apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time


Southwest #17: Chris & Kendra's Eyeball Tickler


101308chriskendrabed.jpg

fallcolors1.jpgName: Chris & Kendra
Location: Santa Ana, CA
Type of Home: Live/Work Loft Townhome

What inspired you to use color? We want our home to reflect our love of art and design, finding a current way to showcase our midcentury modern and pop art influences. There is a misperception that contemporary spaces are cold and unlivable, but we prove that with the use of color and natural materials (stainless steel, walnut, flokati rug, teak wood, and concrete-look corian), a modern interior can be warm and comfortable. We want visitors to be surprised at every turn (not unlike Gehry designs), giving them a new view from every living space. We painted accent colors on key walls, so that every vantage would include more than one color field. From any room, you see multiple color planes, kind of like a Mondrian painting in 3-D. We left the largest walls white to leave big areas for our growing art collection, and so we could feel like we live in an art gallery!

 
 

Color Tip: Avoid painting all the walls in a room the same color...it's much more interesting to create focal walls. Find a way to connect two smaller spaces with a colored wall extending from one room into another, or taking the same flooring through multiple areas to elongate the space. Select colors that are less saturated than you think you want, because in large areas and different light (especially sunlight), they will seem much brighter than the paintchip. Don't be afraid to be eclectic and mix colors, patterns, and elements of different styles. Surround yourself with things you love and have collected and want to look at every day!

Colors Used: Swampwater, Stone, Bangkok Rust

Fall Colors Introduction -------------------------------

fallcolors1.jpgWelcome, everyone, to our Fourth Annual Fall Colors Sharing & Contest. We're looking for the most beautiful & colorful home in the world and sharing all of the great ideas we get with our readers. This year we're amping things up and hoping to do things better than ever. There are two basic phases, the Sharing Phase and the Voting Phase...

1. Sharing Phase - you comment, judges decide

The 40 best, completed entries will be posted on a daily basis for three weeks. You can view them all at anytime via our new, improved contest pages under ALL ENTRIES. During this time your comments are VERY IMPORTANT as our six judges will be choosing 16 finalists from each region based on comments and their own colorful opinion.

2. Voting Phase - you vote till you drop

Starting October 20th, finalist voting will begin on a daily basis through our new bracketed voting system, which will pit our 16 finalists against one another until only one remains. Sound exciting? We hope so.

Best, Maxwell

10-2-cb2footer.jpg

Tags

2008 Fall Colors - Southwest

Related Links

Share

Comments (40)

Kool, Kool Kitties!

posted by GHB on October 13th 2008 at 9:16am
view GHB's profile

Loves it.

posted by visualingual on October 13th 2008 at 9:18am
view visualingual's profile

Very Nice - Especially love the floor-to-ceiling draperies at the double-height window-wall.

posted by bepsf on October 13th 2008 at 9:20am
view bepsf's profile

Love it, love it, love it!! Great use of color, and I love all the patterns and geometric shapes everywhere. My favorite space is the bedroom though! Where did you get all that bedding (btw, I love that it's not matchy matchy)? The gorgeous art piece over the bed adds even more interest and color to the room, and complements the bed very well.

posted by TrueTex on October 13th 2008 at 9:20am
view TrueTex's profile

Love it!

Where are those blue pillow cases and blanket/duvet from? I LOVE them!

posted by Meganfm on October 13th 2008 at 9:29am
view Meganfm's profile

I think this is my favorite. What a great place. It is fun and stimulating without feeling cluttered. I love the earthy colors.

posted by GirlInATower on October 13th 2008 at 9:38am
view GirlInATower's profile

love that you fit two sofa seating areas into one large space without it seeming like a sofa showroom. and like girlinatower said, it looks lived in and fun but not in a cluttered way.

posted by Enamorada on October 13th 2008 at 9:41am
view Enamorada's profile

Absolutely gorgeous!

posted by Kpaige13 on October 13th 2008 at 9:41am
view Kpaige13's profile

This is fantastic. Not at all my style, but you clearly have a cohesive style of your own, and did a great job executing it. Great!

posted by amt230 on October 13th 2008 at 9:42am
view amt230's profile

My eyes have been thoroughly tickled and my brain is very happy now. Excellent job on a lovely home!

posted by Monica on October 13th 2008 at 9:49am
view Monica's profile

This place is so dramatic! Its one of the first entries that has the "wow I could never pull that off myself" AND "I would totally want to live there" factors going at the same time. Super impressive!

(Also, i think i might directly copy the marimekko fabric 'art'!)

posted by Deeliscious on October 13th 2008 at 9:52am
view Deeliscious's profile

The bedroom has to be my favorite room. The colors are wonderful. I believe that the bed linens are Ikea?

Kitties look pretty happy!

posted by suzy8track on October 13th 2008 at 10:01am
view suzy8track's profile

Way too much drama (or too much black!) for me, but I really really like the bedroom

posted by xieta on October 13th 2008 at 10:05am
view xieta's profile

Wow that is a lot of stuff. Not to my liking a bit too much of the items of this decade and it will look very 2007 in 2010. However, good use of paint colors defining spaces.

posted by LoriSF on October 13th 2008 at 10:12am
view LoriSF's profile

Very nice to go modern, yet still be charming and livable!

posted by baltimorerowhouse on October 13th 2008 at 10:18am
view baltimorerowhouse's profile

I love the black modernist wall hanging/room divider! (The one to the left of the sofa in the first picture.) Where did you get it, or was it a DIY?

posted by dianska on October 13th 2008 at 10:47am
view dianska's profile

whoa.. i saw the photo of the bed and that could almost be mine. i have the same bed, sidetables, orange stripey pillow and plum coverlet. although my coverlet is usually covered with cat hair. i see you have come up with a solution to that problem!

posted by dM on October 13th 2008 at 10:49am
view dM's profile

Love the palette and the choice of pieces. But it comes across a little too busy, like decoration stuck "on top of" the space rather than a design integrated into the space.

Simplify a little bit by not making *everything* contrast, and go for larger areas of the same color or pattern. Same feel, just streamlined a little.

posted by nashdp on October 13th 2008 at 10:52am
view nashdp's profile

this place is amazing. it definitely should win!! its been a while since ive seen a place here that really makes my jaw drop and this did it! great job.

posted by mandiewood on October 13th 2008 at 10:52am
view mandiewood's profile

A great backdrop for those gorgeous kitties.

posted by Kate (NC) on October 13th 2008 at 12:24pm
view Kate (NC)'s profile

really enjoyed looking at this home!

posted by jeunessedoree on October 13th 2008 at 12:33pm
view jeunessedoree's profile

cool home, awesome kitties!

posted by hanako66 on October 13th 2008 at 1:24pm
view hanako66's profile

I like those black O things hanging down as a room divider; they look good with that rug.

posted by Curtis on October 13th 2008 at 2:21pm
view Curtis's profile

I have the same bright blue bedding from Ikea. I was thinking of changing it, but the way you've mixed it up has inspired me to work with it. It's a lovely combo.

posted by pistache on October 13th 2008 at 3:20pm
view pistache's profile

this was fun - great use of black. I've never seen an ikea malm bed look so good!

posted by david on October 13th 2008 at 5:53pm
view david's profile

this place is my dream apt, bones wise. *sigh* my place is pretty much the size of your living room! haha

i do really like it though. there's a bit too much stuff, but it's really wonderful/

posted by mariegael on October 13th 2008 at 9:26pm
view mariegael's profile

I can see why people love it but for me there is too much trying to grab my attention.

posted by Nina79 on October 13th 2008 at 10:58pm
view Nina79's profile

Totally mod with money (and I don't mean that in a bad way). It's like something from the Avengers, maybe the Tara King(?) years. I love the explosiveness everywhere.

posted by Elizabeth II on October 14th 2008 at 10:41am
view Elizabeth II's profile

my eyeballs can't stop giggling.

sorry, couldn't resist.

i like how your arranged your books.

posted by greengelato on October 14th 2008 at 4:06pm
view greengelato's profile

there is a lot going on here, a bit over-designed in my opinion, but there are definitely some great pieces.

posted by snowinla on October 15th 2008 at 6:05am
view snowinla's profile

I can't believe it. Its like my dream apartment, I love everything about it. Excellent Entry! Excellent!

posted by sea9262 on October 15th 2008 at 7:33am
view sea9262's profile

Great space you have there! I really like everything you did.

posted by Danijela on October 16th 2008 at 4:41am
view Danijela's profile

Nice cat. I mean, gross cat.

posted by livealoneinpawtucket on October 18th 2008 at 5:54pm
view livealoneinpawtucket's profile

You've got to see this one in person to appreciate it

posted by kinnemf on October 23rd 2008 at 8:54am
view kinnemf's profile

Wow, this place is so cool. Can I come over and listen to you play your guitars?
Please tell us where you got the groovy black hanging room divider by the sofa in the living room... thanks!

posted by BrooklynRob on October 27th 2008 at 1:14pm
view BrooklynRob's profile

We got that hanging divider from Chiasso. We were actually going to make something similar and then we saw this in their catalog and figured that for the time it would take to make it it would be better to just get this one. It's actually not Black it is Espresso Walnut, which is also what out cabinets and anything that looks black in the photos is. The only Black element in the photos is the Robert Motherwell Print above the Flatscreen. hahah! I know it looks black in the photos because it is back lit.
Cheers,
Chris

posted by modcon75 on October 28th 2008 at 5:28pm
view modcon75's profile

Hi Chris & Kendra - Just wanted to tell you how much we like your home and I don't know if you looked at the photo of our house but we have a lot of similar items including the Marimekko wall hanging and Hip Haven's bullet planter (just different colors). You have great taste ;-)!

Plus we have a cat lurking in our photos as well. I like to think in this contest you were our doppelganger.

posted by LukaGage on October 29th 2008 at 11:38am
view LukaGage's profile

Rad.... Absolutely Rad

posted by enigma on October 29th 2008 at 11:47am
view enigma's profile

You soppouse to be in final four! (at least)
Very European Style with American courageous in Colors.
Paulina from Poland.

posted by polcia on October 30th 2008 at 10:28pm
view polcia's profile

This totally blew me away! Absolutely gorgeous. The black divider is my favorite part but I love how you use all the open space. It looks beautiful and yeah, I really want your apartment.

posted by Anoel on November 8th 2008 at 7:01pm
view Anoel's profile