As I was scooting around the room on my tush cutting in the baseboards in the wee hours of this morning, I kept glancing over at the interplay of the newly painted walls with the current black trim and carpet in an empty corner of the room...
At first, it hit me wrong, but almost immediately on the heels of "Oooh, not so sure," my thoughts started going to "Hmmm, very art-deco." Not current-day, Miami art-deco, but 40s Hollywood art deco.
From Art Deco Style
The above bath uses almost exactly the same two shades of green with black. Love it!
I'm sure any of you who have ever done any house or apartment hunting in older sections of your town have seen this tile combo a time or two. The woman who sent this pic to "ApartmentTherapy.com" was asking how to hide it. I would showcase it!
As I sat and looked at that stretch of black trim against the two greens last night, my second thought after "art deco" was that I could now see a way to make this room a balance of feminine and masculine. My kids are probably the main people who will be using this guest room. When I showed my son the bedding, his immediate and visceral reaction was "Floral?!?!?!!" Okay, point taken, Chevy! Since that "conversation" I've been looking for ways to masculinize the room a bit, and the art deco sub-theme seems a perfect jumping off point for that. I've always loved art deco, but I've never, never been happy with any room I've done that's been true to one style and only one style. I really prefer an eclectic mix, so I'm hopeful that I can blend the whimsy of the bedding and a couple of pieces of furniture I have planned with the more ordered elegance of art deco.
Another thought I had while this idea gelled in my late-night musings was how much a luxury it is to be doing a room for myself rather than a client. Not that I dislike having clients, believe me! But if I were doing this room for a client, the basic decisions - wall and trim colors, fabrics, etc - would have been made at the outset. I most likely would have chosen white trim instead of black, and I would have given the client a whole slew of reasons why that was the best choice. And then, when I had my Eureka! moment in the midst of the work, I'd either have to sit down and shut up or go to the client for approval...
Me: I know we agreed on white for the trim, but now I'm thinking black.
Client: But you said white was classic and that black was going to be too heavy in this room.
Me: I was wrong.
NOT a conversation that's fun to have with someone who trusts your judgment!
By the way, cool as I do think the black looks, I brushed on some of the Regent Metallics Silver Bell with Behr's Black Suede and think this is really "it" for the trim...
I was actually going to go into a couple of other things today - bedside light fixtures, a few ideas I'm trying to decide between for the accent paint colors, and the headboard, but I need to get back to work! Hopefully I'll have some photos with those accent colors up on the walls tomorrow. In the meantime, I'm sharing this photo that I stumbled across while searching for art deco just because it made me go "Wow!" I may make this a feature: a weekly or more frequent "Random WOW! of the week" photo. Enjoy!
Designed by artist/architect
Friedensreich Hundertwasser
as featured on Furniture Fashion
Art as architecture, or architecture as art. Whatever you call it, it really made me go WOW!
Love the pic of the building you posted at the end. Where is that?
ReplyDeleteAnd I totally agree with you about the tile in that bathroom -- don't hide it, showcase it! It may not be your favorite color or favorite style but how many of us have the chance to show off vintage tile in our bathrooms!
Karen
My reaction upon viewing the first photo was "Serenity." The clean lines and minimalistic look really grabbed me. Tell Chevy it is floral, but not girly. Plous when he's sleeping he won't see it.
ReplyDeleteI love the bathroom too and would also play it up, but 30 years ago I would have hated it.
The more I get into the specifics of what I want to do with my accent paints, the more I'm giving up on masculinizing this danged room. I will indeed be telling Chevy to get over it, Christine! (I'm magic - I know who the anonymous comments come from. Cue Twilight Zone music now...)
ReplyDelete