how to incorporate bright pink paint into a girl's room

So a little while back I had a client email me for an online consult. He had just moved into a new condo in the city with his daughter. We worked on choosing two grey paint colours for his main space, and then he asked for help with his little girls room, shown bottom right in the floorplan below.

It seems like most young girls request a pink room at some point, and it's almost always fuchsia, or another shocking shade of this colour that they like. The question is how do you work this colour into their rooms without it becoming garish?

My client asked me to find a way to tone down the colour, and work in black, which is what his daughter had asked for. This is not a large space, and so we needed to incorperate the pink without it overwhelming the space. Thought maybe some of you are struggling with the same dilemma in your own homes, and would be interested in the options we discussed.

First of all, I asked him to show his daughter the photo below - was it really bright pink she wanted, or just pink? A softer pink could be paired with black and used on all her wall space and the effect would be soft and lighthearted.

Nope. MUST be bright pink.
How about bringing the bright pink through accents?

No dice. ON THE WALLS. Right. This girl knows what she wants! Moving back on track...


First of all, there is the accent wall. I'm not a huge fan of accent walls, but in a child's room, on the headboard wall, they can work. I suggested a white bedding, warm white on the other three walls, and adding the black accents on those walls via picture frames. This striped treatment can be achieved by using a high gloss and flat paint in the same shade.

and while we are on the topic of stripes, this is cute as well....

Second, the partial wall options - these emphasize the horizontal and thus make the room feel larger.

love the black pinstripe detailing on this version....

The next look brings in slightly more pink on the walls but still allows for some visual relief - 

three tints of pink in an ombre horizontal stripe. Darling, isn't it?

But what if we NEED to have pink on all the walls, to bathe ourselves in the very brightest pink out there? Well, you can always cheat a little - bring the ceiling colour down a few feet and have the pink meet it (I did this in my son's room when he insisted on royal blue walls in a space with north facing windows). You'd be amazed what a difference this 20 - 30" makes...

My client and his daughter mulled these over, and in the end she fall in love with the striped headboard accent wall idea. I suggested Benjamin Moore Peony 2079-30 on the headboard wall in a semi-gloss and matte to create the striped effect.

If you are working with white furniture, like my clients, you want to ensure that the walls are a warm white, because white furniture is seldom a true white. If the white on the walls is too cool then the furniture will look dingy. Benjamin Moore Simply White OC-117 is soft and warm with out being too yellow, and works well with Peony on the three remaining walls. 

I suggested black be used sparingly, on picture frames, desk accessories and a pillow or two.

This keep contrast to a minimum and doesn't create a lot of visual distraction.

I'm happy to say that both my client and his daughter love her finished room, so my job is done!

Have you ever used an option like these to tone down the impact of a vibrant colour in your home?

Which one would you choose?

the painting that inspired a nursery...

You know how one single item can inspire an entire space?

I found this painting by Sydney Edmunds when I was putting together some design boards for a client who was staging some condos in NYC. It's a repro done on canvas, which is the right price point for a rental. Although the tones worked perfectly with the cherry flooring, the resulting board was not generic enough for staging (despite my attempts to tone down it's brilliance!). We went with another version, which I'll show you in another post, lol...

but I couldn't forget the painting... 

and since D's cousin is about to have her second little pumpkin I have babes on the brain...

Who says kids can't have real art?

That's a bigger thought - that may deserve it's own post, yes?

wallpaper | rug | crib | chair | dresser | garland 1 2 | storage | elephant | pillow | lamp

Project Brownstone: Boards for The Darlings

Hello, hello!  It's been far too long, lovelies... after the pause I've taken, if any of you are still dropping by I'd like to share the boards for the rooms for my clients two wee darlings with you :)

Their son is just a year, and such a little heartbreaker. His room on the smallish side - why do builders still create bedrooms that are 9' x 12' and then have these enormous hallway spaces connecting them? I will never understand. In any case, he is still in a crib, so that leaves a little more room, but we also have a very large built-in, that the previous renter installed, to accommodate. Here are a couple of pics...

The built-in's have a dark black-brown walnut finish, and the furniture is much warmer orange-based woods, but this is something we cannot change, and that is one of the challenges of living in a rental. I have chosen to put the focus on the other elements of the room by using colour and pattern to distract the eye from this contrast in woods. We are adding a West Elm carpet with bold stripes to tie together the existing pale blue bed linens and the navy accents, and the stripes will draw the eye across the narrowest part of the space, making it feel wider than it actually is. The client has some adorable sports inspired prints that we will be framing and placing above the bed, and some RH letters as additional art. I found a metal faux bois polyhedron light at Homesense for a steal - it's gorgeous!  Bold navy curtains will accentuate the height of the room and make the space feel larger, and a throw and pillow for the existing chair will bring the navy over to that side of the room. Perfect for a growing boy, yes?

Their daughter is four, and in the dreamy princess, pink and sparkly stage. She is a doll! Here again we have built-in's to work with, and they are dark and heavy, so we need to bring in a little softness to contrast all these hard edges. The client's chose a really luxe bed frame, dark charcoal velvet, prior to me being on the scene. I am so lucky they have great taste!

We decided on a pink (of course!) and grey colour scheme. The client's travel frequently, and we are working with a loose Parisan theme -  I say loose because I am not a huge fan of overly themed spaces, I find them too contrived. We started with the bed linens, a classic brocade.

From there we added a chair, one that will match a different desk in the future, when they have re-located and this little girl does not have this built-in desk in her room. Some additional fabrics will be added to the backs of her shelves and her bulletin board, and that will break up all the dark wood. A snuggly bean bag chair provides a spot to curl up and read a book in, a pretty light adds some of sparkle. The art is from Etsy, by ShellSherree - don't you love it? It brings exactly the right amount of whimsy and lightness to this room. The mirror art will hang over her bed, a cute reference to the princess element without going completely disney!

 I think it is a darling space for a darling girl :)   What do you think?

the easiest diy art....

I promised you a post about the DIY art we made for Natasha's room,

and here it is :)

This is so incredibly simple, and you can customize it to any color scheme.

Supplies:

two canvasses (dollar store)

 neon paint (dollar store)

leftover paint from around the house

low-tack tape

ruler, black sharpie

The fast one:

First I taped off the triangle piece....

paint and remove tape....

after an hour these shapes were dry enough to repeat the process with the next layer.

Done :)

Told you it was simple, lol!

There are two really important steps to ensure crisp paint lines:

be SURE your tape is adhered well before painting to prevent bleeding, 

and remove the tape right after painting, to avoid pulling off half-dried paint later.

Second painting took a bit longer, because there is more detail and more layering...

First tape off the stripes that you want across the front,

then tape off the back layer.

Paint the back stripes, skipping some.

Remove tape and let dry.

Re-tape additional back stripes, and remove tape.

Now, if you are painting a color on the front stripes,

 wait til all the stripes dry,

then tape the front ones off  (tape on the outside of the stripe) and paint.

(sorry about the color of the pics, it was late afternoon when I started and dark when I finished!)

This is where I cheated a little!

I wasn't particularly careful with my taping and the edges were pretty rough, 

but I knew that I was going to do this last step, and they wouldn't show.

I was painting the top layer black, so I just filled in the centre of the stripes and let it all dry together.

Once it dried, I got out a sharpie and a ruler, 

and edged all my black portions and in between the colors.

(not that I'm OCD, but imperfect edges bug me...

but I'm really not type a.... well, maybe just a little!)

I added a few extra stripes in here as well...

Then we hung them, and added a quick little "take a smile" bit in between...

this is a joke between Tash and I, we're always trying to get each other to smile.

 If you'd like one just print this off..

That's it!

Kinda makes you want to try one, right?

If you do, please send me pics and I'll post them ...

We have back-to-back thanksgiving dinners this saturday and sunday -

and they're both at our house!!

21 on saturday, 17 on sunday...

needless to say I won't be blogging :)

See you monday!

Hope you all get to spend the weekend with the people you love - x

Miss N's room: the reveal

If you read monday's post,

you know we've just finished Miss N's room.

This what we started with....

you can read more about that here.

It all began with a brilliant azure box Natasha found while we were out shopping one day.

She decided on a blue and white scheme.

Since she has a very dark grey leather chair, and LARGE tv in there, I suggested hits of black as well.

Done.

We (that means I, lol) painted the black walls white -

used Behr paint plus primer in Falling Snow, for the first coat.

It covered incredibly well, but the color was far too warm for a west facing room,

and the range of whites is really limited with this brand (are you listening, Behr?!!).

So, we layered 2 coats of Martha's pure white 

(no tint, straight out of the can - how's that for easy?!!) on top.

That's it, three coats, not too painful after all...

If you are looking for brilliant white walls, this is your paint -

the result was a very bright, slightly clinical space.

We color matched the box into a behr ultra base, as well.

(it's close to Brilliant Sea 520B-6)

This would do for the old cork board we planned to rescue from storage,

the existing mirror she used over her dresser, and a new long wall mirror.

We painted out a wire branch sculpture for an art/jewellry display....

Now, the palette was dynamic, 

but it needed warmth, and no ordinary canary or watermelon would do -

 so enter the fluorescents!

Yup, fluorescents.

Tash's idea :)

She's only this age once, why not let her have a little fun?

We upgraded a vintage dress form, and painted out some frames and canvasses

(I'll post more about the DIY art process tomorrow - SUPER easy)

Would you like to see how it all came together?

the view from the door...

Miss N headquarters - which is NEVER this tidy :)

We added a little zebra to the newly painted bulletin board -

looks like it's painted on, but it's actually a really heavy wrapping paper, shh, don't tell...

Ikea frames - 3 for $5.

With this price point and arrangement,

she can add to this wall whenever she likes.

Rocks and crystals.

It's a fascination, and she finds them EVERYWHERE :)

We corralled the largest and prettiest into lucite trays for display.

The bed.

Dressed with a new duvet and pillows (perfect for a constant "texter").

Framed out with our DIY art and a funny little printout that has sentimental value.

Are you wondering where all the teen "stuff" is?

Well, the dresser holds heaps of bits and bobs...

but what about the umpteen posters?

One is waiting to be hung behind the door...

and the rest live here....

Let's just keep those closed, shall we?!

That's it, the big reveal...

hope you like it, 

Miss N is over the moon, and that will do for me - x

Miss N's room...a dummy project :)

Way back when I posted about Tasha's room...

it had black walls (previous owners) and she wanted to keep them,

so we found a way to make it work.

Well, it turns out the best way to get your child over wanting a black room is to just let them have it!

This spring, she asked me if we could paint her room,

because it was too dark :)

Of course, hon - what color would you like?

White.

umm.... white?!! Are you sure?

Yup.

To make a long story short,

we painted the walls, painted out a few accessories we already had,

and added a few new bits for a super fresh new look.

There's been a lot of little projects in the space,

like her jewelry display.

Today thought you may like to see another.

Tash chose a color scheme based on a box we found at homesense,

and I'll show you that later this week.

The palette we were working with was azure blue, black and white.

It felt a bit cold, though, and for a teen, needed an injection of fun.

That's where the fluorescent came in!

It's been sneaking into Miss N's wardrobe, so why not her room?

Last spring we went out "junktiquing" together, and lo and behold,

there it was - a dress dummy.

Tash negotiated a price of $5.00 (she's gooood!)

and into the truck she went,

in all her crumbling glory.

At this point, I'm thinking, "who need's a fancy restoration hardware version?"

When we got home, a closer look revealed she needed some work.

The fabric cover went out,

then we decided to give her a "neckotomy",

I sawed off the uneven bit with my favourite fancy tool,

an old steak knife :)

Then realized the top needed to be smoothed and hardened, 

because it was still crumbling.

Another very technical solution, hot glue!

I heaped on copious amounts, then spread it all over, like icing a cake...

Voila, finished neck.

A coat of BIN spray primer, and we thought we'd be good to paint.

The problem was that the entire form had texture, and not in a good way -

and it was still fairly fragile.

It needed a coat of something to harden it and create a better surface.

Since it had texture, why not go with more texture?

Out came the modge podge, and some tissue paper.

(I have to admit, at this point, the restoration hardware version was starting to look like more of a bargain!)

A coat modge podge, then tissue layered on top, working in the folds folds and creases.

Perfect. Sigh.

From there we needed a stand.... and this girl was surprisingly heavy.

I had planned to use a coat stand but could find one that had the right size pole and was sturdy enough.

So a wooden dowel, painted black, was placed into an old umbrella stand, also painted black.

I used pipe insulation to fill the gap between the dowel and stand.

Stand done.

Then the fun part,

Lily (as Tash has named her) got her color.

Fluorescent pink!

A pretty dramatic transformation....

Yesterday we finished another art project for the room, and today I'm hanging it all,

cross your fingers for some sun tomorrow so I can get you pics... 

happy monday!