Q: We’re both fans of contemporary design, but in this economy we’re staying put in the center-hall colonial my husband inherited from his family. We’d like to jazz it up to go better with our budding collection of modern -- and midcentury modern — furniture.
Brightening life’s ups and downs, 27 different patterns of wallpaper are used on a stairway wall. Creators Syndicate
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Any ideas?A: First, lose the "go with” phrase, unless you’re referring to what "goes with” your ideas of personal interior design.
Architecture is not always destiny. With the right attitude adjustment, any house — even a center-hall colonial — can express the taste and personality of those who dwell therein.
For example, New York landscape designer Mary Fennell Gerber and husband Andy Gerber used pure color to turn a mid-19th century farmhouse into an exhilarating setting for their modern art and classic furniture.
Think Mondrian meets Grant Wood; bright yellow and vibrant blue walls combine with mellow pine flooring; Stickley wood pieces coexist with a low leather sectional in total comfort.
It worked because the home decorators respected the 100-year-old architecture of the farmhouse, even as they superimposed their 21st-century sensibilities upon it.
Ditto for the pictured New York City townhouse, rethought by the design team of D’Aquino Monaco (www.daquinomonaco.com). Principals of the New York-based firm, Carl D’Aquino and Francine Monaco are both trained architects who collaborate on projects that are highly original and often offbeat, such as the townhouse they restored for a young family with a taste for high fashion.
The design team combined 27 different wallpaper patterns in the tall, narrow house.
"I adore and love wallpaper,” said D’Aquino. "But not in a retro way.”
No kidding. There’s not a match among the many wallpapers that run up the stairway wall, but there is a method in his "madness,” said D’Aquino, who has been listed among America’s Top 100 Designers.
"The stair is the core of the townhouse, so as you climb, every color in the house is repeated in the wallpapers on the stair wall.”
Cut into stripes from 1 inch to 14 inches wide, often overlapping but never duplicated, the wallpapers "shimmer as you go up the stairs,” the designer said. "They become a painting.”
Q: We’re hoping to visit San Simeon, Calif. I’ve heard that you can now buy reproductions of some of Hearst’s furnishings. How do I find out more?A: Easily. Click on www.hearstcastlecollection.com and browse to your heart’s content. You’ll find everything from rugs to upholstered furniture, the latest just introduced by star designer Barclay Butera (www.barclaybutera.com).
Q: What color cabinets will go best in a kitchen that is open to the great room where the floors are medium oak? I’d like to have them whitewashed or pickled, but my friends all say they have to match the floor. Does the island have to match, too?A: My best advice: Turn a deaf ear to friends who are stuck in yesterday thinking. Matching colors, including wood tones, went out with the shag rugs of the ’70s. OK, so shag rugs may be poised for a comeback — sorry to say — but not so with what top designers refer to as "matchy-matchy” decorating.
The operative words for today’s look are "blend” or "contrast.” Give the eye something to linger over, for heaven’s sake. Nothing’s duller than more of the same everywhere you look. And that goes for your work island, too. It’s a focal point; make it stand out in an entirely different color like a deep red, hunter green or dark wood stain.
Get more ideas from design professionals at the Hardwood Information Center, www.hardwoodinfo.com. To order a helpful booklet called "American Hardwoods By Design,” click on "Write and Request” for a free copy.
Rose Bennett Gilbert is the co-author of "Hampton Style” and associate editor of Country Decorating Ideas. To find out more about Rose Bennett Gilbert and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.
CREATORS SYNDICATE INC.
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