Chartruese!

Not quite green, not quite yellow but I love the splash of color.

All via Honestly . . . wtf

My Current Obsession

The rich tones of blue~gray are now my current color obsession. I considered it In our own home recently for our interior paint overhaul . . . but, it just doesn't work with our dark wood floors and kitchen colors. I wish I had a client right now that this would be perfect for. Here are some inspirations:

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Clean & Cool

Love these spaces.

All {Via}

Oriented Strand Board

About twenty years ago while walking along the streets of Detroit, I came across a construction site partioned off for safety with oriented strand board. OSB was meant to be an inexpensive replacement for plywood as a sheathing material . . . which meant it was intended to be a sub-surface structural material to be covered up with another "final" finish. But, I fell in love with its visual texture and thought it should be freed of its cover-up.


At the time I was working on portions of the interiors of the Veterans Administration (VA) Hospital for my employer, The Smith Group. It was a surprisingly contemporary building for a government project and the clients allowed the lead design architect, Jerry Rheinbold, creative license enough to design a sculptural glass chapel located inside the atrium among many other fabulous features. Jon, the model maker and "materials tester", and I played around with the OSB; rubbing dry pigments into to the face to colorize it, trying out different clear finishes to smooth the finish to the touch, etc. It did seem like it would be suitable to use as an interior wall finish. So, my schematic design for the lunchroom included colorized OSB paneling and was happily accepted by the client.


Shortly, I left for a European year long leave of absence in the middle of the project so I never saw it to fruition (not only was the client good to work with, The Smith Group was great to work for and encouraged such experiences). I did come back to my position briefly at The Smith Group  and happily saw that the designer that took over my role in the project had kept the OSB design element. But, I moved to Colorado a few short months after that have never seen all of the interior photos of this project (it was over a million square feet ~ a lot of cool spaces to photograph!) and don't know if the OSB survived the evolution of the design.


I am still in love with the look of OSB. It has since been appreciated by many others for its appearance and has been used over and over for a final finish. Here is just one of the many thousands that I've come across. This is Bricks headquarters in Amsterdam:

Can Chicken Wire be Chic?

Absolutely! Chicken wire takes on an industrial feel in these products and can be right at home in in both country and contemporary settings.

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To have help locating and incorporating chicken wire into your interiors, whether they be country, classic, or contemporary, email me so I may help.

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Chalkboard Paint
For years and years, I've wanted to have chalkboard walls. More than anything, I just love the look of the matte, dark gray. At my first job out of college, I tried to incorporate chalkboard walls into a project, any project, and would have if I had been able to find anything other than premanufactured typical school boards. I've never put them in any of my own homes; it just hasn't fit into the design and layout. Now, chalkboard walls are easily attained with the simple stroke of your brush using chalkboard paint. Many years after my first search, chalkboard walls are quite mainstream. Even West Elm put chalkboard walls on their latest catalog cover and ELLE Decoration South Africa is coming out with a large wall in a kitchen. But what hasn't been explored and used nearly as much are colored chalkboards. Hudson Paint has about the widest variety of fun, hip colors that show tons of promise for future interiors.


TIPS:

• In order for the dark gray chalkboard walls to work, balance them with plenty of other light colored surfaces.
• Make them functional! Put them in a location where you'll put them to work such as in the kitchen to write grocery lists, family notes, or just fun doodles!

The neutrals first:

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Annaleena's own home via her blog, HEM

Annaleena's own painted painting and painted animals. Via her blog, HEM

Via Jake Curtis, Photographer

Via M Comme Maison

Via Vintage & Morrhar blog

Hudson Paint Colors and Ideas:

Hudson Paint Color Palette

Tivoli Bread and Baking Company via Hudson Paint

A child's room via Hudson Paint