Julie's Bedroom - a dotted rug

Julie (she's in the photo) and I went shopping for her area rug yesterday. We brought fabric samples from her bed quilt and other furnishings, for reference.

We could not find any ready-made rugs that felt right, so we created our own with the help of Alysia at Rug Décor in Manchester, Missouri.

Their slogan, “your style…our specialty”, fits.

Julie found "her style" in her favorite “dots”. She chose a unique design that links the dots to look almost like strings of pearls.

We selected the colors and Alysia provide a computer-generated picture (see in photo below) for us to view. We’ve requested two strike-offs (samples), with different backgrounds, one white and one periwinkle.

We’ll have these in a month so we can view them in the room to help make our decision. Perhaps you can weigh-in with your opinion!

Julie expected a wool custom rug to be twice the price, but she was surprised to learn that custom rugs, while typically costing more than those off the rack, can still be affordable.

This is especially true at Rug Décor where they offer highly competitive pricing. They will match or beat competitors’ prices, including online prices. This growing company is headquartered in Earth City, Missouri.

Looking for a rug? Try Rug Décor and tell Alysia that I sent you.

And by the way, rugs are not the only place Julie is seeing dots. Stay tuned, there may be more dots in the hallway!

Julie's Bedroom - Embracing White

White Paintings by Robert Rauschenberg

I love color – it’s my passion and probably my specialty. For that reason, I am surprised I am learning to appreciate “white” more and more.

White is technically the absence of color, but it consists of all the colors on the visible spectrum. Ok, that blows my mind and I won’t even try to understand it.

I just know I like white, especially in combination with color.

I generally prefer to use it as an accent or in small amounts, unless we are going for a very contemporary style or some other deliberate style in which white in mass makes sense.

Typically, though, white, especially in mass on walls, is stark, cold and does little to warm up woods in furniture and flooring.

White can be depressing, particularly in winter or in a room with northern light that reads cool. I often say that paint companies need to give you a bottle of Prozac with each can of white paint.

White can, however, read fresh and clean and reflect light to make the room appear brighter. In the hot months of summer it can make you feel cool.

When white is combined with other colors, it can be grounding. It has the ability to set-off colors and make them pop. For this reason it is a popular choice for moldings.

How much white you use depends on the tone you want to set for the room.

Our goal in Julie’s bedroom is to use white to give the room a cottage-feel and to highlight the other colors in the room, especially her favorite periwinkle walls.

White samples from Behr and Valspar

I plowed through some 50 samples of white to consider for Julie’s room. Notice all the variations (above photo). It may be counterintuitive, but white is not straight forward. It needs to be selected as carefully as other colors for the room.

We quickly selected two that closely match Julie’s fabrics. Next we held the two choices up to her periwinkle walls. A winter white, appropriately named Polar Bear (Behr Paints at Home Depot) won-out over the other choice because it made the periwinkle sing.

Remember: strong color combinations should drive our choices rather than strong color preferences.

In other words, we make the best selections when we think in terms of how a particular color can complement other colors.

Designers think: “What is this color doing?” NOT: “what is my favorite color?”

In the case of Julie’s bedroom, holding the Polar Bear paint chip up to the wall broke the tie.

So hold those paint samples up to the other elements in your room, next to the floor, furnishings, fabrics and walls. You may love the sample in the store, but think less or more of it when you see it next to the other elements in the room.

And I am beginning to think more of white. Even considering painting “some” walls white in my home. We’ll see if it passes the Prozac-test!

Julie's Bedroom - a study in color and design

Yesterday I met Brad, Julie’s carpenter, to go over the moldings we will use for Julie’s bedroom that will be a hybrid of "cottage style" or "English Country Style" , including wainscoting and decorative moldings and other fun details that say: "cozy".

We are working with an existing 2 ½ inch crown molding, just fine for the eight foot high ceilings in Julie’s bedroom. But we are now putting in new floors and beefing-up the wainscoting and baseboard, so the small crown molding would look wimpy by comparison.

We could pull out the old molding and replace it with expensive 5 inch crown molding, but I have a creative solution that is less expensive and intrusive and gives a more dramatic look:

We will place a 1 ½ inch base cap molding three inches from the bottom of the crown molding on the wall. Base cap is sometimes called wainscoting cap or wainscoting molding. It looks like the old picture molding, but with a flat, not rounded, edge at the top. If you are unfamiliar with types of moldings, it has a profile similar to most traditional picture frames.

Now here is where I get crazy. We will turn it upside down. Yep, that’s right.

Brad, the carpenter, asked me about three times yesterday, “Are you sure you want to turn it upside down?”

“Yes, why not,” I said.

“Well, then you can’t hang pictures from it!”

Julie and I responded, “But we don’t want to hang pictures from it!”

This is not the first time a carpenter has looked at me in unbelief.

Our goal here is to beef-up the crown molding, to fool the eye into thinking it is one large crown molding. Brad will paint the molding and the wall in between the same color - white, in this case - to make it look like one continuous molding. And by turning the base cap molding upside down, we give the edge a nice definition and finish.

You can see an example in Judy’s home:

Before (above photo), the 2 1/2 inch crown molding.

After (above photo), the beefed-up moldings and painted walls provide definition and character to the room.

See how before (above photo) the crown molding almost disappeared, providing little contrast or interest.

See (above photo) the difference beefed-up molding and paint can make! It really complements the other details in this older home, like the arch entries and niches.

You can also beef-up your baseboards this way. Many older homes have the typical 3 inch colonial baseboards. You can add about 2 to 3 inches up from the baseboard a 1 inch trim molding of your choosing, then paint the wall between the baseboard and molding to match.

Voila! You have instant beefed-up moldings that didn’t cost you an arm and a leg and are simple enough to qualify for a weekend DIY project.

What can you do with decorative molding?

Julie's Bedroom - a study in color and design

I am helping Julie redecorate her master and guest bedrooms. In the master we are using Julie’s favorite color, periwinkle (a blue that leans purple), as the main color with accents in yellow and green. Our inspiration: the quilt Julie is making.

Now have you tried to find periwinkle in fabric lately? It’s a challenge. Most of what you find in affordable fabrics is grey-toned or muddy colors. For uncommon color palettes, especially bright or vibrant palettes – with the exception of children’s prints - you do best to search among designer fabrics. But they come, often, with a high price tag.

I have been a fan for years of pure and vibrant color palette of Designers Guild’s fabrics and home furnishings, designed by Tracia Guild, the United Kingdom’s master colorist. Stumbling on her books years ago inpired my serious education in color - she opened a whole new world of exploration for me.

For those on a budget, you might need to use her fabrics sparingly as they are priced on the high-end. Designer Guild fabrics are not found at retail stores, but most often only through designers or trade-only showrooms. However, if you are on the hunt for sophisticated pure and vibrant colors, they may be worth the look.

More accessible and affordable is the offering by Susan Sargent. And if you buy from housefabric.com they range from $12.95 to 16.95 a yard. This is a bargain price for designer fabric. (To see Susan Sargent fabrics in St. Louis, Missouri, check out Anatol's Fabric Outlet - home to housefabric.com -314-968-0090).

And guess what? Susan Sargent offers a delicious menu of "blues" that lean towards Julie’s favorite "periwinkle". I selected swatches (like the one pictured) that I think will make winning window treatments and pillows. Yummy!

I’ll let you know what Julie decides and show you the results! Stay tuned for more on Julie's bedroom.