Lighting An Important Room Decorating Tool
Q. I have finally saved enough money for furnishings, but the colors I liked when I started saving seem out of style now. What are today’s newest colors, and how long will they be in style?
A. I am not ignoring your question, but I want to mention something many people do ignore. So my advice is: Don’t forget about lighting. If you do most of your entertaining at night, remember that colors seem less vivid in the evening, which makes lighting your most important decorating tool. The shadows created on a ceiling when a small spotlight is set on the floor beneath a tall plant can be more appealing than any picture. A torchier lamp nestled within the branches can produce the same effect. Shadows from the chandelier or the bannisters in an entry can look smashing as you enter a home.
The glisten of a glass coffee table contrasted by the bumpy shadows of a textured sofa can be more beautiful than the most carefully chosen color scheme.
Experiment with lights in unusual places: A light under a cantilever hearth makes the heavy stone seem to float above the floor; a center piece on your buffet with tiny white Christmas-tree lights mixed in can make your dining room sparkle; a soft light behind a rice-paper screen can set the most elegant of moods; and decorative nightlights in unused outlets can show your attention to detail.
You can make your room “no color” and have a white-on-white or a beige-on-beige neutral color scheme for the prettiest look of all. You won’t worry about it going out of style either. As a mater of fact, we’ve had so many jewel-tone colors in the last few years that many manufacturers are concentrating on neutrals again to get your attention.
Most color trends stay “in” for about seven years, then hang on for another three after something new comes in.
You must have been saving about seven years now. You deserve new furnishings.
Q. I want to select wallpaper for a hall bathroom that has plain off-white walls. My problem: the basin, tub and toilet are gold. The tile is gold with an occasional white flower in one of the tiles, and the floor is gold Spanish tile design. What can I do to change the look without having to change the gold basin, tub and toilet?
A. Sure enough, you have a problem. I would usually advise someone starting this type of project to decorate the powder room to coordinate with the living entertainment area. Because guests usually use the hall bathroom, coordinated decor will make them feel that they belong there and are not invading your sleeping area.
How about going all-out formal? Leave your gold-tone basin, tub and toilet, etc., but change the fixtures to brass. This change could cost $400 to $500 even if you do the plumbing yourself, but it would make a dramatic difference. The gold-tone tub, basin and toilet will look as if they were planned to coordinate with the brass fixtures.
Next, choose wallpaper, towels, and draperies that coordinate with colors in your living room area. You might pick teal and burgundy, gray and peach or mauve and blue, for example. The gold-tone basin, tub, and toilet now seem part of the formal-brass look.
If you’d rather not spend several hundred dollars for brass fixtures, you can often make “antique gold” look “earthtone” if you mix it with blue. Find a wallpaper with blues and tans, then take home a sample and put it on your wall - you’ll see what I mean. All the antique gold starts to appear tan earthtone. A caution: Don’t use anything gold in this room. Everything must be blue and earthtones - towels, curtains, picture frames, etc., To enhance the effect, use a picture in which blues and earthtones dominate. For example, a picture of a tan stucco hacienda against a blue sky, some baskets holding blue towels, an earthtone Mexican jug with blue figures on it (filled with pampas grass and an occasional white cactus flower), and your Spanish room has become an updated Mexican room.
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