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COLOR ME COMFY
What makes this color
combo work is the
dynamic play of light
and dark. Since Elaine
chose a sophisticated
charcoal gray for the
walls, the other main
elements in the room
had to be light or
bright—butter yellow
drapes, off-white
sectional, white side
tables, cream rug tiles,
white bedding. Green
and eggplant accents
keep it lively. “It’s all
about the contrast,”
she says. “And gray
and yellow are
beautiful together.
The yellow is sunshine
on a cloudy day.”
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C I I f F I K
e l a i n e ’s d e s i g n r u l e s
■ BIG-TICKET ITEMS When sprucing up a room on a
budget, retain the items that are the most expensive to
replace, and work with them. In this case, Elaine kept
the bed and dresser.
■ TRAY CEILING When painting a tray ceiling, the angled
part should be painted the same as the wall color. This
takes advantage of the ceiling height and helps draw
your eye up.
■ “TALLER” WALLS When you have average wall heights
(8 -io feet), mount drapery hardware as close to the
ceiling as possible—drape tops should hit about 1 inch
from the ceiling line. Windows and walls will seem taller.
■ “BIGGER” WINDOWS Drapery rods should be
significantly wider than the width of a window frame.
When open, the inside edge of a drapery panel should
just line up with the window edge, and the outside edge
of a panel should extend several inches past the window
frame. This makes any size window more important.
■ RIGHT-SIZE LIGHT “An overhead light is not enough to
read by in a bedroom,” says Elaine. ‘"You need lamps,
and not dinky little lamps. You want living room-size
lamps on a bedside table.”
■ MIX WOODS Not only did this bedroom have a lot of
wood surfaces, but it was all the same medium color, so
Elaine introduced the lighter wood coffee table and TV
shelf. “You want to mix up wood color tones in a room,
just like God does in the forest,” she says.
Look for Elaine Griffin’s new book,
Design Rules,
from Gotham Books, due out in November.
For buying information scc/xigc 2/2.
6 2
OCTOBER
2009
BETTER HOMES AND GARDENS
