Before and After: A Family Room Color Study
I thought I’d show off some of my own design work today. This is a family room I designed for the world’s best clients, Katie and Jason. Jason is an architect and designed this family room addition for their historic home in Dearborn. Katie, a graphic designer, asked me to help them restyle the room.
Before: The room looked drab – even with the Maharam pillows.I approached the project by using color as my focus. The house has a sight-line straight from the living room to the family room, and I felt the rooms looked like three separate areas. The dining room was painted mustard yellow. The living room was sage green. They looked great, but my clients were tired of the yellow and thinking of repainting, which would also mean new window treatments. I knew that if I incorporated those two colors into the room, the house would make sense as a whole and they wouldn’t need to redo everything.
The armoire had its own special niche – so it was staying.
Here’s a view of the bookshelves.
We’ve all heard the term “Miracle Fabric”. For me, my miracle fabric was Jim Thompson‘s linen floral, shown in my presentation, below. It had everything. The colors were perfect – a bit of mustard yellow, sage and even a hue that tied in with the blinds. More importantly, the funky, esoteric pattern fit my clients’ personalities. Though it’s floral, it’s not traditional or too feminine.
I keyed into other colors as well. I chose a dark brown fabric for the two Highland House sofas, and a linen and velvet stripe, from Manuel Canovas, for toss pillows. Not shown is a cut velvet fabric from Old World Weavers that I used for four more toss pillows.
I create my presentations on Photoshop. They’re good references for my clients.And here’s the finished room. Because the privacy issue had already been taken care of, I only needed to frame the windows. Chunky, wooden rods from The Finial Company fit the scale of the room perfectly. I replaced the existing ottoman with a new one of my own design and had it custom made. The new side chair (tables, too) was from Vanguard, and was covered with a Pindler check. Oh, and I painted the walls the same hue as the draperies – only a shade darker. The photo below best reflects the actual color.
I decided to paint the existing armoire red. Of course – it’s my favorite color! I had to sneak it in somewhere. Wasn’t it lucky that the drapery featured red as well? I told you it was a miracle fabric. Design tip: never freak out when your designer suggests red. When used properly, it makes a room pop.
The armoire has a new, red lease on life.The shelves needed a little sprucing up, so I had Katie shop for some big art books, which can easily be found on sale at places like Barnes and Noble and Borders. Then, I went shopping in her house for accessories to lively up the shelves even more.
I had a lot of fun arranging the bookshelves.
What do you think?
5 Responses to “Before and After: A Family Room Color Study”
Avatars are randomly assigned unless you get your own
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Posted by Jennifer at Design Hole on January 10th, 2008 at 2:32 pm
Great to hear from you again! Here’s how I do the presentations.
I scan the fabrics (or whatever) and place them into a tabloid-sized Photoshop document. I move them around so they look the way I want. Then, I add type, if needed, to explain anything. I save them as PDFs, burn them onto a disc and have Kinko’s print them out for me. I don’t have a tabloid-sized printer.
The look is very professional and it helps the client remember, after I’ve left, to remember what goes where.
Sometimes I take the actual fabric samples home with me. The fabric names aren’t on the PDF and this protects me professionally. But, as I said, the client has a “leave-behind”.
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Posted by Rachel on January 15th, 2008 at 1:13 pm
i love the before and afters. it’s so fun to see what you started with. the room feels so much more cohesive and cozy with the rich color on the walls, and the darker, re-upholstered couches. I’d love to see a picture of the sight lines from the living room to see how everything tied together.
Great job!
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Posted by Jennifer at Design Hole on January 15th, 2008 at 2:25 pm
Yes, I wish I’d had a picture of that. I’ll have to take one (still working on their house) and post it as an addendum.
I’m glad you liked it.
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Posted by Christine on January 16th, 2008 at 2:50 am
Hi – this looks really great. would you mind sharing the name of the blue on the walls? The right shade is hard to find but this one looks particularly easy on the eye.
Thanks
Christine
Beautiful, I am in love with blue walls right now and have two rooms in blue.
The red armoire is really a show stopper.
What process do you use to create your story boards? Your board seems very neat. The few I’ve had to create always looked different. In classes and during presentations I’m always amazed at the different ways people create the same product.