Historic Home, Fresh Look
I have always loved old houses. It’s the details, really-the hardwood floors, the moldings, the beautiful staircases…sigh. My heart skips a beat just thinking about some of the amazing homes I have visited. It’s always a pleasure to work for a client who is lovingly maintaining one of these homes, so when I got the call to refresh a family living room in one of these gems I jumped at the opportunity.
The home owner has amazing taste, and everything she had done for herself was well put together, but it had been many years since she had refreshed the living room and it was ready to be updated. Wanting a lighter and more neutral palette, we began the entire process with the windows. The wood shutters were staying-they had been quite an investment-but client was open to any of my ideas that incorporated them. To solve the need for light control on the West-facing windows, we used a Hunter Douglas Provenance woven wood shade above the cafe height shutters. I love starting a room with one amazing element, be it a fabric or a rug, and building from there, so next step was fabric. The client fell in love with an embroidered beauty from JF Fabrics which we used to frame the front windows in gorgeous full-length panels, and roman shades on a smaller window over the reading nook and on a window in the adjacent foyer.
With the walls freshened up with Benjamin Moore’s Revere Pewter, we now had a fantastic color palette coming together! The client wanted to replace the area rug and all of the seating in the room, keeping only the large brown leather ottoman. The client, let’s refer to her as “Impeccable Taste,” also knows what she does and does not like, so she had no hesitation choosing a beautiful Jaunty area rug from the samples I brought her to review. From there putting the remainder of the room together was a breeze, pulling some luscious Bernhardt fabrics that coordinated with the new rug and window fabric. We chose a warm grey velvet for the sofa and a patterned silver for the two swivel chairs which would complete the conversation area. Now it was on to accents.
As I said in the beginning of this conversation, it’s the details, really. The foundation of the room was laid, but we needed some more color and pattern, and this is where our extensive fabric library comes in to play! Impeccable Taste chose a fabulous velvet stripe to reupholster the cushion on a sweet little window seat which I dubbed the “reading nook.” We added coordinating pillow fabrics and when I showed her some Samuel and Sons trimmings to make the pillows pop, I.T. said, “yes, please!” The last step was to have a well-loved chair reupholstered, for which we used a Fabricut fabric.
Often this is the part where Christie Perham Interiors will need to add tables, lamps, and accessories, but I.T. has such a wonderful collection of things that she has curated that the room was now complete. It was a wonderful collaboration and both client and designer are thrilled with the final outcome!
