2 Dramatic Blue Gray Dining Nooks with Orange Accents & LPs!

Blue & orange. If you know a thing or two about the color wheel then you know the BAM! that this complementary color scheme has to offer. Blue and orange are definitely a color trend now in film, video, media. Think CSI Miami! Anyways, here are 2 young but not juvenile dining spaces with deep navy walls the perfect accents of orange. This rooms also have something else in common: records! Being a vinyl hoarder, I love to see records used in design.

Celerie Kemble dining nook

The first room is from designer Celerie Kemble’s portfolio. This is a cool space. It’s a little more modern than what I do, but it has vintage. OK, so the room isn’t “navy” but it is a bit of squid ink paint shade, so there is some blue in that gray. This gray appears more “blue” with the touches of orange. I love dark gray walls. It is a bit of a “modern” shade and it can come across as very masculine, but it packs drama. You want to transform a room in a weekend, paint it this color. Everything you own will look completely different. Whites will pop and blacks will shine. Anyways, I love the record storage in this nook! It is so clever to have it under the seating in a small space. I got to tell David. He need to build us one of these.  Anyways, this is a cozy space, very hip. I want to listen to records and lounge around drinking beer and eating guacamole and chips in this nook. *Oh, I love the textiles in here because it keeps this color combo and space from being too masculine. It’s a nice balance.

The other dining room or nook is from Rejuvenation’s website. It is a really cool space as well and totally reminds me of the early 1910-1940’s Craftsman homes in the Seattle area being fixed up by young adults like ourselves. (Rejuvenation is based in the PNW). This dining room is the kind of dining room you’d see in our neighborhood while your taking the dog out for an evening stroll. It’s classic but it has a special type of vintage lust seen in the under 40 crowd. I guess what I’m saying is that I love the look of vintage mid-modern pieces shoved into a Craftsman. The cool thing about this space is that you remove the furniture and the accessories and you have a classic Craftsman home that appeals to everyone. You didn’t do anything to ruin the vibe or the bones of the house. You worked with the house and added your tastes without destroying the authenticity of the home. I’m all about that.

Rejuvenation dining room

Anyways, I love this room. Once again, it is a “squid ink” shade that looks awesome against that white mill work. The orange accents are brilliant in this room. The lighting isn’t very typical of old homes but it has a nice vibe, a young vibe. I love the records on the ledge (recognize a few from our own collection). And one can never go wrong with a Saarinen table.

I guess we are going to try to finish the upstairs bathroom this weekend. I have to admit that I’d rather do something else, you know, like something fun. Oh, well. This house isn’t going to renovate itself. Bummer.

-Victoria

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2 Dramatic Dark Living Rooms with a Pop of Fuschia

I used to think that dark rooms only existed because they photograph well. I thought that “real” people didn’t have dark rooms because they didn’t look good in “real” life. I’ve painted a few rooms in our home dark. They look just as good in my working home as they do in pictures. Dark colors have so much impact and drama. This is why I’m attracted to the two featured here.

Design Sponge living room

This first room was featured on Design Sponge. I love the slap in the face of hot pink. It is stunning. Not much more to say. This is about the color of our living room, or at least the color that it appears in pictures. We have a bust of Napoleon painted that shade of pink on the built-ins. Napoleon really adds something. I am all about contrast anyways. That’s why I like black and white floors, zebra prints, and wild trim colors.

Anyways, I love this room. The colors are amazing. It is sophisticated but still very “young” feeling without being too perky. It has a certain moodiness. Oh, and great lighting too. The thing about dark rooms is that you need many, many different light sources: overhead lighting, windows, floor lamps, table lamps, sconces, candles, anything that gives off light. Different light sources transform the room and makes so many different “moods”. This room also uses texture nicely. You have a glossy hot pink coffee table, painted floors with a sheen, fuzzy maize throw pillow, mysterious silky purple throw pillows, and matte walls. It all works so nicely together and adds so much interest.

The other living room was featured in Homes and Gardens. It has the same feel of the Design Sponge room. It’s dark with these shocking bold colors and diverse textures. I assume that this room is hand painted but it may be wallpaper.

Homes and Garden living room

I don’t recall. This room is all about the walls. Of of the colors are taken from the design on the walls. I love chocolate brown and chartreuse together. The fuchsia adds so much too. The textures are so luxurious but the colors are a bit unexpected. Somehow this room has crushed purple velvet chairs but it doesn’t look like a blaxploitation pimp decorated the room . (Actually the room would probably be much more fabulous if it was decorated by a pimp character actor). Anyways, I love this room because it takes so many “me-maw” elements such as throw pillows, “wallpaper”, glassware, “slipcover” upholstery, and this formal living room still looks “young”.

These dark rooms do have something else in common: they are both large with tall ceilings. I think this is another reason why these rooms don’t feel claustrophobic.

-Victoria

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Books & Drama: 2 Black Libraries

I’ve been a blogging slacker! I do apologize. We’ve been neck-deep in projects. We have made progress and since we both have 2 weeks off, I will update! I’ve had time to revisit decorating. A few months ago that was not exciting and too overwhelming. I just wanted a clean, dust-free place to eat. I didn’t care what I ate on. Now that things are starting to look like a “real” house, I am feeling rejuvenated again. I feel like I can do this and perhaps even finish it…well…maybe not to my personal standards but it can be a “presentable” place. This week we have been working on the glamorous dining nook that we gave up on in September.

Badgley Mischka dining room

Anyways…today I have been inspired by these moody and dark rooms. We painted the “great” room and it is dark but less moody than I want. So, I am going to take a few pointers from these 2 rooms.

This first room is from the master of romantic, glamorous design: Badgley Mischka. I am obsessed with his old Kentucky home. I adore this black library/dining room. I keep scaring myself away from doing the house in dark colors. We painted the “great” room a dark liver and I love it. Dark adds drama, it photographs well, and it isn’t scary in real life. I am a bit sad that I didn’t paint my built-ins black. I was too overwhelmed at the time and couldn’t make such choices. I just needed a place to live. Back to this room…I love every accent. One can’t go wrong with horns and pewter. Badgley is the only man on the planet that I know of that can make an old, rustic Kentucky home look dramatic and glamorous while still keeping that certain rural “charm”.

The second room is a more feminine and something that I found on Southern Accents. This black library is just as dark and moody but it does have plenty more knick-knacks (less books) and girly touches. I swoon over that light fixture as well. I love the metals in this room. Pair these colors with something chrome and you’ve got something that looks too

Southern Accents black library

player/bachelor.  My only complaint about the room is that I hate hanging textiles as decoration. It looks too “dressing room”.  That is just a personal pet peeve.

Well, now I am second guessing my design choices of my remodel. I want something dark. Dark really works if you have lots of interesting stuff. For years, I’ve tried to stay away from stuff but I am finally giving in to my personality fault. I love to spend weekends at antique and thrift stores. I just have to learn how to do it “right”, how to have stuff but not to look like a pack-rat and a clutterer. It’s coming along.

I guess I should start helping David sand the plaster down in that dining nook. Aren’t our vacations just pathetic? Happy holidays.

-Victoria

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A Moody Black Bathroom:

Marie Claire Maison moody black bathroom

I love black and really dark rooms: squid ink, aubergine, merlot, soot; however, I think these rooms are only photogenic. I don’t know how they would feel in real life. Every time I see one in a magazine or decorating blog, I fall for them. They are dramatic, rich, deep, moody. In middle school I had a friend who’s parents let her paint her bathroom a deep steel shade. It looked like crap. They didn’t use primer and it just looked uneven and felt very claustrophobic. I imagine that dark shades do take much work to appear even and true to color. You can’t be lazy while applying these pigments. Since I am in renovation mode and totally overwhelmed, I have decided to admire dark rooms from a distance.

I can’t deny that I love this Marie Claire Maison black bathroom. It is so dramatic, moody, and elegant. It has a slight purple tinge. Black bathrooms are scandalous. We are so used to seeing them stark white or light and airy sky blue. There is something very rebellious about a black/dark bathroom. So, I love it. I love to look through books of the homes of Old Hollywood stars. Many had these luxe OTT black marble bathrooms. I will never forget the elegance and drama of Valentino’s black marble bathroom. Of course the pictures were black and white, extra dramatic. But we all know that black marble looks good pretty much all the time. However, the more I look at this bathroom with its pop of harvest gold, milk chocolate clawfoot, and jade green floors, I get more of a 70’s drug lord vibe.

It's very Scarface in design.

Umm, I’m thinking Scarface in his office surrounded by blow. Don’t get me wrong. I love Hollywood’s perspective of drug lords, especially their girlfriends with their Halston dresses and head scarves, I love the style that Hollywood gives the “gangster”. It’s a bit Studio 54 and  a dash of Dictator Style. When I watched Pacino in Scarface I was more smitten by the fashions and tasteless but expensive Rococo like decor than the story or message. I wanted a bit of Scarface design in my home. There is nothing wrong with self-absorbed, self-obsessed, and tasteless design in the home. Maybe I do want a black room after all? Actually, there has been a change of plans and the bathroom is going all out moody, dark deco, but I’ll share that a different day.

-Victoria

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