Chocolate and Clouds...

...with a glint of metal... After all the selecting, culling and final editing and the twenty 12" x 12" squares in 7 different colors I painted on the master bedroom walls we have finally (maybe) come up with a paint palette* that pleases both The Guy and picky me.


Benjamin Moore Titanium to be precise. A warm pale gray with a greenish undertone for the master bedroom walls


Benjamin Moore Cloud White a cool creamy white, soft and billowy on the ceiling and inside the closets


Benjamin Moore Bittersweet Chocolate brownish black. Tasty on the trim to match the dark vanities.


By the way designers and decorators, Benjamin Moore has just launched a couple of exciting projects- new showrooms in New York and Chicago that have variable lighting to mimic those pesky north and east facing windows I'm currently dealing with and huge color blocks so you can truly imagine your finished design. The NYC showroom is painted in Cloud White, a shade I've used very successfully at The Cool House that provides a neutral background to the color chips.



Additionally, the "Designer's Colors" Virtual Fan Deck, a design-tool launched a couple of years ago with Kravet fabrics and furnishings is now available online making complimentary color choice a snap.


Benjamin Moore has also added an e-commerce section to the website so you can buy all the supplies BM offers, plus the sample pots in 600 colors, without stepping away from your computer. Shipping is free on orders over $75 and for 4 or more Color Sample pots. My local paint store is only offering pint samples these days - great for touch-ups or small areas, not so economical if you want to try out 3 or 4 colors on the wall. If you have any painting dilemmas there is a problem solving section too: Learn How that incorporates tips on faux-painting techniques and a calculator so you know exactly how many gallons of paint to order.
*For those keeping count - during the master bedroom project I have spent countless hours using BM's Personal Color Viewer, made innumerable trips to the paint store, bought 5 Color Sample pots, three pint size pots and 50 chips - all to find that what works best is a color scheme I used here, here and here. Ironic, no?

Design Inspiration

It looks like those umbrella stand pendant lamps in the great room are working their magic again.


Today they inspired the Awesome Designer to pull this fabric, Delineate in Malt from the Couture Collection by Michael Berman for Kravet. Also available in Foam (light blue) and Oyster (creamy beige). Not sure where we'll use it but I think we have to find a place - it was meant to be...

Maybe it was meant to be... the shower edition

After leaving the carpenter an amusing passive/aggressive note on the shower wall and mulling over the options to make the recessed shelf look sleek and chic and talking to The Guy who loves the Smedbo basket in the boys' shower I did a complete u-turn and started to think chrome shower shelves. After all two words that make me cringe are cubby (I always want to follow it by shouting Broccoli!) and niche especially when pronounced nitch! Soooo, should I run with my original idea or re-design on the fly?
There a couple of modern solutions that would fit with the hardware we are using in the rest of the bathroom


Ginger soap basket 36.60.20 from Homeclick.com $195.75


Smedo Sideline Chrome basket $86.40 from myknobs.com

What do you think interwebs? Do you prefer a cubby/niche/recessed area for your shampoo and shower gel or a basket or even a shelf?

I neglected to say which Sunday...

From a little more than three years ago "My prediction is that by Sunday evening there won't be any tiles, grubby or otherwise in the shower. "
The tiles did finally come off on January 1st 2010 and the cement board was screwed in place today. If all goes according to plan - for example, if the carpenter can unscrew the backerboard and cut out the hole for the shower niche that was carefully preserved during the demo (see above with pen on shelf), then re-attach the board - the tiler should be here Monday or Tuesday to start putting those babies back on the wall.

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...

Justifying Eames

It's a tale of love - let me justify it for you - I'm sure you'll get it...


I saw this original Eames Lounge and Ottoman in an antique store on my last trip to Brussels in November, a trip that coincided with the dollar's slide to an all-time low against the euro. The piece was in perfect condition, the chocolate brown leather worn-in just gently enough to be as soft as butter. I was smitten but the euro/dollar exchange rate was so bad it would have cost at least $3000 to have it delivered to me, with no guarantee it wouldn't be damaged in transit. Reluctantly, after briefly considering dreaming about buying a pied-à-terre in the city and placing this iconic furniture in it, I let go and walked away.


Then, in the bon chic bon genre Sablon district, we saw a brand new genuine Herman Miller licensed version in cherry and black leather for ::gulp:: 4900 euros, approximately $7000. Now, the same basic 670 and 671 models in the US were selling for $3899. If you subtract the price of the chair in the USA from one sold in Europe you save over $3000 or almost the price of the American Lounge Chair and Ottoman. It would be like BOGO - nearly free! Right? ...No?


Well, that's the justification I made when I gave in and ordered the limited edition Santos Palisander ( a sustainable alternative to the original rosewood veneer) Chair and Ottoman with black Dream Cow leather. It's an upgrade but I took advantage of free shipping and an extra 20% off promotion in December. It was a huge splurge, I know, and if I hadn't compared the prices in euros and dollars I would almost certainly never have taken the leap but if you remember I said back in 2004 I wanted one fine mid-century chair to complete the house; it's just that turned out not to be a Pierre Paulin Ribbon Chair but an American classic.

Saturday Morning

Fabulous Fabrics

No porn in the title, but an almost orgasmic delight here at The Cool House; moaning and sighing over fabulously rich fabric samples on the table. Silks, damasks, chenilles, and velvet; modern, vintage, retro or art nouveau inspired, they all scream 21st Century uniquely modern style and at least one will be trimmed and turned into pillows for the great room sectional by the Awesome Designer and her team.


Silk Empire Vol III - Cinnabar colorway, pattern 800187H-551 from Highland Court Fabrics.


Also from the Silk Empire Vol III - Cinnabar from Highland Court Fabrics circles of gold on brick silk 180740H-113.


Kari in Cayenne from Kravet's Basics line.


Nocturne in Tomato/Gold 100% linen. By G. P. & J Baker through Lee Jofa.


Mint Flower Sil in Salmon designed by David Hicks, Groundworks through Lee Jofa.


Magic Circles Velvet in Terracotta by Mulberry via Lee Jofa.

All fabrics to the trade only. Favorites, anyone?

Sunglass Style

Even in winter you need sunglasses in New York; in fact I probably wear sunglasses outside more than I do regular eyeglasses and when I find a pair I like I wear them until they fall apart, then I get the optician to fix them and wear them into submission. I have one pair I bought in Belgium in 1996 that I wear for walking the dogs - the lenses are so degraded it's almost impossible to see through them and the plastic on the inside looks as if it has been sucked on by a teething child but they are so comfortable and look so good I have never been able to part with them. Still, it was time for a new model so I went shopping and found lots of vintage inspired eyewear to chose from. They are prescription lenses so you'll have to wait a while to see what I finally picked but here are the contenders:


Teal blue, brown and black - bold and sexy Paul Smith eyewear PS-3009 in Tustl


Retro Hollywood glam Zooey in Ivory Shell with a Spice Brown Gradient. Oliver Peoples in collaboration with Zooey Deschanel.


Cool 70s inspired round frames - in tortoiseshell to accentuate the golden blonde highlights, Starbelle by Oliver Peoples.

Plumbing Porn

Wallpaper, fabric, decor accessories are all delightful - great at diverting me from real work - but is there anything more sexy than rough plumbing in a gutted master bath? No, there is not... except maybe the finished bath!

Elemental, Organic Mosaics

Designer Ellen Blakeley's singular vision allowed her to see how the vandalised glass of a bus shelter could be repurposed into a thing of beauty and elegance. She takes recycled tempered glass, mixes it with eco-friendly pigment and resin to produce custom tiles and panels of mosaic glass that can be used as a stunning backsplash, shower walls or even windows. Here are a few of my favourites:


Rich, red Pompeii from her latest collection, Elements- reinterpreting Earth, Water, Wind and here, Fire. It speaks to me an a primordial level.


The Spotlight collection, contains four sub-categories. Organic incorporates real leaves into the mosaic, here the cool, inspiring Silver Leaf - perfect for a spa bath.


Also from the Spotlight collection the sparkling Pop category in Mango colorway. I'd be happy every time I looked at this.


Finally appropriately named greens, blues and purples - Vineyard from the Core collection. It would fit right into The Cool House.

Intricate, dramatic, sustainable, unique - there is something for everyone in Blakeley's collections. You can order Ellen Blakely mosaic glass through Artistic Tile or via her showroom or you can just admire the images on her website and dream.

Black and White

Hanging the House paintings in the foyer has me re-thinking the whole gold on terracotta wallpaper vision. The black frames and stark white mattes are leading me in another direction. I wonder what tone on tone black or white would look like in the space...


This Graham and Brown Checkered pattern via Design Public echoes the geometric shapes in the house without competing for attention. Available in white or black. (I also want the Vitra George Nelson Sunflower clock so bad).


The black flock wallcovering from Romo Laurito in Ebony from the Grandis collection would certainly make a statement.


Gorgeous but maybe a little too like a snowflake? Marcel Wanders Stella wallpaper from Design Public available in white, black and a range of other colours.


Smudgy and edgy, Carlu Noir from Designers Guild also comes in Vanilla.


Or maybe a modern Anaglypta that we could paint would be the best way to go - we'd get texture while keeping control over colour. Graham & Brown paintable wallpaper in Curvy

Party Animals*

How do you celebrate Squirrel Appreciation Day?


Take one warm and welcoming home


that has a squirrel touch


or two


add a comfy place to rest


and let your friends go nuts!

*Squirrels celebrate by appreciating each other - late January is full-on mating season for the Sciuridae family!

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!

Shaded

I did manage to get a couple of things done last week - like finding the perfect pleated shade for the bargain lamp I scored a couple of weeks ago. Eventually I might get round to sorting the stuff on the credenza but until then - enjoy!

Backed-up!

I was going to entitle the post "Plumbers Gone Awol" but as I still have a home, and a functioning bathroom I'm going look on the positive side and not whinge or whine. I have a garage full of fixtures and a closet full of fittings. The cabinets arrive tomorrow and once they go in I can order the countertop, once the tile goes on the walls I can order the glass shower doors. Then the bath will be done... of course none of this can happen without the tiler who is waiting on the carpenter who is waiting on the plumber who has been sick for the last 8 days. Or maybe "sick".
Anyway, as a tribute to my fortitude - and yours, dear interwebs viewer, for living this renovation with me - I give you Lego Workers à la Flanders and Swann

Haiti

I can't blog about home/decor/design while so many are lives have been lost and many more are injured or without shelter. Please consider donating to Medecins Sans Frontieres/Doctors Without Borders or another charity working to provide disaster relief. Donate online via this link.
If you want to take part in a blog auction to raise funds go to Shorehouse Chic where Laura is doing her bit to help Haiti.