DECORATING ADVICE : Stripes, Stenciled Figures Add Playful Touch
Question: I am about to decorate a bedroom for our 2-year-old daughter. The carpeting and the mini-blinds are gray. The wood trim is stained and must be kept that way. I would like the room to look pretty, and I am planning on stenciling the walls. What colors should I use for the walls, the stencils, the bedding and the curtains?
SANDRA ERLENBACH
Answer: I am sorry you have to keep that wood stain. With gray carpet and gray mini-blinds, I think the trim would look best if it were white. But we’ll work around it. Paint big 12-inch stripes of pink, white and gray on the walls. On the white stripes, paint or stencil gray elephants with pink roses gathered in their trunks. For the ceiling, try pale pink. For furniture, select a canopy bed of white trimmed in pink. Find a gray, white and pink checkered fabric for the canopy. Then purchase some checkered window curtains, and hang them on brass poles.
Q: We have a small downstairs bathroom with white fixtures and an oak cabinet. The floor is covered with thick navy blue carpeting. On the wall is a watercolor depicting fish that contains some magenta, teal and several shades of blue. On the white-tile sink area we have a fish sculpture that has teal accents. What type of wallpaper and window covering can you suggest for this room?
BONNIE HOFF
A: It sounds like you’re doing a nice job with your bathroom. For wall covering, I would select a magenta, white and navy stripe. Find a wall covering that coordinates with a border, maybe one of a magenta and white trellis. Carry the trellis border over your ceiling also. For window treatment, I would suggest a white-linen Roman shade, trimmed in magenta and teal.
Q: Where do I begin in planning my decorating?
BETTE SANDERS
A: Many people ask me that. They want to know if they should begin with a color, for example. I find that starting with a combination of colors works best. A favorite object, such as a treasured porcelain plate, a Navajo rug or an oil painting, can provide the inspiration for a room’s color scheme.
Traditionalist that I am, my favorite porcelain is Royal Copenhagen’s Flora Danica. In the New York home of a client, I used Flora Danica for the dinner service. The china pattern forms the basis of the dining room’s decor.
The soft mint-green color of the walls matches the Danish painted leaves in the plate design. The trim in the dining room is white, edged with gold leaf, and the ceiling is pale pink. The floors have been whitewashed and treated with polyurethane (for practicality).
Gold-framed dining chairs are covered in a lavender, pink, mint-green and white stripe--the colors of the flowers in the plate design. The stripe has been used as a lining for the creamy-white silk draperies that are trimmed in the soft mint. French furniture, Flora Danica cachepots and vases look right in this setting.
Other clients of mine were influenced by a painting of a hunting scene. They painted the walls in their living room hunting green, and they stained the floor a rich walnut. Curtains made of a bright-red, green, soft-cream and brown print were hung on brass poles with brass rings.
The sofa in the room was upholstered in a rich red and accented with red throw cushions. Then, to give the space a real hunting look, my clients took a pair of leather riding boots and mounted them on a lamp tree and shaded it with a red string shade. The horse painting that inspired the decor of the room now hangs above the sofa. Also hanging on the wall is a brass hunting horn, which picks up the brass at the windows.
