley used it in a design house (more here in Michele Ginnerty’s au courant blog, My Notting Hill, I knew it had to be in my life somehow.
It’s not up yet, but soon, Gentle Readers, soon! It’s in the living room, in a box, all ready to go.
Anyway, in anticipation of the wallpaper, I realized that the front hall radiator simply would not do in its current gunky overpainted icky dull white state. And doesn’t it make more sense to paint the radiator BEFORE putting up the wallpaper?
Of course it does.
As usual, we made it a family affair.
We used Modern Masters metallic paint, which is what we used on the dining room radiator last year, despite the paint store people’s STRONG recommendation – nay, warning – that we not do that.
(Listen. Until RustOleum comes up with more inventive shimmers than “Designer Metallic,” I felt I had no choice. And it hasn’t flaked off yet. So there.)
Ruthie was more game than the others, and she decided that while we were in painting mode, we should do away with the hokey seashells on her tub. This was taken before we moved in –
Even though all the fixtures in the room are brass, I couldn’t help but paint the claw feet silver. Gold felt tacky. Unlike seashell tiles, which are tres sophisticated :) . At least they’re old…
Yep. Just another typical holiday season at bossy color’s house. Hope yours was great – Happy New Year!
Annie Elliott – aka bossy color – is an interior decorator and design blogger in Washington, D.C. She’s also the creator of the “bossy basic,” a one-time service to jump-start the interior design process in your home.