Wednesday, June 6, 2012

"Go Light" in House Beautiful

If you read my post on May 24, you saw a beautiful French daybed in an article entitled "Go Light," which featured an English Country style house "lightened up" by local Atlanta designer Beth Webb.

This June 2012 House Beautiful article is a wonderful example of an overall decorating trend toward using more and more light painted furniture and embracing imperfect and "well loved" pieces. Not only is the overall palette of this Atlanta home "lightened up" but I  imagine its character and attitude has been as well.

When I think about the overall decorating "rules" today, it seems that they have been gradually relaxing over the past decade or so. Gone are the days when every wood piece in a room had to match and the only "good finish" was a glossy one so shiny you could see your reflection in it. Scratches, chips and overall signs of use and age are "socially acceptable." (If only this held true for women in general!) The perfectly imperfect is now the Belle of the Ball. How freeing it is to know that a little nick or scratch on an already "distressed" piece isn't cause for alarm - only a little unintended addition of personality.

When I look through my home, it is a mixture of both old and new, shiny and distressed. I have high gloss English Furniture in my dining room alongside a little French oak chest and an American oak chest. I have a large round, medium gloss English pie crust coffee table in my living room as well as a painted French corner cabinet and antique country French chairs. It all "feels" good together though - each piece balancing the other, the casual making the formal less intimidating.

This brings me to the main reason why I love this article - the designer used a lot of what was already in the home in the redo - just lightening up many of the pieces and rooms with paint. The driftwood chair in the picture below was made over by painting it in flat white paint.




Notice the reflective quality of the glossy ceiling paint and cerused floors in the photo above? It's hard to imagine this room with dark floors and dark wood pieces.





The kitchen is designed in a "Belgian style" and contains an oval table and whitewashed chairs. I love the look of the stained and painted pieces together. The piece that sets this room apart though is the wood cabinet by BoBo Intriguing Objects! This cabinet is partially painted white with old glass in its unpainted doors. Perfect!

I hope you enjoyed seeing this home and maybe even feel a little braver about painting a piece or two of furniture in your own home.

Take care.

Au revoir, Mitty



1 comment:

  1. Hi,Mitty, I loved this! Exactly what I plan on doing here with our renovation, using much of what I already have and painting others . Using a basically white palette as well. Less pattern, more texture. Thank you for an inspirational post today. N.xo

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