“I love cottage style with coastal
flair,” says Christine,
above,
with
husband, Phil; sons,
from left,
Nicholas, Matthew, and Zachary;
and dog Molly.
Black accents,
below—a
chunky
coffee table, metal end table, and
black-and-cream pillows—add heft
to the living room’s palette.
't-'W
9
1
• A
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■ *
Boys outnumber girls
four to
one in Christine Laughlin’s home, but that doesn’t
sway her from dipping into pretty pinks and
seafoam greens and blues when she decorates.
Cotton-candy pink on the entry wall greets visitors
who step inside the Maine home—a bold decision
that Christine’s husband, Phil, questioned at first.
“He said, ‘With a house that’s all boys, how can you
have pink right when you walk in?’ ” Christine
says. “But I thought it could work. Now we know it
works because everyone loves it.”
For Christine, color isn’t so much about gender
as it is mood. Not even Phil and the boys could
argue with her rationale for the candy-colored
pinks, blues, and greens that flow throughout the
house. “They’re happy colors,” she says. “It’s such
a happy house—so light and airy.”
Surprisingly, Christine doesn’t consider herself
a risk-taker with color. Beige was her go-to until
she fell for a sea-glass blue and tried it on her
kitchen walls. “Gosh, what a difference it made,”
she says. “I slowly began to see that I could put
color in my house, not just in my clothes.”
continued on page 114
