After a summer of ups, and mostly downs for the garden, I was happy when the last piece of burlap was put in place and in just the nick of time, as it started snowing just a couple of hours later. This morning, Nature treated us to the most spectacular display of hoar frost and the trees were beyond beautiful.
This wasn’t a stellar garden season and rarely do I get discouraged but I’m happy it’s over. Now’s the time to concentrate on the indoors.
If you’ve been following the blog, you may remember that I have been redecorating some areas of my home. It started in the dining room last January with just a change of paint colour on the walls (from moody grey to soft gold), and from there I moved into the living room. I replaced my charcoal grey velvet sofa for a denim blue velvet sofa and two camel velvet club chairs sit where a cream sofa once was. The area rug was also changed out from a grey and cream pattern to a subtle, blue and sandy beige pattern. The drapes came down and I also added blue and white chinoiserie accessories.
Grey no longer is the common thread throughout the decorating scheme. Suddenly the foyer seemed completely out of place. A couple of years ago I painted that area “almost black” and loved how dramatic it was but now it just looks off. Not only that, I’m feeling discombobulated with some many new colours added to what I had considered a neutral palette before. Growing pains??? I don’t know, but it’s time to rein it in!
What can I do to tie these rooms–living room, kitchen and dining together? My first go-to is to paint, but then what colour?
These are some fabric swatches of what I now have to work with. The bird print is the kitchen drapery fabric which is visible from the foyer. Three others are living room upholstery, (minus the blue velvet from the sofa), and the velvet fabric is the from the full length tablecloth in the dining room.
I decided to go with a darker sandy gold colour than what I painted in the dining room, however, the colours are complimentary. This colour is “Buff” from Farrow and Ball. My Benjamin Moore dealer matched the colour in Aura Matte and when I hold the paint deck up to the painted wall, it’s a good match.
This is a huge departure from my comfort zone. I naturally gravitate to cooler colours and this has definitely warmed things up! I do think though that it blends in much better than the “almost black”.
As you can see, it’s a dramatic change (however, my husband hasn’t noticed yet!) and it may take some time for my eye to get used to it. The accessories in the foyer now seem to “disappear” so I may need to change them up a bit but will wait until after Christmas as the holiday decor will be coming out in a few weeks. Soon Charlie will be completely camouflaged!
Have you started thinking about Christmas decorating… xox Judy❤️