Hanging the Art: Olivia's Birds edition

Just in time for her Huntington, Long Island book signing at The Book Revue on Sunday April 10th, young artist Olivia Bouler's the Great Tern has found his permanent home in the foyer at The Cool House. This drawing was part of Olivia's first venture to help Save the Gulf wildlife from the BP oil spill a year ago.


Olivia's Birds Saving the Gulf is a beautifully drawn, passionate and informative book-part guide book, part environmental resource-detailing her story and illustrated with her paintings of the birds that inspired her to start a campaign to save them. If you can't get to the Book Revue on Sunday at 3 PM you can and should seek out the book at your local store or online, I'm certain you'll be delighted too.

Gold toned papers

The white tone on tone wallpaper samples that I sent for from Graham and Brown were a bust. The tone on tone Checker looked dingy and the Curvy didn't read at all, its beautiful geometrical swirls simply disappeared on the foyer walls. The black Checker looked better but was still too one note - not the play on shade I had been expecting.



So, if the tone on tone is too boring and the terracotta and gold papers are just too much of a statement what, I wondered, if we went with a less bold color and pattern but a brighter, more metallic hue. Especially, as you can see in the photo above, we have more open spaces than solid walls in the foyer. What do you think?


Luna in Gold/Tan from Cole & Son via Lee Jofa


Muse in Champagne via Lee Jofa


Carlu in Nickel


or Gold by Designers Guild


Finally - grasscloth is very mid-century modern and it's making a comeback. W3043-24 is a 50% grass/50% paper blend in a real golden tone available from Kravet.

Remodeling Analogy

Plumbing :


Ceiling : :


Carpentry :


_

Oops! The joy of a completely internal bath is never knowing which room will be affected. These leaks (foyer) and pops (dining room Cathedral wall) will be fixed by the plumber, carpenter and painter next week - luckily I kept this blog so I can track which paint we used in the dining room...

Houses are Home

Since I brought them back to The Cool House, I've tried Nadine Bouler's House paintings in various locations: the great room, the dining room, the kitchen and my office; in the end I decided they looked best right up front in the foyer. So I moved Will Klemm's Radiant to the great room where the orange and gold pear fits right in with the new rug and placed House in Flight in its place. It looks at home here, the dimensions of the piece fill the wall space better, the colors compliment the architecture.


Then I grouped the other three pieces on the opposite wall. Now visitors to The Cool House can view the work up close and get a preview of the back yard exterior without venturing outside. Perfect... at least I think so - let's see if Nadine approves!

Golden Walls

Now that we have the furniture back in the Great Room, I asked the Awesome Designer, Julie Napoleon Brown, to bring back this paper, Grasses by Mulberry in Red/Gold to see if it would work for the foyer. Being a star, she also pulled a few more wallpapers in the same colourway. After I had carefully placed them aroud the walls, The Guy glanced around and uttered the fatal words: The trees in the forest paper is looking a lot more appealing! We'll ignore him, though and move on...


My initial favourite: Octavio by Mulberry in Copper/Red


The Guy's favourite (if he were forced to choose): Gilded Fresco in Red/Gold from Mulberry.


The two papers together in situ - maybe my choice is too geometric?


After seeing them all in daylight and by CFL lighting I'm being seduced by this Red/Gold/Rust beauty: Palm Court, Cole & Son, from their Vintage Glamour Collection.


At first I thought it was too Arts and Crafts but in real life it really shines off the wall


as does this sample of Grasses that I started with.
I'm no nearer make a decision, so Interwebs, please weigh in with you thoughts!

All wallcoverings available from Lee Jofa (trade only).

Wowser wallpaper

What do you think of this Fracto wallpaper from Umbra? I love it in rust and want to put it in the foyer.


It's only $39 a roll and we wouldn't need many for this space, it's also super easy to hang, even for the novice. It says so right on the website.


My only concerns are that it might be a little dark and it has to co-ordinate with the rooms that are open to the foyer: the den, dining room and great room, and they all have a lot of crimson accents. And there's the kitchen too, because even though there's a door there, we never close it.