There once was a lady who lived in a castle one hundred shades of pink. On a high hill she served her husband who enjoyed great success selling precious potions in the physician trade. He spent his treasure of affection on two tiny dogs.
I was a painter make-up man paid to find the right shades from the paint stores hidden deep in the wine cellar. We painters agreed, like us, she knew what she was letting herself in for. It wasn't sad, but it wasn't anything interesting, either. However, her house always was presentable. Maybe that is what's most important to you.
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This lady sounds like my aunt: my father’s younger sis.
Her husband was an architect/contractor/building materials company owner. They weren’t millionaires, but they weren’t hurting, and it wasn’t a castle he built, but an extraordinary house set by itself on a bluff overlooking a river. I don’t know when it was built – I wasn’t born yet, so I want to say late 40s early 50s. There were houses atop the hill above it and houses below with roads leading to them, but this house stood alone carved into this ledge, appearing as though it had been there for centuries, with its own private drive. The privacy and the view alone took your breath away.
Yes, pink was my aunt’s favorite color. I don’t think my uncle could have stomached the whole house in pink, but he loved her dearly and so…the outside was pink brick and white clapboard, the terraces were all pink brick and different shades of flagstone – creams and pinks. One large salon was done in pale pink fabrics, but the master bedroom/bath suite was in every pink imaginable - ice cream and bonbon pastels to vibrant rose hues – only the wood tones of the furniture stood out. Where they found the pink and mauve ceramic tile and the pink porcelain fixtures for the bath I haven’t a clue. I mean, this bath was gigantic – the double vanity with beautiful, beveled mirrors, a big, graceful, oval tub set in a raised platform surrounded by tiled steps, a separate shower, a window overlooking the front terrace, but EVERYHTING down to the guest soaps was….well, made me feel like I was in a bottle of Pepto-Bismol.
They didn’t have 2 tiny dogs, but my aunt had a huge Himalayan cat, “Boogins”. When we came to visit, it would come out & rub my mother’s leg, because it knew my mom hated cats – then it would disappear.
Here is my décor dilemma. I would love to experiment with my interior wall colors but I am chicken. I know that in some cases, painting one wall in a room a darker shade can make it appear to “open” or add depth. I had wanted to paint one wall of my large living space a “warm” color – I was thinking persimmon-ish red, while leaving the rest off-white, but I was afraid of the light issue I have.
I live in the downstairs portion of an upstairs/downstairs duplex built like a split level on a heavily wooded hillside. I have one large living space with northern exposure, and that wall is almost entirely plate glass windows. The other windows face west. In spite of those big windows, I get zero direct light in the winter because of the combination of the exposure, the woods, and the slope of the hill. Our winters tend to be full of dark, cold, rainy/foggy days, so I don’t want to do anything to rob the light. I was afraid that during the dark days the persimmon would sit on me, so I just painted everything “Glow” - an off-white that leans towards yellow instead of beige or grey. It’s okay, I mean, it looks better, but it’s….boring.
So, Bob, I would appreciate any thoughts you have on interior color schemes that help enlarge/brighten rooms. I wanted to tell you I also enjoy reading about your remodeling ingenuities and about your neighborhood/corner of the world – sounds like it's warm, charming, & friendly to boot. You’ve got an interesting, philosophical bent to your “brush strokes” – keep them coming!
Thanks –
canotc4thetreez
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