Happy Monday to you all. Or Tuesday if you were doing something else yesterday and are reading this on catch up as it were. Not going regional this week but just featuring some of my favourite rooms that I have seen round and about.
First up is the newly decorated bedroom of photographer Leo Holden, a portrait photographer at Snooty Fox Images, who told me ages ago he was going to paint his room downpipe by Farrow & Ball and has finally finished it. And it looks fabulous.
He has painted the door and the woodwork the same which will make the room look bigger as you’re not drawing attention to the edges. He has followed the Something new, something old, something black and something gold maxim to the letter and I think it looks great.
In short the bed is metallic, might even be black. There is a mirror and brass candlesticks. The chest is old and let’s assume the bedding is new. But it could be the bedside lights. The new bit is easy.
Next a couple of fabulous westone bathrooms taken by Paul Craig, who took the pictures of my house which some of you may have seen either in the book or in the Sunday papers yesterday. Aren’t those brass taps wonderful? I’d take them in black or silver as it’s all about the shape.
And this year looks like it’s shaping up to be the year of the crittall style shower screen as well. But if you don’t want one of those then you can bring in the graphic lines with a basin unit instead.
Now one thing that keeps coming up in book talks and questions is can you still paint a room dark if you have a low ceiling? Yes, clearly if you want but if you don’t have a picture rail and you run the dark paint to the top of the wall and leave the ceiling white you are basically outlining the size of the room by directing the eyes to the edges. Which can make it look smaller.
Yes, one option is to paint the ceiling as well but that’s for the very brave- hearted. For the others – paint half way up. You don’t need a dado/chair rail – just a steady hand or a laser marker. That way you can bring in the drama, hide the scuff marks and blur the edges between wall and ceiling thus making the space look bigger.
Another thing I am asked about a lot is the placing of the gallery wall. The problem is that it’s very hard to make a random pattern. The Mad Husband and I spent a good couple of hours last weekend for the hall. It had to be random because the pictures were going round a mirror, which was in the right place so we had to work around that.
But I am equally fond of the grid wall. This means having your frames all the same size – but doesn’t mean your pictures have to be – you can just vary the size of the mount. It’s tricky to hang but as Ellie’s wall below shows, I think it looks great.
But if you do want inspiration for a gallery wall. Take a look at this by Julia Eldon, of suburban salon. Leaving aside the wonderful flowery ceiling, Julia has mixed shapes and sizes, colours and objects to create a wall that does look random without looking messy.
Back to the half and half wall and we couldn’t end this edition of 10- Beautiful Rooms without seeing Julia’s bathroom. Dark panelled walls with flamboyant paper on top. Looking amazing in this room but would work as an idea for any room in the house.
So that’s it’s for this week. I hope you have enjoyed it and found some inspiration for your own rooms.
