Name: Mary H.
Location:
Why I use color:
"Once upon a time, I moved in with a boyfriend who promised me that once his roommate moved out, I could decorate the spare bedroom to my
heart's content. In the meantime, he limited my "decorating" to changing light bulbs and toilet paper, and I began a four month campaign to paint the scratched walls in the bathroom. He relented and gave me a list of 5 colors I could use: blue, green, grey, black and white.
I painted the bathroom walls a color called "Chaste". I visited his parents who had mostly white and beige walls, and I realized everything was a lost cause. I left before his roommate did.
Every apartment I've lived in since then has had at least one Exotic Red wall."
Color Tips:
"If you're afraid of strong color, remember that you don't have to paint a whole room to get a good punch of your favorite color. I snuck color into my ex's place by buying colorful accessories and making a batch of purple pillows. Take it slow if you need to... The most comfortable rooms in your house are the ones that evolve with you.
For small rooms, bright colors will open up your space more than light, dull ones. My house looked smaller with the default matte ivory colored walls than with three white ones and one red one.
Remember that everything you buy has color in it. Count your neutrals
in your palette when you think about color. My red and blue wouldn't be crisp without the white around it."
Color Resources:
"When I'm out shopping, I carry a little plastic envelope of paint chips and fabric swatches. If you have art or anything else you want to keep in mind, you can include thumbnails of that as well. Think about texture as well as just the color. A lot of the surfaces in my house are glossy so everything's that much brighter.
Instead of looking at interiors, I like to look at art photos and graphics. Three of my favorite books for this house were "Pink Rose Suite", "Minimalismo/Minimalism" and "Red" [of course]. I also started collecting postcards and other graphics in my color palette, to see how people handled it.
I'm fascinated by how that vibrant red and the blue together do read as "soothing." Very thought provoking!
I think your "Why I Use Color" story is worth a prize!
Love your definition(sp) of space with the colors. Beautiful.
mary--
can you tell me about your window curtains? i love that flowy look and would love to duplicate it in my house. they're perfect, and i haven't seen anything that pretty around. where did you get them?
what is the white hanging lacy looking item (great description, I know) hanging at the foot of the bed? It's great.
God I love your place. You're so very creative. I also want to know about the curtains, please.
Lovely. And we get to see the full effect of Mary's handmade curtains at last! Very cool.
This makes me want to see more of the apartment. House Tour? Please, please?
The lacy curtain is by Tord Boontje, and is for sale at lots of internetty places, including:
http://www.unicahome.com/catalog/item.asp?id=14687
http://www.gnr8.biz/untildawn.html
http://momastore.org/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10001&storeId=10001&productId=30748&langId=-1
I'm fascinated with it and yet I can't decide if I want to live with it. I think mostly I want to touch it: there's something really interesting about the texture of Tyvek to me.
/end random confession.
Oh, and Mary, I like your place. There's a lovely serene feeling.
If I'm not mistaken, those are the shredded curtains you posted about earlier this year. They turned out beautifully!!
i second the vote that your Why I Use Color story deserves first prize! and i love how you've made two distinct zones with the red and the blue... nice work!
Thanks for the compliments everyone! I have more pictures up here:
http://flickr.com/photos/czarina/sets/1172842/
The lacy screen thing is indeed Tord Boontje's "After Dark" curtain thing. I bought mine at Moss because I wanted to "meet it" before I plunked down the cash.
The curtains are a little complicated, but I explain them here:
http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/ny/092705//nesting-threads-renewing-12-004139
If you don't sew, you can just get multiple layers of the gauzy IKEA curtains so they puff out...
Me (the first one): There's really no more apartment after that! I have a closet and a bathroom, but I'm waiting for the bathroom ceiling to fall in before I renovate. [Not a joke... I've had the same leak for a long time.]
wow
really great,and so DO-able
congratulations!
Hey Mary, so I get to see your place at last (the two inch preview on your digital camera doesn't count) and I like it!
I do like your use of color but I like your curtains the most. My wife and I have just gone thtough the process of buying and hanging curtains after having only ever bought blinds before and yours look like what we would have liked but did not achieve.
Also, I'm happy to see your kitchen turn out so well.
By far my favorite so far. Beautiful place!
Wonderful job and thanks for sharing your studio. The kitchen area is very attractive and you have used your space well. The workspace is decorative and the blue sleeping area has a very soft touch to it. I'm planning to move into my first studio/condo and I'll be remembering your smallest, coolest studio!
Cooking Cajun
Finally seeing your finished kitchen. Everything turned out great! This is winner.
Mary-- I'm so sorry to see you were not a finalist. You're the winner in my book!
Mary, you are a style guru. Your place really resonates from your personality. While so many submissions have been lovely, some seem a bit too stylized.
The non-kitchen part of your studio looks exactly like my apartment floorplan-wise. I even have the same window gate. So I'm taking some inspiration from ya, here!
Where did you get your kitchen cabinets from?