Emerald

Remember this? Kiera Knightly perfection in the movie Atonement....I'm inspired not only by her freakishly flat tummy, but by this particular shade of green: Emerald.
It's going to be big in fashion this fall, the Middleton sisters are HUGE fans of emerald.




I love a splash of leopard with my emerald, thank you very much! (people.com)




I'm also noticing this trend of mismatched colors, which I think is really nifty. I keep trying to convince a client I'm working with right now that her blue lamp does not have to be the same exact blue as her drapes....she's not buying it. But mismatchey-ness creates some tension that I quite like, do you agree? (glitterguide.com)




Speaking of blue....I am all over the cool end of the rainbow spectrum anymore. I imagine this photo is photoshopped all to pieces, but it's a photo of the Northern Lights, via National Geographic. I want to live in this exact spot, forever. Sigh.


How to work it:




Keep it simple, with white and God's other favorite color-brown. (porterhousedesign.com)
I love that they extended the wall color onto the ceiling. Without all that white, and the ceiling mounted canopty it might be too heavy, but this works!


Just add a pop, and pair it with blue for a summery fresh feel. (blog.hgtv.com)



Stripe it with other shades of green. There's that toothpaste green again! (I recently painted the shutters on my house toothpaste green. I'm nothing, if not committed!) (designsponge.com)

Chinoise' it up! Emerald green is a perfect alternative for predictable red or royal blue, and looks great up against black lacquer... (Lonny Magazine/ Miles Redd)

...or zebra or any other black and white graphic print (bijouandboheme.blogspot.com)

Nothing gold can stay....unless you paint it!

like green much?

Nature's first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.

Her early leaf's a flower;

But only so an hour.

Then leaf subsides to leaf.

So Eden sank to grief,

So dawn goes down to day.

Nothing gold can stay.

Robert Frost was speaking metaphorically, about the chartreusey green of a just barely opened leaf bud. (He's also speaking about every relationship I've ever had with a guy...except for Mike. He's golden! He stays! )

It's one of my favorite shades to be sure. The last time I redecorated, the dining room/sunroom got treated to a coat of Sherwin Williams 'Funky Yellow'. It's one room I will NOT be repainting in the 'get- this- house- ready- to- sell -painting- festivus'.

Someone left the light on in the laundry room, and as I walked by and caught my reflection in the mirror over the sink, I realized. Man....I am a "green" girl. Maybe it was the chunky 'Verdant' colored mirror over the vanity of the same color...or the Kelly green shade of my sweater. Maybe it was the reflection of that Chartreuse dining room in the mirror behind me.

Usually I'm on the back end of design trends. I have to let things simmer in my mind's eye for awhile. I am sooo not buying the fake animal head thing yet. Or arcing floor lamp. I'm the same way with music. The first time I hear a song on the radio I'm usually like 'What the crap was that noise!?' but then a couple months later I'm all ' OMG! that's my FAVORITE song!!!!'

Ra ra aah aah aaahhhh rumma rum ma ma....GaGa ooh la la .....watch out for romance.... (or whatever she says)

I'm a little bit proud of myself to say that I was doing chartreuse when everyone else was like 'that hurts my eyes.'

A really creative friend of mine with a truly inspiring house, painted her tall Victorian headboard a fresh shade of green. I have been dying to paint something architectural in a shade of green ever since I saw it. My house is a 1954 raised ranch...it has NO architecture. But I do have a vanity in my laundry room that I applied a faux crocodile texture to a few years back. I was tired of the Leather Bound color of it, so guess what, it's now Sherwin Williams 'Verdant Green'. (see mirror photo)

the famous headboard photo courtesy of Jami Wade

I think of green as a neutral, go with anything color . I mean, what does it NOT go with? If it didn't go with everything, God would have chosen it as the color of the great outdoors. I guess with this logic, sky blue also goes with everything....guess that's why my ceilings are painted that color! (Sherwin Williams Meander Blue). Getting back to my friends Jami's green headboard, look how the rest of the room is neutral. If she had a lot of color going on, the headboard wouldn't be nearly as Zazzy.

But getting back to chartreuse, this is supposed to be an EYE CANDY blog. So here you go.

Green is the color of life and money (thank you Jami for that soundbite!) Perhaps that's why my favorite lady Michelle Obama chose it for the Inauguration! I'm not being goofy when I say that this shade of green looks great with brown! She is to die for gorgeous and I think every ensemble she puts together should be museum bound. (AP photo)

Chartreuse goes swimmingly with gray too....look at this gorgeous room by Adininni Design Group. Love it love it love it. I can't believe I'm saying that, with the amount of shiny brass stuff in that photo, but the cool gray tones really make the green in this room pop! And I'm just weird crazy for a sphere or ball of any kind. That big leafy one looks like a giant hedge apple in a very good way!

This is not my dining room...but it might as well be my dining room. It's nearly identical, except that my windows are bare. I do have a red dining room table with black chairs around it. My chandalier is not so fussy but seeing this photo I'm thinking maybe it should be.

Green is great on an exterior too...I would FOR SURE keep the trim colors simple. Black and white work well. Jami and her husband Shannon have made their home the masterpiece of the neighborhood with it's divine coat of olive green! (the sweet vintage Mercedes (?) parked in front doesn't hurt either!!!) Hugs Jami, thanks for the inspiration! (exterior photos courtesy of Jami Wade)

Crust and Crack

I'm a Gemini. Meaning, there are two of me in here! One of me adores bold, clean lines and a lack of clutter that is the very essence of chicness. The other me, however is still in love with Olde World....aged, crumbling antiquated things that have history and mystery. Especially wall finishes. As a surface designer, Olde World finishes will ALWAYS excite me because they typically employ the use of plasters and layers and textures and good smelling waxes....it's much more of an event than say, painting row after row of crisp stripes, which is more of a task really.
But 'Olde' can be chic, of course! Chic wasn't invented this morning after muffins!
Yesterday in the mail, Gerard Butler arrived via Architectural Digest. His NY loft is a triumph! Who knew Gerard had such a soft underbelly? A man with cherubs on the ceiling of his foyer! He's got a crystal chandelier in his kitchen for goodness sakes! To die for. Very Olde World and very intriguing.
I guess that's how I feel about it, if it's already withstood the test of time, why would anyone think it's going away tomorrow? My eye keeps going back to that photo of the kelly green salon....wow does that color ever excite me. But so to does the beat up wall and the well loved upholstery and the oddly out of scale wall sconces, that turn out to be not wall scones at all but little, plaster, Asian ,lady heads.
I've been spending a lot of time lately trying to define my own personal style and I am delighted to say that it's a happy mix of the two 'me's...the sleek and the crusty. I once read a quote by some artist long forgotten...that it doesn't matter if what you like doesn't seem like it will go together...something about your individual eye draws you to an object, and when placed amongst the other things you truly love, it all makes sense.
Don't worry about labels, just love what you love.

photo credits: architecturaldigest.com; kraftd.com