You asked...about making a new sofa WORK!

Where to start? I recently bought a new couch (The Bailey Sofa from Boston Interiors in tan-ice blue) for the living room in my condo.


Looking at the couch in the showroom and examining the swatch at home, the fabric seemed quite neutral. I thought it would be an easy switch with my old taupe coach. I was wrong!

My living room opens to a dining room with grey/blue walls (Benjamin Moore Wedgewood Grey), so I thought that the subtle flecks in the couch fabric would work nicely to pull the two rooms together.


Unfortunately, now that the couch is in the space, it clearly doesn’t work with the living room wall color (Benjamin Moore Bradstreet Beige) or with the rug.

The wall color (which I like) is a rich tan with pink tones and the rug contains both the wall color and taupe. In context, the “tan-ice blue” of the new couch looks greenish. Though I love the couch, it’s really not working.

The other variables:

- The height of the new couch is several inches taller. The art work over the couch, therefore, is no longer appropriate.

- I can’t decide if I want to stick with the upholstered chair or try to work with a black leather club chair that “moved in” with my significant other.


- Lastly, we’re considering selling the condo in the not-so-far-off future. I need to make the situation work for now, but would prefer not too invest too heavily in this room. When the room was originally designed, the feel we were going for is a calm, modern oasis. Though I would like to stay in that general vein, I’m open to a new palette.

Do you have any suggestions? Is it possible to keep the couch without changing the wall color?


Dear Boston,

Maybe.

Let's back up. The most important piece of information you've given me is this: "We’re considering selling the condo in the not-so-far-off future."

Therefore, we want to keep expenditures of time and money under control. But you do need to love your condo while you're living in it, so I agree that action is required.

Here are two potential solutions, both of them pretty bossy. (I tried to come up with a tame solution, but, well, you go bossy or you go home.)

SOLUTION #1: KEEP THE OASIS, CHANGE THE WALL COLOR

Believe it or not, sucking it up and painting the walls is probably your least expensive, least time-consuming solution. Especially if you have your S.O. do the painting.

You'll need, what, 1 gallon of Benjamin Moore Aura paint? $55 or so. Plus $20 in drop cloths, tape, and brushes. And 1 day. That's it. You can skip the woodwork and ceiling if you've painted in the last few years.

Rather than put up swatch after swatch of light beiges looking for the right one (Yellowish? Greyish? Greenish?), the safer route actually is to go darker.

Consider Benjamin Moore's HC-87 Ashley Gray or HC-69 Whitall Brown. Here's your DR color again, HC-146 Wedgewood Gray.

(The picture below is much darker - one of my favorite browns, HC-67 Clinton Brown - but it illustrates the point.)


SOLUTION #2: SCRAP THE OASIS, BEAT NEUTRALS INTO SUBMISSION

After writing about changing the wall color, I believe that's your best option. But here's another totally acceptable - albeit more expensive - option.

Add enough strong, hot accents to distract us from the close-but-not-really-working-together taupes.

First, a new rug. I actually think you could go traditional (or "tribal," as Rugman.com categorizes)...see how this rug has some blue-grey in it to work w/ the DR?:


A contemporary rug is probably more your style. As my Gentle Readers have taught me, Overstock.com is a good place to look for rugs:


And Company C's Carnaby Swirl, in Poppy, is a nice "transitional" option:


With any of the red rug options, you would substitute your S.O.'s black leather chair for the blue slipper chair.

Then, after you have the rug, you must purchase:

- A red mohair throw for the sofa (Jonathan Adler has gorgeous, brilliant pink and orange if the rug steers you that way)

- 2 non-matching, red-based accent pillows to complement the ones you have.


- And finally, go ahead and re-hang that piece of art, even if it feels a little large for the space. Just don't hang it too high.

Good luck, Boston! Let us know what you decide to do!

Thanks again, xJavierx, for providing excellent photographs on your Flickr photostream!

You asked...about blue, blue, blue!

It's my understanding that painting each room in an apartment a different color is a no-no, in terms of flow, so I'm wondering how many colors to use in a two-bedroom.


I'm definitely a fan of bright/vibrant colors, so I don't want it to be jarring as you move from room to room. I know I want the living room to be blue (along these lines, maybe a bit darker), but don't know where to switch it up.


I'm attaching a very MS Paint, not-to-scale floorplan and a picture of the main room w/kitchen ahead and mini hallway w/bathroom and bedrooms to the right. Any thoughts, if my question even makes sense? Thanks!


Gentle Reader, your question is so timely! My March House Beautiful popped through my mail slot the other day, and this is the cover:


In wanting a blue living room, your finger is on the pulse of interior design trends, and you didn't even know it. Good for you!

When people - myself included - generally say not to paint each room a different color, we mean a different strong, vibrant, totally unrelated color. If all the colors are soft, or all the colors are variations on green, etc., of course you can have different colors in different rooms.

One of the reasons the blue works in your inspiration picture is that there is also brick in that room. It breaks things up.

You do not have brick. But have no fear, Gentle Reader. I have an alternate plan. It's pretty bossy, but I'm not going to waste time on a tame solution for you.

1. Choose the blue for the living room. Because you don't have a brick wall or other break-things-up device, let's make the blue a bit lighter than your inspiration picture. We'll keep it vibrant, though - these are not subtle colors.

Turquoise is Pantone's Color of the Year for 2010, but I have mixed feelings about that...let's just find a blue with some warmth in it and call it a day.

You might like Benjamin Moore's 2066-40 Rocky Mountain Sky. 2060-40 Toronto Blue has a little more aqua in it, although it's hard to tell on screen.

2. Keep the trim (and ceiling, believe it or not) stark white. That will make the room feel pop-py and fresh. If the apartment was painted recently, you might be able to get away with not painting the trim or ceiling again.

3. Paint the other rooms in your apartment white. Ben Moore's Super White is a favorite of mine.

4. Use the long, unbroken wall in each bedroom (opposite the door) as an accent wall. You'll have the intense color, but not the panic attack associated with rooms that OD'd on saturated color. Here's the really important, bossy part: use blues or blue-greens. They can be darker than the LR. Look at:

- 2056-30 Surf Blue
- 2066-20 Evening Blue
- 2067-30 Twilight Blue
- and, what the heck, 2045-20 Lawn Green.

This will give you some continuity and edginess while not turning your apartment into a cave.

You might want to try Benjamin Moore's Natura paint, by the way. If you don't have grubby-fingered little children running around, you may not need Aura's scrubbable properties, but Natura is still zero-VOC.

(Warning: those links have sound. Not obnoxious sound, but sound. Just in case you're supposed to be doing something other than reading bossy blog. Hard to imagine that anything could be more important, but...)

Good luck, and let us know what you decide!

P.S. I would like bossy blog's Gentle Readers to know that I wrote this blog entry while my 5-1/2 year olds were blasting Lady Gaga downstairs. Mostly Telephone and Bad Romance. Over and over. So if you hear a disco beat in the background of this entry, that's why.

Final postcard from Miami: Light as design element at Grass

We woke up today to, what, about 5" of snow? Believe it or not, that makes me feel better about not still being in Miami. If it's going to be cold, then it might as well snow and be beautiful, too.

Just a quick post about the minimal yet brilliant design elements at Grass Restaurant & Lounge, in Miami's Design District. We'd heard it was one of the best places to eat outdoors, and we were not disappointed.


The whole restaurant is outdoors. There's the thatched roof in the center, and little dining cabanas on the right side, but a lot of it was open to the sky, like our table. (Hi, John. Hey, nice pants. Are those new?)


The decoration was limited to one device: orchids suspended in glass containers of water, backlit. It was extremely effective.


You know, I remember seeing the same thing at Miss Yip Chinese Cafe last year. I wonder if that was the work of the same designer? I'll look into it and let you know.


Anyway, we had to get to Grass there ridiculously early because we wanted to catch a movie, but it was fun to be there as it got dark. This was the view from our table.


Those medieval-looking wooden doors in the distance lead to The King Is Dead, their partner nightclub. (I LOVE that name.) The interior shots on their website make me think that we should nap up next year and pay it a visit. I'm sure it doesn't open until I'm well into my second REM cycle.

Anyway, I tell you this because as the sky got darker, they started projecting this slow-mo slideshow onto the The King is Dead building from Grass. It was tacky and commercial and cool all at the same time. (Like lots of things in Miami, which is why we love it.)


Oh, yes: the food at Grass is outstanding. Forgot about that :)

Another postcard from Miami: CB2 on Lincoln Road

I'm not going to say a WORD about what a bummer it was to return to 40-degree weather and several inches of snow from the 80-degree heaven that was Miami Beach...


Not one word.

Before we left, I had the opportunity to spend some time in CB2 on Lincoln Road - right after I popped into the Jonathan Adler store.

CB2 has even fewer stores across the country than Jonathan Adler, so I hazard to guess that many of us have never seen the goods in person.

But we're all familiar with the catalog, because, well, CB2 is the inexpensive, modernist younger sister of Crate & Barrel, and they keep better track of our addresses than the federal government.

In general, I'm a fan of CB2.


The prices are outstanding. The furniture is generally well constructed. And the smaller scale makes CB2 the perfect resource for apartment dwellers or teeny historic house owners. (The houses, not the owners. I don't care what size the owners are.) CB2's aesthetic is modern, but the pieces are versatile enough to mix with more traditional pieces - even antiques.


But I understand that it's a leap of faith to order big, pain-in-neck-to-return items you haven't seen in person. So let me tell you where CB2 shines and where you'll want to be careful.

CONSOLE TABLES - EXCELLENT

Small console tables are notoriously difficult to find. Let alone inexpensive, clean lined ones. The Gear ($249) and Smart ($199) console tables are fantastic.


COFFEE TABLES - ALSO EXCELLENT

I've been ordering from CB2 since their first catalog popped through my mail slot. (The Peekaboo Coffee Table, to be specific. And it's great, except that I trip over it all the time, because it's Lucite and I don't see it. But that's not the table's fault.)

The Smart Round Marble Coffee Table ($299) is fantastic. And marble, for that price? I know it's not the fanciest marble, but wow.

Well, shoot. I really loved this coffee table below, but it's not on the website. Could be some things are only available through the stores...that hardly seems fair.


The Go-Cart Two Shelf Table/Media Cart ($149) is another simple, good-looking piece. More industrial, of course, and versatile, as the name implies. This one IS available online.


Let me take this opportunity to say that anything on casters is a really great idea. We have an aluminum cart my mother bought at a restaurant supply store in, oh, must have been the early 80's. (It looks like the one at right, but it's all metal and has a handle for pushing.) Over the course of 17 years (!), I've used that thing in 3 kitchens, a dining room, and 2 porches. It is amazing.

DINING TABLES - AGAIN, PRETTY DARN GREAT

Are we seeing a pattern here? CB2 = very good for tables of all sorts. Here's a close-up of the pretty top of the Tribe Dining Table ($499).


The Silverado Rectangular Dining Table ($299) is a perfect super contemporary table, especially for the price. Don't feel you have to put 6 chairs around a small DR table, by the way. 4 can look better.


I also liked the Darjeeling Dining Table ($899). Maybe because it looks an awful lot like my own DR table.


And the Bobby Dining Table ($399), although you have to be careful when you start getting into tubular steel.


DINING CHAIRS - HERE'S WHERE IT GETS TRICKY

As hinted at above, I may have unearthed a dormant prejudice against tubular steel. But I simply don't like the Echo Chair ($79.95). I can see how it would work in many different situations, but objectively speaking, I just think it looks a little cheap.


Thumbs down also on the Blueprint Chair ($99), which is an awkward ripoff of the Bertoia Side Chair (a Knoll classic, pictured at right). The knockoffs debate is an ongoing one, but the Blueprint is such a clunky interpretation - copy, homage, whatever - that, ethics aside, I just can't get excited about it.



Maybe my bias is against painted tubular steel, because I think CB2's Reed Chair ($119) is lovely. It's almost a cross between Conran and Sundance. I like the organic waviness of the metal weave - and it just looks more comfortable than the Blueprint.


THE BEST OF THE REST

I've ordered a lot of CB2 office furniture over the years, and it's really served my clients and me well. I'm seriously considering the Graph Desk ($299) for my current office.


The Hancock Bookcase ($199) would be great in an office, but I could also see it in a loft dining area. I prefer the orange one, of course.


And the Tesso Bookcase ($299) is very stylish. The unhandy among us please take note: this does need to be attached to the wall. But I think it's worth the trouble. It's great for a living room, sure, but I could also see it in a bedroom.


As for upholstered pieces, I'd say that overall CB2's quality is better than you might expect. Buying upholstered furniture without sitting on it is tough, though, so I'm not going to push you on that.


I hope this is helpful. Back to the cold, hard reality of DC living. Hey...could you imagine if DC got a Jonathan Adler store and a CB2 on 14th Street? I'd never have to leave! Hmmmmm....

Postcard from Miami: Jonathan Adler on Lincoln Road

Move over, Todd Oldham. I have a new design crush.


John and I are on our annual "escape-the-children" weekend in Miami Beach. I had a few hours to myself the other day (John had to catch a later flight down), so after lunch and some pool time, I set out in search of clothes for John. Let's just say that during the course of unpacking, I deemed his wardrobe in need of a little TLC. Or maybe 911.

After spending a small fortune at Base, I stumbled upon a Jonathan Adler store.


We don't have one of these in D.C. (yet*) but of course I've seen his stuff piecemeal...a pot here, a lamp there...

The store was a little slice of heaven.

My initial goal was to check the quality of the merch. When you've mostly seen stuff online or piece by piece, it's hard to tell how well stuff is made. You know?


Well I am here to tell you, Gentle Readers, that the quality is TOP-notch. Really. The lacquered objects are smooth and hard, the needlepoint pillows tight, the furniture solid...

And when you see a designer's things all together and intense like this, you really get a feel for the overall design aesthetic. Fun. Bright. Witty. Useful. Irreverent. How objects should be.


I'm a huge fan of The Office, so you can imagine how tickled I was to find this:


Naturally the guys working in the store could not have been more helpful. They gave me a few wallpaper samples, chatted with me, told me about the designers' trade discount (orders, anyone?). Such delightful guys.



You should check out Adler's Manifesto if you want a little lift. It's perfect.


*Hey, Jonathan Adler marketing people. If I were to personally guarantee that a store on D.C.'s 14th Street - in the company of Mitchell Gold, Room & Board (soon), and Vastu - would be a roaring success, would you open one there? Pretty please? Bossy color will even host the first party.

We need you.

Kid's bedroom makeover (in progress)

New babies are so demanding, aren't they? Always crying, or eating, or wanting their own bedroom...

My clients' 5-year old son graciously agreed to surrender his bedroom to his brand-new baby sister. (Don't worry, he got pretty good digs on the 3rd floor.) Here's the room when it was his:


And here's the room in progress. The wall paint is Benjamin Moore's 2167-60 Sweet Salmon. It looks washed out in my pictures, but it's an absolutely gorgeous, subtle, peachy wall color. Please make a note of it.


We used OC-130 Cloud White for the trim and the ceiling, to keep the overall feeling serene and light.


The clients' requests were few. They wanted a cushy rug. They wanted the room to feel pulled together, they wanted it to survive a transition down the road to a guest bedroom, and they didn't want to spend a fortune. Hmmmm...where to begin...

Why, hello! What are you doing hiding in the husband's office, you comfy, overstuffed, cheery chair and ottoman?


What's that you say? You're lonely? No one sits in you? You're in really great shape, even though you're several years old?

We had to get that chair some love. So we made it the starting point for the nursery. The delicate, "tea-stained" upholstery looks much more vibrant against peach walls. And it was free!


I have you to thank, Gentle Readers, for the rug. You reminded me that Overstock.com can be an excellent rug resource. I couldn't tell from the picture online whether this one leaned more toward camel or green...we were willing to take a chance, though, because either would have worked. Did I mention that the rug is New Zealand wool and was extremely affordable? It was worth the risk. And it was returnable if it had been a total disaster. Luckily though, we all love it.

I'll keep you posted as things progress. But not a bad start, right?

Rug too small? Listen up!

Here's the situation. You have a gorgeous rug that a family member lovingly carted back from Morocco. It looks fantastic in your living room. Everything centers on it. It is the centerpiece of your home.

Then you move.

Suddenly, the rug is too small for your public rooms - living, dining, family. What do you do?

You put it on top of a larger sisal or seagrass area rug. This creates a border around the rug, extending its edges. It tricks the eye into thinking the rug is larger than it is.


If this rug had been placed on top of wall-to-wall carpet, it still would look too small, because you haven't created a border for it. You need to see floor.

Here's how to do this successfully:

- Frame the smaller rug by making the seagrass rug proportionally larger. In other words, if you have an 8 x 10' rug, the seagrass could be 9 x 11', but not 9 x 14'. (You may have to have a rug custom cut. It will be worth it.)

- The larger the room, the wider the seagrass "border," but don't make the underlying rug bigger than about 20" on each side. You don't want to lose the relationship between the top rug and the sisal. A 12-16" border should be good.

- If the top rug has a simple pattern, choose an underlying rug with a small weave.

- If the top rug has an intricate pattern, as shown in these pictures, choose an underlying rug with a larger weave. The noticeable texture complements the busy Moroccan rug beautifully.


Rug saved, room beautified. Or should I say, bossified.

Many thanks to the friends who let me photograph their family room while we were all horsing around in it.