Living Room, Scotts Valley, CA 1
Designers of new homes often don't take into consideration how spaces will be used. Fireplaces get installed in corners where no one could possibly sit and enjoy them and long narrow rooms get tacked to the back of houses and are called “family rooms.” Such was the case for my client who had a veritable bowling alley with a fireplace at the far end. She was interested in new furniture and adding some color to the walls, but she also wondered how to make such a long, fairly unusable space look more inviting— and not so long and narrow. We started with a color palette that speaks to her family roots in Greece: blue and white recall white-washed adobe houses against the blue of the sea and sky. We added black to the palette to give a sense of sophistication and drama. The new white microsuede sofa has a built-in chaise accentuating the width of the room, not its length. The perfect shade of blue helps the walls recede and a reclining black leather club chair adds cozy charm. We replaced the wooden blinds with white ones, while the windows themselves received new hardware and draperies. The black and white Arabesque pattern on the drapes mixes with the chain and paisley patterned pillows (all in the same color palette), producing an Old World, nearly ethnic combination. To finish the room, a new ceiling light and black tripod lamps bring multiple sources of light into the space, highlighting individual areas instead of the entire length of the room.
For dramatic before and after photos, visit:
http://www.jefffioritointeriordesign.com/