Experiments with Color

There is no faster or easier way to transform a space than through the simple application of paint. There is also no aspect more personal or of greater impact than the hue with which we choose to surround ourselves. Moods are often dictated by the color and light of our immediate surroundings, and the reaction between these two is important to consider.

After some years spent in the warming glow of the peach tone seen in previous posts it was decided a sleeker cooler tone was in order. Wanting to experiment with a gray we ended up with what in bright sunlight appeared to be an almost off-white. Once on the walls however, the color began to take on a decidedly lavender appearance, until after sunset when the room changed to a pale powder blue for the night. Setting out to choose the color I jokingly requested to paint the room opal after my birthstone and oddly enough that’s exactly what I got. As I sit writing this I can see off-white, lavender, gray, and pale blue from different corners of the room.

The color makes an excellent backdrop for gilding and dark woods. Over the brown leather sofa the mirrors have been replaced with a pair of beautifully detailed gilt floral garland moldings. Resting atop one of the salvaged columns is a hand carved bust depicting a stylized Native American Indian maiden similar to one displayed in the beadboard cabinet, both however have already been snapped up by a client in Europe. The carved cherub corbels and Chinese porcelain jars look great against the new color as well as the English porcelain plate at the top and the colorful gilt framed bird print below. As lovely a background as this opal makes for the rich accessories placed against it the color has proved a bit of a downer to be enveloped in all day and a lighter brighter shade has been chosen to replace it. After all you’re never more than a few cans of paint away from a whole new mood.

Photos and home staging by Knickerbocker.