The Power Of Paint

Let's talk 'paint'. One feature of the home I just staged, that could not be changed due to budgetary constraints, was the camel/indigo blue 'Spanish style' floor tile that began at the front door and ran throughout the hallway, into the kitchen, the powder room and beyond to the mudroom/garage entryway. While I love the colours of the tile, the fact that the tile is no longer current and is the first feature of the house that greets buyers, necessitated a solution that created calm and allowed the tile to feel like it belongs. While the tile stuck out like a sore thumb because of it's strong pattern and outdatedness, this was amplified further by the different paint colours used both on the walls, doors and trim work. Everthing stuck out! Nothing blended in. The result- a very busy, chaotic , unattractive 'fixer up feeling' front foyer.

My challenge- the first of many -How to create an inviting foyer in spite of the busy pattern on the floor tile?

The solution- paint almost everything one colour-trim, doors, radiators and walls included.

My one regret, as I view these pictures now, is that I neglected to have the white trim running up the stairs painted the wall colour. The white baseboard in its brightness breaks the calm and competes with the wooden French doors which are the one architectual detail that make a statement in the foyer. Lesson learned. Take photos as the project progresses. The lens of the camera allows one to observe what the eye does not always notice.

Many people think that trim should always be painted a different colour than the walls and.... that doors should match the trim colour and not be painted the same colour as the walls. If the trim is white then so must the doors and all the woodwork be white.

I beg to differ. Trim, radiator and door colour choices are dependent upon what one wishes to emphasize or camouflage. In the case of the hallway, the busy nature and intensity of the floor required quiet everywhere else. Hence the front doors and trim, the bifold closet doors, the radiators and the inconsequential baseboards were all painted Benjamin Moore's Cable Knit (cc 306).

Baseboards that are nondescript usually fare better when they are painted the same colour as the walls. This adds height to the walls and camouflages the fact that the baseboards lack character.

More paint tips next time.

Design tip: Calm busy flooring by painting the surrounding trim, walls, baseboards, doors and radiators one of the quieter colours in the pattern.

You can count on Rave Re:views when you do so.

It's been a long time since I've written. Sorry for my absence but I'm back. I want my blog and the advice I impart to reflect the work I do. March was a slow month. A slow month results in fewer blog entries.

One project kept me busy for a couple of weeks in April and I would like to share some of the results.

Once again a Home Staging job that was to simply involve the rental and placement of furniture, wall art and accessories in an unoccupied property, became much more involved than was anticipated. It required that I become a full out project manager responsible for finding a contractor, electrician, painter, window and carpet cleaner etc. New fixtures, doorknobs and a bathroom sink, faucet and counter top had to be chosen and purchased. The job kept me hopping and I loved every minute of it.