The Chinoiserie Dining Room

Grace Kaynor Interiors - Southern Living

This pretty New Orleans dining room has me perplexed. I love the antique marble mantel, gilded mirror, pagoda pelmet, crystal chandelier, antiques, and the gold Chinese Chippendale chairs. It is painted in Benjamin Moore Beach Glass - a grayed blue green. The color works well in beach houses. I love New Orleans style - lots of high ceilings, crystal chandeliers, antique mantels, aged wood floors, and antiques. 

Haint Blue Day

Sherwin Williams Atmospheric

 

My painters arrive shortly to do some exterior work at CCC. This will include painting the front entrance ceiling haint blue, the lanai ceiling haint blue, and a fresh coat of Alabaster on several doors.

Blue & White & Peach

Lisa Henderson - Flower Magazine

 

A lovely foyer in this NYC apartment with lots of blue and white Chinese porcelain. The walls are painted in Benjamin Moore Daylily.

Color of the Year - Peach Fuzz

Peach Fuzz

 

Pantone has chosen Peach Fuzz as its color of the year. Their description of this color strikes me as quite amusing word salad -

"PANTONE 13-1023 Peach Fuzz captures our desire to nurture ourselves and others. It's a velvety gentle peach tone whose all-embracing spirit enriches mind, body, and soul.

In seeking a hue that echoes our innate yearning for closeness and connection, we chose a color radiant with warmth and modern elegance. A shade that resonates with compassion, offers a tactile embrace, and effortlessly bridges the youthful with the timeless."

The Chinoiserie Fireplace

Amanda Lindroth

This stunning chinoiserie fireplace was created by Accents of France for an Amanda Lindroth project. The design is gorgeous and I love the color.

Palm Beach Style

John Buckley - Veranda

I  love this chic spot in this Jupiter, Florida home. The photograph is Slim Aarons' "California Garden Party". The pillows are Fortuny and Sue Fisher King. The center pillow is "Venetian Alligator." Such a fun Florida touch.

Messel Green

Amanda Lindroth

 

In Amanda Lindroth's home in Lyford Cay in the Bahamas, much of the furniture, wicker, and shutters are painted a beautiful green. 

The color is inspired by British theater and set designer Oliver Messel, who renovated many homes in Barbados and Mustique that prominently featured a similar color. In many parts of the Caribbean, "Messel green" is a household term for the color.

Painted Wicker

Amanda Lindroth

The vast majority of wicker pieces on the market today are natural wicker. I love unpainted wicker, but then I see a piece painted like this, and I love it as well. Here Amanda's wonderful Sloane side table is painted in her signature Nassau blue. This piece is part of her new summer collection.

Feeling Blue

Mark D. Sikes

 

This wonderful breakfast room is in Liz Lange's beautiful restoration of the iconic East Hampton home Grey Gardens.

Apricot

Apricot

My favorite fruit is the apricot and I love the color apricot. A pinky peach, it is a softer version of coral and orange. It is an incredibly flattering color to paint your walls - everyone looks good against an apricot backdrop. Pantone's Color of the Year for 2023 is Magenta. I am personally not a fan of magenta. I think I'll ignore it and make Apricot my Chinoiserie Chic Color of the Year. 

The Chinoiserie Bedroom

Melissa Smrekar

 

I so love this feminine and eclectic bedroom in a wonderful color palette of coral pink and green. The coral chest is vintage. I adore the wicker pagoda canopy - it was a Round Top find originally in a Florida department store window display in the 1960's. Most accessories are vintage finds. The magnolia wallpaper is Thibaut found on eBay.

In the Pink

Old Crow Painting

I came across this dramatic coral pink house with Chinese Chippendale railing and black and white trim and had to share it. It is painted in Sherwin Williams Begonia.

Paint Color Decisions

Sherwin Williams Alabaster 7008

After playing around with my Samplize paint samples, these are the colors I have decided on for the exterior of my home. Sherwin Williams Alabaster on the stucco, Sherwin Williams Extra White on the trim, and Benjamin Moore Glass Slipper for the ceilings in the entrance and lanai.

Projects at CCC

Arnie the Bulldog

As you can see, Arnie the bulldog not only likes blue and white, but ChappyWrap blankets as well. My dogs are likewise ChappyWrap fanatics, and hog the blanket at night. I might need to get them their own. The ChappyWrap Valentine's Day Collection drops today at 10 AM ET. Isn't it darling with all the pink?

Paint Colors for CCC

Atlanta Homes & Lifestyles

Today I will be getting delivery of the paint samples I ordered from Samplize for my exterior painting project. I have narrowed my choices down to two off whites for the stucco, two bright whites for the trim, and two soft blues for my haint blue ceilings in the entrance and the lanai. One word of wisdom - flat paint should always be used on stucco. Any sheen makes the stucco look fake and the texture of the stucco causes ugly shading of the paint. 

New Year's Projects 2022

Palm Beach Home Inspiration

 

I am not really a maker of New Year's Resolutions, but I always have home projects for the new year. I absolutely love the whole process of researching and implementing new plans for the house. For 2022, I have two big projects. 

Samplize and Paint Color Choices

Benjamin Moore Classic Gray OC-23

I received my Samplize paint samples on Monday and they are absolutely great. If you recall, for $5.95 each, you get 12 inch by 12 inch samples painted with 2 coats of real paint that are peel and stick and can be moved from room to room. So they are cost effective, no fuss, no mess. They arrived very quickly, beautifully packaged and labeled, and are perfectly painted. I recommend this product without hesitation.

I was already leaning toward BM Classic Gray. It is elegant, timeless, and makes any space bright and airy. It will look great with my stone floors and is a perfect backdrop for art.

Benjamin Moore Classic Gray

I also ordered Benjamin Moore Balboa Mist and Collingwood Gray.

Benjamin Moore Balboa Mist OC-27

I would say Balboa Mist is one shade darker than Classic Gray, and Collingwood Gray is one shade darker again. All are gorgeous colors. I would call them true grays with a bit of warmth. My painter has suggested painting the tray ceiling in the great room the wall color as opposed to white, and I love the idea. It will really set off the 12 foot ceiling and moldings. I was thinking of choosing Collingwood Gray for the tray ceiling for a little contrast/interest as opposed to using the Classic Gray wall color. Thoughts?

Collingwood Gray OC-28

As soon as I close on the new house, I will bring these over and try them out. But right now, leaning very heavily towards the Classic Gray.

And Samplize is a great product - I wish I had thought of that!

I am headed to HomeGoods this morning. Perhaps another great find. I am on a roll.

Paint Samples

Samplize

The traditional method of trying out paint colors has been to get paint samples and either paint swatches on your walls or buy poster board and paint boards. I have never liked either choice personally, but of course, deciding from an itsy bitsy paint chip is the worst idea of all.

Enter Samplize. Here is what they say:

Quick & Pre-Painted

Make faster design decisions without dealing with the hassle of paint. Simply peel and stick to view real paint on the wall.

Ships within 24 hours

Simple peel-and-stick application

No painting, no cleanup

No wasted material, no storage

Unlike traditional paint swatches which are merely dyed to mimic color, our paint samples are hand painted with the specific paint color from each company. Two coats are applied with rollers for color accuracy and texture that is as good as it gets.

Real manufacturer paint

Displays color just like a wall

Shows underlying wall texture

They sell for $5.95 each and there is a $5 coupon for your first order and free shipping on orders over $15.00. I plan to place an order in the next few days and will report back.

Thank you for all your great paint color suggestions. I will return to Benjamin Moore today to pick up swatches. Have any of you tried Samplize? BTW, this is not a sponsored post, I just love the idea of this. 

Choosing Paint Colors

I had a strange and exhausting day yesterday. I closed on my house in Virginia remotely from here in Sarasota, Florida. The attorney emailed the docs on Sunday, I printed them out on my printer and went to my bank in downtown Sarasota to have everything notarized. I had to make an appointment at the bank which was empty except for two bank employees, and we were all masked and gloved with everything being disinfected before and after signing. A strange way to sell a home I raised my daughter in and buried my husband. And of course I have never set eyes on the couple who are purchasing my beloved home. Such hands off closings have been par for the course for years, but even stranger in the Age of Corona. And I locked in my mortgage yesterday and got a wonderful rate with these historically low rates. Yeah!

I treated myself to a trip to Benjamin Moore on the way home, the first non grocery store I have been to since the pandemic began. I love pouring through Benjamin Moore's beautiful brochures of colors.

The new house in Venice has a very open floor plan all on one level with very high ceilings and great light. I am painting all the walls in the same color which is my preference with an open floor plan where you see into all the rooms. I painted this house in my two favorite colors in the world - Benjamin Moore Stonington Gray in matte Aura with the trim in Benjamin Moore Decorator's White in semi - gloss. I am not doing the new house in these colors although I love them - I need to make this house mine. So, I am looking for the most beautiful white or cream or gray in the world for the walls as well as white trim and ceiling color ideas - I would love to hear your recommendations.

I have so much color in my furniture, art, accessories, and all my Chinoiserie of course, and I want a gorgeous soft neutral timeless backdrop. Please help. My painters are meeting me at the new house after the inspections on Friday and I plan to bring paint swatches with me. It is also interesting to me that the home inspection is a team here with the main inspector plus separate roof, pool, termite, and HVAC inspectors and a wind mitigation report.

Paint ideas please! I will share some favorites and of course what I end up choosing.

Haint Blue

Sherwin Williams

Having spent most of my adult life as a resident of Virginia, vacationing with my family every summer in the Outer Banks of North Carolina, and now as a full time resident of Florida, I am delighted to learn about another wonderful Southern tradition. Many of you might have noticed the trend of painting porch ceilings blue. Check out this wonderful example above with Chinese Chippendale railings, antique wicker, and potted palms. Well this painting porch ceilings blue has been a Southern tradition for generations. Theories abound as to its origin - it extends daylight hours because it looks like the sky, it wards off evil spirits or "haints," it keeps away bugs and spiders who confuse the blue ceiling with sky.

via Pinterest

This light blue even has a name - Haint Blue. Whatever its origin, I would love to do this in my lanai in my new home. I even have a blue I would like to use - Benjamin Moore Palladian Blue - a historic and very lovely blue indeed.

BM Palladian Blue

Here is another fun example below with the ceiling painted Palladian Blue.

Washington Post

Do you like this idea? Any other suggestions on a blue paint color?