At this point I'm a city boy, and hate to wake up without cement under my feet. This column is largely dedicated to New York apartments, plus my travelogue and other interests. I sometimes wonder if I should write about other environs … so how about this?

There's a lovely home on a quiet street somewhere in Northeast Pennsylvania, which was painted mainly in shades of sage green, until lately. So what color do you paint the back entry to a quiet home? There's a deck out back, a green kitchen and a stained wood ceiling with which to coordinate.

We wrestled for a moment with what I'll call the "default suburban palette" of pale pastels, and part of me wanted to go dark, like a conifer color seen in the stair carpet. If this was my mudroom, we would have gone with mysterious Templeton Gray HC-161, but here the owner wanted Rockport Gray HC-105. It's an historic color, and is therefore time-tested. It's not too general, is quietly elegant, looks good with the wood ceiling, and is a gateway to those vistas of the great outdoors. And, I was there! That's the Great Halloween Snowstorm raging outside.

Images: Mark Chamberlain