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McDonald's After

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Home design right at hand

The more robust apps cost anywhere from 99 cents to $6.99 and offer high functionality for design professionals and homeowners elbow-deep in a major home improvement or design project. Most homeowners, however, won’t need everything those apps have to offer, but a nice variety of free apps can be handy for helping with day-to-day home decorating and maintenance needs.

A few of my favorite freebies include any number of color selection apps offered by most major paint brands, Home Depot’s app, the “iHandy Level”, Kravet / Lee Jofa’s “eDesign Assistant” and the ubiquitous “Flashlight” app.

The major paint brands, including Behr, Benjamin Moore, Olympic and Sherwin-Williams, all have apps designed to help you select paint by browsing color cards, using a color spectrum, or taking a photo on your phone or tablet and using a color in that image to match with one of their paints.

Bryan Koerber, president of Budeke’s Paints, which has locations throughout the Baltimore region, says that Benjamin Moore’s “Color Capture” app is a good starting tool for narrowing down the colors you might want.

“But nothing replaces actually going to a paint store, checking out a fan deck to further narrow down your options, and then getting a color sample and testing it out on your wall before painting,” says Koerber.

Taking the functionality of the paint apps a step further, the free version of the “Home Decorator” app lets you take a picture of the room you want to paint and then recolor the walls with hues from preloaded color cards, a free-form palette or by using a color from a photo you’ve taken. The drawback here is that the app doesn’t match up with any actual paint colors.

“Palettes” is another interesting color app that takes images you like and breaks them down into manageable color palettes you can use to decorate a room. For example, in a recent conversation I had with interior designer Penny Mickum, she mentioned using a “coastal palette” for a house she had just finished decorating. “Palettes” allows you to take a photo of an actual coastal environment and then parse the image into a palette that could work as the basis for a room or house scheme.

Kravet / Lee Jofa’s “eDesign Assistant” takes the color-matching technology a step further and adds search functions that allow for product selection based on pattern, texture and style, as well as color. Choose from a library of colors, or take a photo from your smartphone for a color match, and the app will find coordinating fabrics and styles. Registered interior designers can sign in for additional capabilities.

“I like the Kravet app for finding prices and availability on the spot with our clients,” says Baltimore interior designer Lisa Steinhardt of Design Loft Interiors.

Another product search and purchase app, this one from Home Depot, gets you access to over 100,000 products and as a bonus includes a handy interactive toolbox with a caliper for measuring length and width of small items, a measurement converter, a nut-and bolt finder, a tape measure, and drywall flooring, insulation, and paint calculators as well as in-store maps and “how-to” projects and videos.

The “iHandy Level” is a free tool that comes as part of the “iHandy Carpenter” toolkit, which costs $1.99, The full carpenter kit is more advanced than I need, but the level is great for hanging framed art and photos and easy to calibrate using any level surface.

I’m sure many people are familiar with the “Flashlight” app, but it’s worth mentioning, because I probably use it more than all the others combined. The app fills the screen of a smartphone with bright light to illuminate dark spaces. It’s handy for times when you wouldn’t expect needing a traditional flashlight and lets you finally take that mini flashlight off your key chain—even my plumber uses it.

As much as apps, mobile devices themselves are revolutionizing the way some architects, interior designers and builders work with clients. Building on the basic premises of cloud computing — where resources, software and information are provided to computers and other devices by way of a remote server or “cloud”— architects and interior designers are creating electronic project folders so that when they meet with clients all they have to bring is a laptop computer or tablet to access everything from blueprints and elevations to product PDFs and images of fabrics patterns and paint colors.

Architect Paul Hume, is cutting down on the paper work by using an iPad to access stored files, images and sketches.

“It is useful for fieldwork because I do not have to carry around drawings. It also gives me access to documents, everything from contracts to emails,” says Hume.

“Evernote” offers similar functionality — it has an app for mobile devices and can be used to organize notes and documents, images you’ve taken yourself or copied from web pages, links, video clips and more all in one place. Searching is easy with an autocomplete function that recognizes words you have typed before as well as those that appear in saved files.

“We use ‘Mobile Me’ to allow our designers to view the client files, pictures and information from anywhere,” says Steinhardt. “I save all of this information to a public file and we can all view it. This application is very useful as a designer. I never have to have physical papers/folders with me. I only use my iPad.”

With a wet Bank Holiday forecast, it’s time to get decorating

By Ruth Bloomfield
Friday, 26 August 2011

So we need to start somewhere, which is why I created what I call a process palette–(click back for a refresher), a collection of the unchangeable colors I’m surrounded by.

Today, I’ve made up a quick drawing of my floor plan.  Don’t panic on me now.:)  Nothing fancy here–could be a layout of your space on the back of a Cheerios box.  Let your kids draw it if you’re nervous, and then transfer each of your reference colors onto the drawing.  Having a visual reference in hand which designates the placement of existing colors throughout the house will not only help you to maintain a pleasing flow, it will act as a knowledgeable and comforting friend, helping you to make your choices confidently.

Now it’s time to get busy, either working from or around the existing colors. As a practical matter, few of us can heave all of our furnishings or carpets into a dumpster and start from scratch.  So we need to get our color fix in whatever rooms we have, that are willing to see it our way.  In my house, the entry foyer is very willing!

Shaded by the portico outside, the entry is dark, and I’m going to use this circumstance to my color picking advantage.  On a sunny day, and for most of the snowy winter, anyone who enters my house needs to take a minute to allow his or her eyes to adjust.  People instinctively look up when this high contrast, light vs. dark transition thing happens.  It’s sort of a “give me a sec while I get my bearings” moment.  Because everyone who comes through my door needs a little time, and looks up, I’m going to add a very strong statement color to the ceiling.  My guests and I will all have a color to admire while we gather ourselves.

Generally speaking, I would choose the warm blue grey of Winter Lake 2129-50 or Normandy 2129-40 for a space like this, and it would be lovely on my foyer ceiling for sure.  But I don’t want to advance any kind of nautical or water inspired color reference.  I also want to reduce the contrast inside the foyer as much as I possibly can, without turning it into a cave.

There’s a lot happening in this small space already.  There’s lots of movement in the hand-painted black and white “wallpaper” and more pattern in the strie below (Blond Wood 1067, over Ivory White 925).  The grey floor is neutral but a color all the same.  The door is cherry and a tiny bit red.  Plus, I have black, white, 2 beiges and a trim color. Seven colors in a 9′x9′ space; be brave my color companions!

Sometime in January, long before I began my color palette planning, I was standing near a window just before dark, looking east over the river.  The sky was a most amazing combination of violet, lavender and purple; twilight, or as my photographer husband calls it, ‘magic hour.’  The colors settled deep into my color reference and lo and behold, here we have it: Bonne Nuit AF-635, along with the picture I hurried my husband to capture in January.

More than a splendid color for the ceiling in my foyer, this color turns up often–over the river, in the early blooms of crocus, and the purple magnolia trees, and on my reference plan.  In truth, I picked the color without considering any of this, but I love it when my reference colors support a bold decision.  How could I go wrong?  Bonne Nuit AF-635 it is!

There’s one more tiny tweak I can add to the foyer to settle the entire collection of colors down, and bring the foyer into the adjoining living space . . . ten colors and counting–it’s going to be glorious. : )

Re-Blogged from http://livingincolorwithsonu.typepad.com/sonu_blog/2011/03/beginning-at-the-beginning.html

Green always hovers at the top of my personal color ranking system.  I won’t, however, call it my favorite color, because I am a Libra, prone to diplomacy and fickleness.  But, on a continual basis, green captures my attention and makes me happy.

Let’s begin with kelly.  Kelly is glamorous, preppy, classic.  There is something about this emerald hue, in large or small doses, that just perks up my whole being.  And adding rain slicker yellow to the equation, is like getting an extra shot of espresso.  To tame the sensory jolt, allow for plenty of white space, and then a dark blue or black for giving it some weight.  Sharon Taylor bypassed gentle baby pastels when she designed this nursery.  Feeling extra playful with bold hues, she specified 6″ painted ceiling stripes that’re sure to keep an infant mesmerized for hours.  I venture to say that when this chic babe grows up to be a sophisticated schoolgirl, with some minor furnishing tweaks, the preppy palette shall survive.

Lime is another shade in high esteem that makes for some very juicy décor.  With turquoise, and a room full of bamboo or wicker, the mood gets predictably tropical.  In this Caribbean-colored library, however, Diamond Baratta Design steer clear of the islands and have me craving a martini rather than a piña colada.  They do this by emphasizing the classic architecture with bright white paint, and by using fun hues on rather formal furnishings.  A Pucci-inspired rug, impressively scaled, raises the bar to a new level of chic.

Whereas kelly and lime make my heart race, sage energizes in a subtle and soothing way.  Sage is easy to live with, mellow and earthy–more like a trusted companion than a flashy new beau!  I like to keep the palette au natural with rich sable, taupe, and wheat.  Wholesome cream keeps the vibe fresh and airy.  Glints of gold or even silver make it magical.  For more pop, throw in some burnt orange found in an old kilim or vintage leather chair.

Lucky for me, I have kind and stylish friends across the globe who invite me to stay at their well-decorated homes.  In Seattle, Ted Kennedy Watson and Ted Sive always have a special room for me.  Watson, an award winning retailer and master of merchandising, adores green too.  The room was painted seven years ago and Watson says, “I still walk into that room and think how much I love it!”

Re-Blogged From http://livingincolorwithsonu.typepad.com/sonu_blog/2011/03/greens-are-good-for-you.html

“Bridge” is an accurate description for any color which will unify a palette.  A good bridge color will link differing hues together and act as a buffer between even seemingly incompatible color combinations.  Since maintaining a pleasing flow of color from room to room makes sense, it’s equally sensible to link your color transitions together with any single repetitive hue.  Unlike a neutral color, an ambiguous color is generally much more complex.  When in doubt, remember that any color that’s hard to describe or name is likely to be an ambiguous color.  Here are some of the hard to describe darlings of ambiguity:

If you have a beautiful room that falls a little flat, the addition an ambiguous bridge color will solidify the color scheme and add weight or ground the palette.  Beyond that, repeating an ambiguous color selection throughout a house is the easiest trick to I know to maintain the flow of color from room to room while harmonizing the color scheme overall.  Test this concept in any room where the color choice appears tentative, especially a room that feels a little boring or blah, and you’ll see how powerful the repetition of a weighty color can be!   The theory is simple–a good bridge color adds interest and balance to a colorful palette and, more importantly, advances the entire palette overall.  How will I add black+white to six rooms without having my house appear a poor interpretation of a vintage Chanel suit?  Easy–a combination of re-interpreted, classic, black+white finishes and a few enhancements to my existing black+white influences.

As predicted, Bonne Nuit AF-635 visually lowers the foyer ceiling, which adds a comforting intimacy to the entry.  You’ll recall I hoped to offer my guests a reason to pause in the entry and gather themselves together.  At night, the mirrored Moravian chandelier dances across the subtle semi-gloss sheen, and so far, everyone is happy to linger awhile!  Take a look at how the starkness of the high contrast black and white hand painted “wallpaper” grew more subdued under its new purple “sky.”  The design is borrowed from a platter I was enticed to buy at Pottery Barn.  I’ll include the info of how to reproduce borrowed or found designs for you next week, when I reveal another smashing black+white paint finish I’ve been working on.  Never forget that while my colors may not necessarily be your colors, the techniques themselves are no less effective!

I had to battle my love of crisp white trim and the need for a warmer, creamy white, to compliment the existing strie.  Choosing any color is always a process of elimination.  Once I taped up each shade of white I was considering, I forced myself to eliminate my usual favorites–Paradise Beach 911, which is too pink, and Palace White 956, which is too grey.

I looked at the chips in the daylight and at night and, knowing the purple ceiling would influence the white hues, I waited until the ceiling was finished too.  One by one, I eliminated.  Using scissors, I unceremoniously cut the chips to the beat of my opinions; too grey, too yellow, too white; snip, snip, snip.  Finally, I arrived at a perfectly creamy beige, which is a near exact match to the existing strie combination. Refining the contrast of the trim color, to a near straight match to the wall finish, expands the wall perimeter. Each door is framed by 3 inches or more of trim on either side; 8 x 3 = 24 inches. It’s subtle, but I gained over two feet of consistent perimeter wall by virtue of my balanced trim color.  This is one sure way to make a space feel larger–reduce the surrounding trim color contrast.

My final color tweak in the foyer begins to answer the call for must-have furnishings, and all the plain-old stuff a functional entry foyer, needs to have.  Besides adding some heft to the diminutive nature of the salvaged closet door, the tiny band of spicy, nearly green, brown, (Buckthorn 987) will lend it’s cooperative nature to brass and wood surfaces elsewhere in the house.  It will also be a great ally to me when I begin the hunt for a super practical area rug that can withstand the perils of muddy boots.  Surely a trip to West Elm is in order?  I have many options for a rug now, which is good, because most color pros would suggest selecting the rug before painting the walls!  Ah, we’re learning how to be brave colorists around here aren’t we?

The foyer still needs a dazzling mirror, something high gloss to take the “grandma” away and a chair.  For right now, I’m mesmerized by the Bonne Nuit, and thrilled I was able to enhance the big color winner in the room–the black+white wall finish.  Contact DJ’s Painting today to get some new color in your home.

Re-Blogged From http://livingincolorwithsonu.typepad.com/sonu_blog/2011/04/winning-colors-for-an-entrance-foyer.html