A Contemporary, Colorful Living Room

Hello my fabulous blog followers!

Below are pics of a living room I recently completed. It is in the same house as the kitchen from my last post. The final piece for this living room took awhile. It was finding just the right table for the corner in between the two purple sofas. With those high arms on the sofas, we knew the table had to be fairly high for function, but if it was the same height as the arms, it would look awkward...happy balance time! We also really wanted a pop of copper on top (say that 5 times fast :) to tie in the chairs and complement the purple sofas. I really like the Asian art and the Asian feel of the table lamp. Both of those features soften or take the edge off of the contemporary lines and add more visual depth. Enjoy!

 Keeping everything very geometric for a contemporary feel...also the nature of the architecture of the house.

 I love the windows in this house! Beautiful dichroic glass art on the coffee table by Designs by Shoshana. 

Looking into the dining room...tying the rooms together with red.

Off set wall hung shelves provide a nice place for art, family pics, and mementos.

Later, Susan

Foyer in RED

Hello! I'm super excited about the foyer progress in my foyer/dining room/living room project.  There is still quite a fair amount to do in here, but I had to share with you how fabulous the new wallpaper, ceiling, and chandelier look!  The foyer is not large, but very tall, with a "racetrack" style relief pattern on the ceiling.  My goal was to emphasize both assets.  With the vines crawling up the walls, your eyes follow up, up, up to the sparkle of the chandelier and the red ceiling accent. I think it looks grand! As the husband said, "It's like walking into a Christmas present." (And I believe that was a positive compliment! :)

 Clarence House Flowering Quince wallpaper and Crystorama Solaris pendant

The stained wood handrails, only, will be painted a glossy black enamel. The white stays. The Crystorama star shaped sconce will get two red chandelier shades.  Love finishing touches!

 The front door is to the left with a long skinny window next and the coat closet to your right.  The long skinny window will be getting iron hardware and a pulled back drapery.  So great to watch it all come together!!

Toodles for now!!  Susan

Bloody Lovely!

This is a very catching vignette!  Why am I calling it "Bloody Lovely"?  It feels English to me, but not Grandma's English, but instead a more youthful English.  I love the symmetry.  I love the dissonance between the coral, pink, and red colors.  I love the way the warm gold, whispy wall candelabras contrast with the cool boldness of the painting.  I love the juxtaposition of traditional, contemporary, retro, and Asian styling.  I love how the color black is strategically positioned to carry your eye around, and ground, the room starting with the woman's hair, to the lampshades, to the arced feet of the sofa.  So completely pleasing to my eye!!

~~ Susan ~~

Thoughts in Red

Bright primary red...not a color I often use.  Maybe its because it is sooo primary, and I'd rather be a little off center (ok some would say I'm always a little off), but I tend to go towards the printer primaries (cyan, yellow, magenta) vs. the painter primaries (red, yellow, blue).  With that said, because as we all know, nothing is for sure, and exceptions are everywhere...I really like the primary RED, yes I said RED in these pics below.  May they warm your thoughts as the air gets cooler!

 Hotel Thoumieux in Paris, France -- if I were a little Eloise, I'd be living my life here instead of the The Plaza in New York.  This has my style written all over it!!

 Hotel Thoumieux in Paris, France

Michael Taylor -- heavenly drapery!

 

Carrier and Company, photo by Ben Hoffman

My son, Max A. Brown's, fabulous photography!  Copyright by Max A. Brown

Scrumptious dessert shared with my mother, brother, and friend Barbara at The Atrium Restaurant in International Market Square Design Center.  What a delightful presentation!  We gawked for a few mere seconds, and then gobbled it up!

Cheerio!!!  Susan

The Sticky Subject of Details

Hola!  Just picked my daughter up from Spanish camp, so I am feeling the whole Espanol vibe!  I am sharing with you a "before and after" project I did in 2004.  I think it is such an incredible example of why "the finishing details" in a room are so important.  We added mainly wall treatments and a few accessories in this project (a couple rooms went beyond that).  The results are amazing!  This home was an absolute stunner even before my changes!  It was a newer home truly built to look like an older home (most of you designers probably know why that is italicized :).  The homeowner had exceptional taste and had selected beautifully upholstered as well as gorgeous casegood pieces.  My initial reaction was "You need me how?".  But once I started looking beyond the beautiful architecture, gorgeous furniture and artwork, I realized the problem that had been bothering her for some time.  She needed the space to feel finished.  Here I come to the rescue!  Below are some of the before photos:

Before

 Sitting Area off Kitchen

Dining Room

 Living Room

Living Room

Living Room sofa

 Powder Room

Powder Room

Master Bedroom sitting area

 Master Bedroom sitting area sofa

After

Sitting Area off Kitchen -- we painted the walls yellow and added a red/gold valance

Dining Room--we painted this nook red and added corner curtains.  The majority of the drape is gold with a top red border, opposite proportions of the valance in the Kitchen.  Typically, I am not a fan of stationary drapes where the rod does not continue the length of the window.  However, in this application, a full rod above all three window walls would have created a very busy feeling particularly with the iron on the chandelier and the size of the space.  We needed something to soften the large expanse of windows which looks out onto wetlands and a pond.  No privacy was needed.

Dining Room going into Living Room--starting with the yellow paint color for the Living Room.  The gorgeous blue draperies were existing.

 Living Room -- in this room we continued the yellow paint around the room and added a Phillip Jeffries blue silk wallpaper on the ceiling in between the moulding.  I also added the blue silk wallpaper in the window seat areas.  At this picture taking time, we still needed to change out the two silver framed art prints on the right to something much more dramatic.

 Living Room window seat nook

 Close up of blue silk wallpaper on ceiling -- What a doozy that was for my installer!

 

Living Room -- on the sofa, I had 3 rectangular pillows made out of a fabulous Pollack Florabundance velvet embroidered and appliqued fabric.  The three identical pillows helps to ground the sofa space.  Our array of unique pillows was kept to the window seat area.

Close up of the sofa accent pillow

 Powder Room -- in the powder room, we wallpapered the walls with a Schumacher dusty rose/taupe, small leopard print which unfortunately is impossible to detect in this pic.

Powder Room -- my client changed out the wall shelf to a small wood/rattan chest.  Excellent choice I must say!

 

 Powder Room

 Master Bedroom sitting area -- we changed the built in bookcases from across to beside the chairs.  Added more Phillip Jeffries wallcovering, but in a rice paper texture/light carmel hue.  I also added Pollack fabric accent pillows to the chairs.

Seriously, Pollack and Phillip Jeffries are two of my favorite manufacturers to use!  Love their stuff!

Close up of Master Bedroom sitting area

 

Master Bedroom sitting area sofa -- we reupholstered the very floral sofa with a, yes you guessed it!, Pollack Body Wave fabric, brush trimmed the large pillows, and added a Pollack fabric accent pillow.

 Closeup of Master Bedroom sitting area chair pillow

 The majority of changes in this home had to do with the walls and a few accent pillows.  Yes, we did add some drapery, and reupholstered a sofa, etc.  But if just the walls and pillows were added, the changes would still have been enormous!  Hope this gives you inspiration for embracing the changes you want to make in your home!  Details are crucial, and the glue that holds it, and brings it all together!

I love to hear from you! ~~ Susan

4th of JULY!!!!!!!!!!

HAPPY 4th OF JULY EVERYONE!!!


Here's a funky room pic I took from the High Point Furniture Market this last Spring.  It was in a sustainable art exhibit.  If you remember, I had a close up pic of the chandelier, which is made from paper coffee cups, in a previous post here.  Think of the below room as a take on the traditional red, white, and blue with a splash of sunshine yellow!

Have a "bang up"(safely) time this 4th!!!

✯✯✯✯✯ Susan ✯✯✯✯✯