Blairsvillager.com: Decorating

DECORATE LIKE A PRO: Part 1,
I have a friend with such an innate sense of design who, although he's had a 20-year career in a different field, probably missed his calling. As a Decorator/Designer of 35 years, I can walk into a home and immediately see the makings of a true designer -- a person with an eye for the fundamental elements of design buried so deep down beneath the obvious, there are only 3 words to describe the bearer of all this natural talent: they get it.

With the birth in the early '90s of TV Channels such as Discovery and HGTV, who taught everything from how to prep a paint job to no-sew throw pillows, home decorating became so run-of-the-mill, we decorators and designers found ourselves at parties with guests who delighted in telling us every minute detail of their decorating projects. It got to the point back then, if you wanted to pick out the real decorators and designers at a party, you had to look for the people who weren't talking about design.

Modernism has played havoc with the basics of good design, because it takes minimalism to the extreme, thereby leaving little room for the polar opposites. That's why modernism is uncomfortable for some people, and why it doesn't appeal to their emotions or make them feel all warm and fuzzy. Polar opposites are those secret little building blocks innately talented decorators understand without thinking about them, the same polar opposites that are so difficult to teach new design students who lean toward modernism. But I'm confident you'll understand and maybe want to use the concepts, or at the very least find them interesting. So here we go.....

Polar Opposites #1: Black & White
How many times have you said to a friend, "I decorated my bedroom in green."
What you are really saying is: "I added green when I decorated my bedroom."

Every room -- no matter what color you envision it, is really -- or should be -- black and white or variations of black and white, such as ivory and charcoal, with color added. Black and White are polar opposites. A and Z. Ying and Yang. Alpha and Omega. Genesis and Revelations. White is the presence of all color. Black is the absence of color.

Let's go back to Dove Cottage and I'll show you what I mean.....

Below is a photo of Dove Cottage with autumn colors:

And here's the same room with all the color removed. What do you see?

I'd be willing to bet you didn't even see the black and white draperies in the first photo. Am I right? That's because your eye doesn't land on the black and white in the photos -- it's drawn to the color. But black and white anchor your color. They give it life, depth and dimension. Again, White is the presence of all color -- it's where color begins. Black is the absence of all color -- it's where color ends. Except for God and Spirit, nothing in the universe exits without a beginning and an ending -- not even our physical bodies! The colors you put in your room, without the anchor of black and white, technically are floating in the air like a rainbow.

To decorate like a pro, each room should have an underlying anchor of black and white. You don't have to start with a black and white base, like I usually do. You can go back after you've added all your color, and balance it out with the addition of black and white accessories or small furnishings. I really don't give it much thought -- I automatically look for black, white or off-white furnishings and upholstered pieces. If find a sofa in a style I like, such as in these photos, and it's a color -- that's okay (this sofa is red under the white slipcover.) The black and white can be incorporated in other ways. I generally throw in some natural woods like the pedestal table here. Then I begin to colorize the room. Think of a coloring book with white pages and black lines, where you fill in the color with crayons. You could take this same room in the second photo above, and add blue and green, or purple and gray. The color doesn't really matter. The anchor of Black and White does matter.

Even the exterior shade of Dresden Blue on Dove Cottage, is anchored with black and white.

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DECORATE LIKE A PRO: PART 2: LIGHT & DARKNESS

I've often wished I could talk with Thomas Edison, and explain to him how I feel about overhead lighting. Since I can't, I'll share my thoughts here.

We've all said: They're as different as night and day.
And if you're describing people who are complete opposites, you're correct -- night and day are as different as you can get, because like black and white, night and day are polar opposites. We can't exist without both of them. A world of total light, or total darkness, would for us, be unnatural. Our universe supplies us with both: sunlight for day; darkness and shadow for night.

Polar Opposites #2: Light and Darkness

In decorating, we bring those polar opposites home, through lamp lighting. Like the room that is more comfortable and inviting with the use of black and white, the use of lamp lighting gives us areas in a room that are in vignettes of light, and areas that are in shadows. Subconsciously, that's more inviting and comfortable to us. It feels natural.

When I'm working in my kitchen (I'm also a personal chef and in the kitchen a lot), I use overhead light. I don't like it, but a working area has to be uniformly lit. There are no dark/shadowed areas -- just uniformly dispersed light. When I'm cooking for myself, or entertaining, that's a different story. Those are the times I want the kitchen to have a warm glow, because it's inviting, cozy and comfortable, and natural. I have several small lamps on the counters and sideboards there, and with lamp lighting, I can create a romantic mood, or a festive mood, or a relaxing mood, or any mood I choose. You've all done that when you have parties. But the reason lamp lighting can alter your mood, is because of the polar opposites of Light and Darkness.

People look better in rooms that are lamp lit. Overhead light has no place to shine but down. It hits the ceiling and bounces down. Because of this down cast light, the lines of your face will also look downcast. People look older and more haggard with downcast light. Lamp lighting is softer because of the shadow effect, so faces look softer, rooms looks softer, and your world is more inviting. So turn off the overhead light, turn on the lamps, and change your appearance and your mood from edgy to relaxed.

Below is a photo of my bedroom with the overhead light on, complete with little Tea on the bed -- she's 11 years old and 5 lbs soaking wet.

And here is a picture of the same room with the glow of lamp lighting, but no overhead light. See the vignettes of light and darkness/shadows?

In the second photo, I've created a softer, more warm and inviting mood with the use of lamp lighting, and the polar opposites of Light and Darkness. You'll also see the Black and White polar opposites in play here as well (See Polar Opposites #1: Black and White in post below this one). There's a white night stand, an ivory bench, a black bed and ebony night table. And Tea must like it. Her eyes are lit up as well!

Next time: Polar Opposites #3: Up and Down

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AN OPEN and SHUT CASE

I always have projects going on around Dove Cottage.
Some of them are short term, instant gratification;
others are finished gradually...

Now you may be thinking to yourself: gradual projects never get finished, and end up sitting half done forever. Not so with me, my friends. I'm very improvisational -- we improv-artists start with a basic plan, and it slowly evolves from there. It made me a better designer through the years because improv is flexible. Of course, it might be .. well.. why I'm divorced. Improv drove J crazy!

Sunday after church at Unity, I thought to myself: I think I'll have a relaxing day around the cottage and start on those kitchen cabinets. I already had the plan, but had put it on the back burner as something I could do when the weather started cooling down. I tend to put projects into 2 categories: warm weather, cool weather.

The Plan
1) Remove doors from some of the kitchen cabinets and have open shelving for displaying my collection of white dishes (see White on White in the blog archives). Store doors in shed.

2) Change color of the cabinets from antique white to pure white.

So this is where I started:

One Door Removed -- 2 to go

After the other doors and all the contents were removed, I spacked the screw holes and rough spots, then let them dry. I then sanded lightly with fine paper. I was ready to paint. STOP!!!

Now here's Hint #1:

Trying out the "look" to see how I should proceed

When removing cabinet doors to make open shelving, do yourself a favor and try it out first -- like in the photo above. If you don't like it, then you don't have to paint the inside of the cabinet so perfectly -- you'll be putting the doors back on and it won't show. I'm not one of those designers who thinks what doesn't show still has to be perfect. Decorating should be fun, for Pete's sake. (Always wondered who "Pete" is.)

I even put a piece of textured brick wallpaper in to see how I liked it -- it's going on the wall around the cabinet, and I thought it might look interesting for the cabinet to look like it was hung backless on a brick wall. Still up in the air about that. That's the improvisational thingy I was talking about.

Hint #2:
If you're going to use a faux brick product to give the nuance and ambience of exposed brick, limit it to the walls that are common to the exterior -- where it would have been originally used in the structural architecture of the building.

Since I may or many not put the wallpaper inside the back of the cabinet, I need to go ahead and paint it, so I'm good either way. Okay -- I'm ready to remove the dishes and start painting.

I used Home and Garden by Glidden, in Eggshell/Satin Cotton White, one of those products with primer and paint in one. I loved the paint by the way, and am not being paid to say that! It is the perfect viscosity and gives excellent coverage. I applied two light coats and voila -- I was done. As a matter of fact, the paint was so easy to apply, I decided to also open another cabinet up on the other wall for glasses and cups, and additional white dishes.

In the photo below, you can see the difference in the old antique white and the new Cotton White: