We've all read articles about bad patterns and how we all seemed doomed to repeat them over and over again like Sisyphus and his boulder. Those articles are a bummer. This isn't one of those. There are also good patterns and in home design it's important to recognize and repeat them throughout to create a cohesive feel.
My landscape designer highlighted this when working on the front of our house. She said it's better to pick a handful of plants and repeat them throughout the design rather than picking lots of different plants to line the border of my sprawling rancher. That would feel chaotic. We had the design laid out, but there was one area that was tricky. She suggested a row of boxwoods to continue the overall design. But I thought that was boring and wanted a row of junipers in order to hide the radon filter a little bit more. After the installation I could see that she was right. Zooming out and looking at the whole picture, boxwoods would have been the better option. That area now feels like a juniper attack - there are too many junipers and it bothers me. It was a low-stakes life lesson that when someone with 20+ years of experience gives advice you can feel confident to take it. When it came to designing the back of the house, I handed her the reins and let her do her thing. She's like one of those whirling dervishes. Right hand palm up, left hand palm down spitting out beautiful gardens.
I, like most of us, tend to be drawn to the same things, so many patterns naturally emerged as I designed my house, but sometimes I get stuck, and I have to work through it more consciously. I ran into this issue a few years ago when trying to decide on a wall sconce for our living room. I racked my brain for months trying to find the right one. That's when I turned back to her advice. I realized that I should just pick the cousin of the dining room chandelier - a George Nelson globe light. It would also repeat the ribbing pattern that was in the coffee table, the legs of the dining room table and even in the gills of the manta ray photo over the fireplace. I bought the sconce and it's perfect for that spot.
I was at a friend's house for a party recently. I knew she was feeling stuck on paint colors for her great room, so I couldn't resist stealing away from the party for a few minutes to sit on her living room couch to ponder the situation. She lives in a mid-century modern house and color on the walls can be tricky since the space is wide open. Color in one room affects all the other rooms, so you really need to consider the big picture. She loves color and wanted to get away from the current light gray that feels builder-grade and boring. I live in an almost all-white house, so using white or another neutral throughout a space doesn't necessarily bother me. However, sitting on her couch I could see how she loved color and would want to bring more into the space. Instead of focusing on the great room, however, I looked to the adjoining sitting room as the opportunity. The walls are also gray, but since it's a more contained space, it can handle saturated color.
My friend came in from the party outside and I shared my thoughts. The question was - what color for the sitting room? The adjoining room is her office that will soon be a seafoam green color. It's a lovely choice to complement the pink couch in that room. She pulled out the wallpaper she's planning to install on one wall of her office and, lo and behold, the answer was there. The wallpaper had seafoam green, pink, navy and... mustard yellow. The sitting room has a navy sofa, so navy walls would be too much. Mustard yellow, however, would complement the navy sofa as well as the pink couch in the office that is visible from the sitting room. The room has less light and yellow would also bring more warmth to the space. One solution solving multiple problems. We started walking through her house and saw that same color combination in the rug in her entryway and in several pieces of artwork in other rooms. The pattern was already established throughout her house.
Last week another friend asked for my advice on paint color for her black and white tiled bathroom. Folks, if you are blessed enough to have an original, intact black and white tiled bathroom in your house the answer to this question will always be taupe. Taupe in this context is not boring. It takes something really special and makes it look very classy. Because it is classy. I had a black and white tiled bathroom and taupe walls in our 1930's Baltimore rowhouse and I loved it. I also painted the walls taupe in our black and white kitchen when we moved to the current house. That combination is in my living room, too, with linen pillows and a cowhide rug. This morning looking at a picture of my favorite animal I noticed the same pattern. I guess it's just ingrained at this point. It's a great combo and you can be sure that I will use it in future design projects, as well.
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