apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

I love it!

Thank you. This is exactly what I've been thinking about lately.

...and one of the few times when I love the name as much as the color!

That is one sexy neutral.

I used RL's Spanish Bluebell and Library Mahogany in my living room, and it looks amazing. I love his colors. And Lowe's was able to color match the colors perfectly.

I'm all for bold color but does anybody else think too many of the apartments (like this one)featured on AT are kind of generic and precious in that new hotel kind of way?

I think the sexiest, most soothing color I have ever found is the one I have used in my bedroom, a lavender cappucino color - hard to describe how a purple and brown can coexist, but it is true.

It is Behr's (yes, from Home Depot!) Cheyenne Brown. And when my wood floors were a reddish teack color, it looked more brown, now that my floor is a dark walnut color, the lavender stands out.

Will send pics once my entire home renovation is finished...

I had a chocolate wall in my old house. I still think about it.

The peacock feather stole my heart.

Love, love, love this color!

Holly

urban loft--

How can you have ANY idea what this apartment looks like from *that* picture?

Hi Mark,

This is a question directed to you. First of all, congrats on the new AT:NY column, this is going to be a great education for all.

I took a decorative interior painting class two years ago at a local art school called 'faux finishing' and it was excellent. Since you must use such techniques in your practice, I have a question.

In the class, we were exposed to several faux methods, one of which interested me the most, 'leathering' the walls. It was amazingly lush and I can imagine using the color you've shown above in this technique for the ultimate luxe feel.

Question: Instead of using conventional saran wrap on a large area, what other types of materials can be used? Our teacher suggested a plastic drop cloth, but they seem much to heavy to me.

Thank you!

Holly

p.s. to readers: You paint the wall a rich deep color, then take the same or one shade lighter or darker and mixing it with one part clear glaze, you paint the wall again. This time, you tape plastic on the wall in the corners (ceiling, opposite walls) and, using hands covered with a glove or with cloth, smoothing out the plastic but allowing the veins and wrinkles to remain. After it's been on the wall for 10 minutes or so, you have to slowly peel it back and viola! you have a textured wall that is subtle and slightly leathered.

I hope I explained this correctly!

holly--
What about drycleaning bags? Larger area, but definitely lighter weight. Or perhaps the clear plastic bags designed for recycleables?

great column idea!

Patrick - That's a good option. Great suggestion on the dry cleaning bags, although I'm always a little afraid when it comes to graphics somehow rubbing off on the walls. I think I'd be more comfortable using something clear and graphic-free.

I also wonder if local art schools have something they could suggest - I should check the dick blik catalog online, who knows.

My mother, in addition to being a landscape designer and florist, did a lot of faux painting during my childhood and even now. I remember she 'sponged','stippled' and 'ragged' our walls to death. Back in the day, sponging was totally hot/haute. Nowadays, if you even get a sponge near my wall, it better be for cleaning purposes only. It's funny though, every single time I see the word sponge, I think of the cabinet my mother had that overflowed with them for all of her projects. ;)

Holly

I love dark wall colors, but proceed with caution. It was done right with the burst of white from the light, the painting, the cowhide pen cup. Bravo!

I did BM French Beret in my tv room which has a dazzling effect in that the tv appears to dissolve into the wall. In a room with more activity, I would love to see a light colored rug, coffee table, or bright chairs to really make the center of the room explode.

In a strange way it often makes the room appear larger because the perimeter is blurred.

what a beautiful color! i'm going to check it out tomorrow. my husband and i are planning to paint a wall in our long/ackward/crooked hallway a brownish-hue. our hope is that the wall will just kind of blend now. thanks for the tip with this color!

I cannot tell you how excited I am about this new column. I need to paint so many rooms in my house and I am just stuck. Hopefully I will get some great ideas for neutral colors or darker. Everyone has their own favorite colors they have used, so it will be fun to learn from others.

great column idea, but i'd like more info on other colours it would go with (and ones to avod), styles/feelings/atmosphers/looks the colour would suit, possible spaces or uses for and againts it (ie do use as feature wall, don't use in small space). a btit more to get us thinking and inspired rather than just a name. please!

i'm on a painting jag, and i've been looking at paint chips for all the different rooms in my apartment which i plan to paint.

and somehow i completely neglected deep chocolatey browns. it just never occurred to me that one could paint their walls brown.

maybe i will have to think on this 'brown' notion...

oooh, i have a question, too. my living room is very boxy. it has almost perfect 'golden rectangle' dimensions. which i guess would have made aristotle or pythagoras or whoever very happy, but it makes me feel like i live in a shoebox. this is exacerbated by the fact that i have lowish ceilings, and the only window in the room is on one of the short walls. it also isn't helped by the fact that my living room furniture tends to be similarly rectangular (futon/couch, longish low coffee table, entertainment credenza, bookshelves, etc.). is there a way i can use color to interrupt or distract from this effect? one idea i had was to paint one of the short walls a different color, something darker or bolder which will hopefully draw it in to the room. for instance, now that i think on it, chocolate brown. do you think this'd work? or at least look nice and not make it worse? any additional advice for me and my golden rectangle living room?

slightly off-topic, but it's been on my mind as I am about to move: in people's experience, how strict is the ban on renters painting? It doesn't make sense to me, because as long as I repaint before I move out, it shouldn't be a problem--it's not permament damage. Right?

starbuckNYC - check your lease - if it says no painting, sit down with your landlord and ask if he'd be willing to allow you to paint if you agree to repaint upon vacating the space. If he says yes, don't just merrily go off into the sunset with paint cans in hand. Get his word in writing, dated, signed. VERY important. I DID NOT do this in my last rental and even after the landlord GAVE me the paint and brushes, they took me to court in the end and sued us for over $1500.00 in DAMAGES. They called painting DAMAGE. It made me sick. The judge split the 'damage' in half, but we still lost a DAY of pay (couldn't work as the court date fell on a work week) and $750.00. I was disgusted. Worms.

Anyway, so please don't repeat my mistake and think your friendly landlord won't change their minds or turn into worms, too. Get everything in writing. If it's NOT in writing, AVOID.

Holly

Love the color! Love the way the photograph is styled. I hope we can see more of Mark's work soon.

The painted branch with blossoms (I think posted by Maxwell earlier?) is wonderful.

Sweet thundering Debbie Travis, didn't faux finishing die with the 90's?

Mark - great column idea. Looking forward to more of this.

could you please tell us where you got the lamp?

Re: apartment painting.
In addition to what Decor8 Holly said earlier, another good idea is to get their approval on a group of colors, Not too many, three or four. Make sure one of them is darker than what you want to use in the room. That way there's a better chance they won't turn down your color as being too dark.

Also, do NOT ask them about colors they will allow, present color swatches to them, it's easier to show than to describe a cafe au lait brown. They hear brown, think dark chocolate, and there goes your color. Hope this helps. Good luck starbuckNYC!

Ah, I love painting. Hope I will chart out what I've done so others can see my colors, I am so proud! Stick with what you love, you may be amazed at how the relationships will be harmonious, it may work even better together than if you'd planned it out 100%.

I do want to recommed Benjamin Moore's freebie booklet called Painting Interior Walls, Ceilings, and Trim. Even if you think are such a veteran painter (I do) it's a great refresher on techniques and supplies. Better to remind yourself before you start!

mark,

congrats on the column, how fun and creative and educational!

i love the color, it fascinates me how it seems brown towards the right of the picture, and then more blue-ish towards the left... i can't tell if that's happening because the lamp is illuminating the right side or if it's because there's a window exposure towards the left and the natural light is bringing out the blue- either way it's a fantastic effect. i think that mattes are so much richer than shiny paints, especially in the way they reflect light in a subtle rather than garish way.

thanks for sending me the link, i'll definitely be back every week!

p.s. did you move out of the LES entirely, or just into a new apartment in the LES?

hey mark,
great kick-off. i have been looking at and using brown in my place, don't know why i missed this one. just did one wall of my son's room in RL (starry night) and the rest in deep aqua. hey thinks it's chill.... or so the six year old says. look forward to more of your online writing.

WOW, I DIDN'T KNOW IF ANYONE WOULD EVEN NOTICE ME. WILL TRY TO ANSWER THE FIRST BATCH OF QUESTIONS WITHOUT SPENDING MY WHOLE LIFE ON THE INTERNET.

I know the pic is tight, and most of them will be, but i wanted a close-up on the color. i leave the big rooms and decorating to their respective specialists. i'm more interested in intimacy.

-holly, i'm not a big fan of faux finishing, and my talents lay elsewhere. as such, i think more than a specific tecnique what you really need is a painter w/ a sensative hand. i prefer murals and hand-painted paterns, which i do as well--check back for future posts. also, look into venetian plaster.

-opoponax, boxy rooms are tough, and it's so hard to say w/o seeing it. use an accent wall where you want to focus attention: behind the sofa, around the fireplace, the wall behind your picasso painting etc. try flipping through a book on feng shui for ideas.

-my lamp: i coveted exactly this thing on lafayette st for $400 a few years ago, found mine at chelsea flea market a few months later for a bill. try "mushroom lamps" on ebay.

-megan c, is that you?? 6 and a.

-urban loft?, not everything will be austere/grisaille. check back soon for golden greens, underwater blues, and spice colors. up next: Claret

Great selection. (Nice touch with the book titles too.) go go go.

Looking forward to the columns to come. Love color. Completed painting my kitchen cabinets a great BMoore soft blue/green to accent my collection of vintage McCoy ceramics. Mark, as always, thanks for your two bits.

Mark,

You're a star! Congratulations! You've touched a nerve. That room, I'm sure, has never been so graced. Dreamy! I look forward to the next one.

Mark - Thanks for your comment. I'm also not a big fan of faux finishing, as I said already, although I've had many clients that love the leathering technique so I wondered, since you are a professional painter, if you knew much about it but I guess not.

Thanks for your reply! Best of luck with your color column. I'm a huge Tricia Guild fan, so I hope to see some colors that really pop!

Holly

More brown ideas:
http://tinyurl.com/qmjk5

Check that first page, second page and then go to page 4. There are many wonderful shades of browns. And how it looks will depend on your own lighting. Er, and on your current monitor settings. I thought the color featured was dark grey. That's how it looks at this end.

Why do people think RL paint is good? If you have ever tried Benjamin Moore you would never go back to RL. The RL color selection is interesting but the actual quality cannot compare to B. Moore. And what's with those faux finishes? They are hideous and should be outlawed.

Erin:

The lamp is by a Swedish company called Pukeberg, which makes art glass. They have an online store but it's only in Swedish:
http://www.pukeberg.se/shoppen/index.html
I don't know how you'd order it since their prices are only in Swedish currency.

The lamp came in two sizes and was popular in the 1960s, the size pictured on the site is the smaller one I think. I have the exact lamp, which I found at a flea market in DC. It's really beatiful and simple.

Here is mine:
http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/photo/041206Rob/10

I've also seen a version with a sort of zebra-stripe in the glass.

Huge huge HUGE fan of dark colors on the walls. My loft is painted a dark grey that many would run screaming from. The effect however, is warm and rich, and it makes the space look huge--especially at night.

Wow! Yet another reason to check AT:NY instead of clearing the pile of work on my desk. I love this picture although the color looks teal on my screen. I am renovating my apartment and painting the walls is the next step towards completion so I hope that this column will prove to be useful.

Congrats!

PS. I agree with e, a little more info would be useful.

And oh. . . I like watching Debbie Travis.

For the faux-hostile... congratulations on having perfectly smooth plaster jobs in your apartment.

There are some wacky textures in vintage plaster that would cost a fortune to rework (especially if there's a lot of additional detailing), but that look fabulous when glazed or fauxed.

The slight visual motion created by many faux treatments also adjusts the light balance subtly.

Rob,

The price in US$ for that lamp would be around $360.00.

mark, thanks for the ideas. i'll check out some feng shui. i'd read up on it in the past, but everything i read then was about architecture and general home arranging, but hadn't seen anything on feng shui color theory... i was also under the impression that feng shui was about making the right choices for your spiritual wellbeing under the chinese system, not design for the sake of the space. hm. you learn something new every day.

my take on feng shui is that it's about flow of energy, and harmonious energy. feng shui for color: hot, stimulating colors in the kitchen to stimulate the senses, earth and water colors in the bath to support the water element, relaxing in the bedroom, whatever that is to you; a color in living area to reflect your sense of social interaction, whatever that is to you; entry way and front door color to reflect your identity and make a first impression, whatever that is to you.

haha, so i guess feng shui wouldn't be too enthralled with my new blue/green kitchen or my recent decision to go either red or orange in the bathroom... though i have to say it's a very stimulating green, and i'm going for an earthy red or orange.

Please assist in chossing a cool/beautiful wall colour and blind or curtain colour assuming I have a rug with 3 different shades of green and cream colour on the rug.