The grandest great room or the greatest grand room? You decide.
In April of last year I got a call from Kathy in Johns Creek who needed help. It seems she noticed a snag or two in the window treatments in her keeping room which made her wonder if she needed to have new ones made. But that presented a problem. This particular fabric, which was in a number of rooms in this huge home, closely blended to the tannish brown wall color, which was also everywhere. If she redid the window treatments, she didn’t want to be bound by the same wall color. What was she to do?
I’m sure you can guess what I recommended. Paint.
As we began walking from room to room so that I could get a feel for the house, we turned the corner on the side hallway and I was suddenly face to face with the grandest great room I’ve ever seen! Take a look:
Folks, this is only a small portion of the room. Please notice the wall color which was throughout the house on the main floor.
If you know how big a grand piano is, you are beginning to get a sense of the enormity of the room. Also, notice the rug in the photo above. We drew our color palette from the rugs and artwork.
Here you can see the window treatments I described earlier. They are a tannish brown “earthy” color that blends with the room color. (Please forgive my poor photography, but you get the idea.)
Also, notice in this photo what a masterful job Kathy did with decorating this room by sectioning it into smaller units. There are several sitting areas, the piano/music area, a game or eating table space and other vignettes not shown here. Decorating tip: any time you have a large space, this is how to treat it — subdivide the room into smaller useful areas.
I was absolutely shocked by the size of this space. It was a complete surprise gaging by the exterior of the home. But as we walked and looked, I began to formulate a plan for the color palette.
Kathy’s home needed color. She had beautiful traditional, antique furnishings throughout the home. As you can see in the photo above, the rugs had lots of blues and greens. Her lovely artwork had more blues and greens. Those colors were dominant. I thought it best to go with a soft green on most of the walls because she had so many blue and white decorative elements, such as plates which were hung on the walls, urns, pictures, etc. I recommended Softened Green SW 6177, which she went with in most areas.
Here are a few shots taken after the room was painted:
The fireplace was initially painted Softened Green. Kathy and her husband, David, had me come back to take a look at it after the fact. We all agreed it needed to be separated from the rest of the wall with another color. I recommended Porpoise SW 7047, a dark gray to pick up on the dark tones in the stone, but they chickened out on the dark hue and went with something lighter, which is what you see above.
In this photo you can see how the Softened Green plays well with all the furnishings, fabrics and rug. See how excited Beudreaux (the dog) is about the new paint color!
There are a few more spaces I would like to share with you. See the alcove below which is a space unto itself joining the great room with the master bedroom?
I commented to Kathy on the exquisite antique cabinet and my frustration over the fact that it didn’t show up at all against the wall color. She agreed. We selected Rainstorm SW 6230 to punch it up a notch or two.
What a difference! Now that fabulous piece of furniture is properly displayed. We also used Rainstorm in the powder room.
I LOVE this color and have specified it several times lately for dining rooms. It’s so rich.
We changed it up a bit in the beautiful master bedroom. Here is the “before” shot:
I loved the fabrics in the room and was especially carried away by the “peacock” rug, which she found in an online search.
Gorgeous! Based on the fabric seen above on the bench and the blue/green tones in the rug, we went with Sea Salt SW 6204, one of my favorite Sherwin-Williams colors.
My photography does this pretty room such a disservice. Hopefully, you can see how going with the Sea Salt made quite a difference.
And the final transformed space I want to share with you is the dining room.
This traditionally furnished room is beautiful any way you look at it, but I thought adding a rich color would bring it out even more. The chair fabric was our inspiration:
Since there was already a lot of deep red in the room, we wanted to bring out the blue/green. I suggested Moody Blue SW 6221.
And here it is in the room:
I want to thank Kathy (and David) for introducing me to the grandest great room I’ve ever seen and for allowing me to help them transform their beautiful home through color.