Hello AT,
My parents (living in the southwest and in their late 60's) have been feuding over armchairs. It's pathetic. They used to have matching light blue armchairs, but dad recently declared the arms to be "like knives" and they went to a nearby furniture store where he immediately fell in love with armchairs of a light brown color.
Mom wanted to keep looking and find chairs in a light blue instead, but dad won and the chairs were delivered that day. Now mom is sulking and has declared that the room has no color (brown armchairs, brown carpet, brownish wall) - she's got a point. Any suggestions?
Thanks, Jenny
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Jenny,
You have to admit, your dad is pushing hard into totally southwestern decor with the washed-out sandy beiges, but your mother is right. The room has no color at all and needs a kick. This room is like a white canvas with no paint on it. It looks like a doctor's office. However, we suspect that your father rather likes this and considers it calming (ours would).
Nevertheless, a surgical use of color would greatly improve this room by creating variation and contrast while actually improving the tone of the beige all around it. This is where we would begin.
1. the sandy beiges are basically warm in tone so we would inject a warm color, BUT - being the Southwest and super hot - we would also inject a little cooling color in there as well to balance it out.
2. The places to operate are: pillows in chairs (might be a hard sell), lamp and lampshade, and possibly a small throw rug.
3. Insert small Kilim rug with soft, warm reds, organges and dark browns on floor in front of chairs.
4. Insert new orange lamp with dark brown shade to provide contrast.
5. Insert soft, red throw blanket over back of one chair.
Anyone else??
What about painting one wall a color other than beige? Maybe even a soft blue for Mom's sake? Or some colorful artwork on the walls?
Alternatively, Mom could crochet a bright blue pillow for her chair that says "the guy in the other chair is a jackass." =)
Change the lamp, add a throw rug!
I'm channelling my father to respond to Maxwell's suggestions:
*Put rugs over the carpet?
"Won't that wear on the carpet?" (though there appears to be one there already, so that's a leg up)
"Orange? Didn't we get rid of an orange lamp in the 70s?"
Jenny, if your father's anything like mine (and with the choice of chairs, I think he might be) the key to your mom getting in the color is surreptitiousness. I think the throw idea is a good one. If your dad wants to placate your mom with color on the walls, maybe she could get a light blue color. Also, maybe getting some throw pillows in fun colors or a bench with throw pillows creating a nook by the window?
Rob, that pillow suggestion cracked me up!
Since your mom likes blue, I might go with purple and blue accents rather than red. I'm from the SW and am so over red and beige. Also I see there is already some green in the corner so I'm thinking a few pots of African violets could add color. Some people say they're hard to grow, but I've killed many a cactus and nary one African violet.
There are some Ralph Lauren paints that have a suede texture and I think there are some blues that have a little beige in them, so that they're a little robins-egg-y, so the beige would work nicely with them, and the Southwest feel might still be able to happen.
I would like a different lamp there that had more color, but I also think there needs to be some pattern or art somewhere. We're only seeing on view, so it's a little hard to say much more.
It also looks like there are plenty of windows--what about injecting a little color in the form of semi-sheer panels or roman shades?
Get an area rug with some color and texture, find a colorful chest to replace that end table (Target's Global stuff is easily available and not expensive) add some art and/or mirrors to that back wall.
African violets are dinky IMHO, so I'd go for a huge fish-tail palm (with plants go bold or don't have 'em).
Rough up the textures--rope baskets for magazines, split bamboo blinds on the windows.
The wall behind the chairs would be a nice place to add some color and since it wouldn't be seen when they're sitting in the chairs it could be a bit bold.
Different-but-coordinating blue blankets for each chair. A new side table - maybe with a glass top. Get rid of the lamp and go with a multi fixtured floor lamp. A colorful book and magazine basket for each chair, or just 1 basket in between both chairs placed in front of the side table.
For the floor - a large patterned rug (texture but not much color) and some throw pillows so that you can crash out on the floor and have casual conversations with them while they're enjoying their new chairs.
Also, if I'm not mistaken I spy the need to store some of those books that are stacked in the corner near the ficus tree. I'd go with something closed, long and low that has a mirrored front to reflect some of the new color back into the room with out adding any more color. Then put some sun-loving plants on top of it (and maybe even move the old lamp here).
I would start with the blankets then the rug/pillows and get them at a local art or craft show. Then she'll have something to easily carry with her as they eventually do the rest of the shopping to transform the room.
Good luck!
How does the room relate to the outdoors? In the photo, there's just glare, but is there actually a colorful landscape beyond all those windows?
Let me toss out a completely different option ('cause sometimes rejecting something clarifies what other things you want to accept)... Go with shades of beige as a deliberate design decision (framing the hypothetical view), but bring in more TEXTURE and RANGE to break it up.
My vague thought goes like this:
--Call the existing chairs and carpet your LIGHT beige.
--Paint the walls in a *noticeably* darker but compatible shade. If you have to tell your father, "It'll settle down when it dries," you may have it dark enough. If you go to www.benjaminmoore.com , start their Personal Color Viewer, and take a look at the chip with Tyler Taupe at the top (try it on living room #5, which has beige chairs and rug!), that's the intensity I mean, though probably not the exact color you want. Your goal here is to get the room to embrace visitors, rather than being a vast white wasteland.
--Now, pick up a compatible DARK brown as a major accent color that will link various accessories such as pillows, area rug, lamp. Part of the pattern in these items can be your mother's favorite pale blue, though I'd then add a bright blue as another pattern color. Get some texture in here, too!
--Get some accessories with texture and more shades of beige in here.
--Frame the windows with textured curtains that pick up lots of the beiges used in the room. Or use textured blinds (something natural?).
Rob -I like your solution the best! I was laughing so loud.. thank you for making my day!
Seriously -my uncle has chairs like this and also a strange attachment to blue -solution the square fabric that 'covers' the area where your head leans on the chair can be changed to blue. Go to any fabric store, pick a metre of light blue WASHABLE - this is key- fabric, get iron-activated hemming tape (so all you need is an iron and scissors to do this) and voila - washable - colouful- headcloth coverings.
Mom wins (blue), dad wins (he keeps his chairs) and your mom can cite a cleaner, fresher chair as her rationale to "winning" - but she cannot gloat overtly. Better to crochet silently as Rob suggested earlier.
Tanya ;-)
Try putting a plant in between the chairs and a smaller end table for each chair on the other side. They seek to place a multi-colored blues area rug large enough to meet right up the edge of the chairs when they are not reclined. Search for mirror for behind the chairs as it will brighten and open up the space. The frame should be darker in stain color.
Teravé Designed Interiors
San Diego, CA
Highly suggest staying away from indoor palms in the SW - exception would be if this is along the TX Gulf Coast or S. Cal. It's too dry and hot, they require more humidity than can be easily provided. Insects love palms, especially mites, scale and mealybugs. You don't want those guys in your home because after they infest your palm (or get carried in with them as so often the case) they spread to your other plants. With large leaf tropicals, root rot can also be a problem, plus if you stray from their water schedule the leaf tips brown.
How about a blue picture or frame on the wall? Blue curtains. A brown rug with blue details? A blue cloth on the end table?
The options are endless. Your mom could bring in a multitude of fabrics and prints in complementary schemes of the same color.
Sew up a new head rest cover and arm rest covers (rectangles or rounded diamonds to break up the repeated horizontal lines of the chair) in a fabric your mom loves...
they'll be needing covers for those beige chair arms, anyway...