Bridget Beari Color Rule #48

Bridget Beari Color Rule: 

Lengthen and Unify the Room with One Color

Sometimes a room needs to feel encompassed by the color without contrasts. The easiest way to accomplish this is by painting the walls and the trim one color. 

Check out these beautiful rooms: 

Peach is becoming big again! 

                                    Photo by Roger Davies image from Housecrush blog. 


                   For a similar color try Bridget Beari Colors No. 20 Dukey Pukey

The next 2 rooms are from Katie Ridder. Your eye travels all the way up the ceiling. The blue green color envelopes the whole room. By leaving the ceiling white, she kept it light and not cave like. Painting the ceiling, trim and walls the same is a whole other rule. 

Big Boy Blue No. 50

A beautiful rich blue for the bookcases and the trim. Gorgeous! 

                                                                   Beebop No. 43

Bridget Beari Color fan decks are available at Bridget Beari Colors website

Tip: I loved this idea for left over coffee. Pour into ice trays and put into almond milk. 
                       It is YUMMY!  ( I guess regular milk would do but we don't drink dairy anymore. Although my friend wants me to start drinking raw milk. I tried it. It was Ok  - maybe tasted a little dirty or earthy? I'm not sold on that yet)

Photo from Dreamtime

Happy Painting.......

Blogfest Day 2

Day 2 of Blogfest started at the 44th floor of the Hearst Tower where we were last year. Supposedly a great view but again it was raining - Bummer! This year's breakfast was hosted by Veranda, House Beautiful and Elle Decor Magazine. 

I loved seeing Daryl Carter, a DC designer on the list of speakers that morning. He invited me to the opening of his new store in DC - I can't wait! 

Here is Cary Kravet of the Kravet Corporation giving the introduction speech for the morning. It is the second time of meeting the Kravet family. It is such a pleasure. 

The panel that day was Newell Turner, editor of House Beautiful with up and coming designers - Michael Herold, Jill Goldberg, Jon Call "Mr. Call" 

My posse:  Karen Swartz of Inspired Designs, and Scott Groome of Savvy Interiors. We had a ball meeting all the celebrity designers. 

A visit to the Elle Decor Concept House at noon. It was a little crowded with everyone in one space. I loved the outdoor space and the fixture of the dining table was one that I just speced for my design job in NYC. 

                                                     I loved the cut out screens! 

Michel Boodro, editor of Elle Decor and Jennifer Powell from Kravet at the Concept House. 

A fantastic lunch at Lee Jofa and then a talk with Alexa Hampton and Ann Maine of Traditional Home. Who knew Alexa was such a straight talker and her favorite word was 

c--------r. Can you guess it? 

There was a contest to pick out your favorite item at B&F and photograph yourself with it. 

Our group really went for it even though we didn't win. Here's Scott as Superman! Flying high with B&F!

                              And Sarah being attacked by the zebra tearsheets!

Cocktails at Baccarat! Did I mention they had the hottest male waiters at this party! 

Baccarat always puts a red crystal on each chandelier. 

I loved meeting my design crush Vincent Wolfe and I love his blog. If you don't follow it, you should. Blog

The day ended with cocktails at the GE Monogram showroom. The best date and fig appetizers! The 6 burner stove was fabulous. 

We went to Sprig that night for dinner!  The biggest burgers and the best tuna over watermelon. Check it out: 

Until tomorrow with Day 3 of Blogfest.....

The Apartment that Booze Built!

Who watched Bethenny Ever After last night? I was dying to see the $5 million apartment designed by Mariette and Brooke Gomez of Gomez & Associates. From what I could see it looked like the mother daughter team made the new apartment look Gorgeous! 

If you watch the show then you know it is all about working, cooking and Bryn, her baby girl. This was to be her dream home but it need to be Skinny Girl headquarters too. She definitely planned to have a office and storage in her new place. I loved the Bravo AV guys taking up closet space for the equipment. 

It was also all about the closet! She was so excited to have a window in the room.

               I don't see the American flag painting she bought from the street vendor. 

Bethenny loves to say that this is house Skinny Girl built. For $100 million sale of Skinny Girl liquors, I would say she could afford her dream house.  Have you tried any of the Skinny Girl cocktails? Skinny Girl

Do you remember the contractor telling her the marble would be $100,000? 

There's that curved wall of the office that was up for discussion. 

What do you think of Bethenny's new pad? 

All photos from Reality Tea

If she buys a second home, I'd love to help!  Hey, Bethenny  - Call me! 

My "A-HA" moment!

My " A-HA" Moment

My moment has to be 16 years ago while driving around Richmond Virginia with fiancé looking at houses. He is 6'5' and I'm 5'4"; he's from a South Caroline beach town and I like older historic homes; he likes big open spaces and I like charm. We were starting to wonder if we would ever agree on a house. 

While driving we happened upon this Greek Revival stucco with an open house sign. It is in a historic neighborhood of RIchmond which appealed to me.  The house was not yellow at the time but white. We walked in the front door and both of us knew this was OUR house! 

When I showed my mother pictures of the inside of the house, she was horrified. Navy trim, peach wall to wall carpet, red moire wallpaper.... It was all very 80's but I could see the beautiful moldings, gorgeous Carrera fireplace covered in soot, and prefect proportions. This was my A-HA moment, a chance to turn a house back into something classic and beautiful. 

By mixing my grandmothers Empire sofa with Barbara Barry chairs, I was able to create a room that evoked a sense of past and present. A custom designed coffee table, snake skin mirror and fire screen give the room a contrast of textures and materials. They are the perfect offset to the quilted ball gown draperies that accentuate the tall windows.   

This house brought together everything we loved: our family antiques, room for our modern art collection, a showcase for my design work, and a sense of restoring history. We have tweaked and changed things throughout the years but this house will always represent my A-Ha moment because it was vision of what could be! It is my studio, my laboratory for  Bridget Beari Colors, and my LOVE! 

I hope you enjoyed a little glimpse into my life and thoughts! Until tomorrow......