Decorate Your Walls With Gum!

Now that I have your attention…the famous gum wall at Pike’s Market in Seattle is indeed colorful, but maybe not how you want to dress yours. However, there are many colorful alternatives to paint in order to add color, and especially texture to your walls. Wallpaper, fabric or tile probably first come to mind. Yes, these are good choices, but let’s go a step beyond and consider options made from natural materials.

First, there is stone, which can be presented in a myriad of ways, including, but not limited to a smooth texture,

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or pieced into a beautiful mosaic,

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or even rough.

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What about glass? No matter its application, glass adds a nice reflective value.

This wall partition adds subtle translucent color,

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while this glass wall makes an artistic statement.

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Personally my dream house will one day have interior columns made out of giant glass prisms to scatter colorful light. How's that for the ultimate?

And ah, metal! Metal can be salvage yard cheap or Tiffany expensive. Think how many different looks one could achieve with the use of metal from a rusty metal wall to a contemporary shining silvery showcase. Scottish designer, Niki Fulton’s enlightening post expounds on the dynamic effects of metallic surfaces.

Here are two contrasting looks, from the industrial,

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to the refined elegance of gold leaf.

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I was taken by this metal exterior on a new distillery on the Fremont canal in Seattle. It could just as easily be used in an interior.

photo by Elizabeth Brown

We can't leave out wood and wood paneling, either solid or veneer. As a color consultant,I often specify a veneer to cover some existing unsightly wood as in a mantel, a beam or ledge when painting is not an option. Again, any look can be achieved, sleek...

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or rustic.

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This is only the tip of the iceberg because, yes, some walls are made of ice.

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What other alternatives can you think of? Decoupaging your bathroom with your Halloween candy wrappers is NOT an option!

Call me and let's discuss all the ways to we can successfully use color in your space!

ebrown@eb-color.com 206-353-0454 eb-color.com

Can Color Predict The Winter?

I just spent a wondrous week in New York with my time divided between NYC and a bucolic setting upstate on beautiful Seneca Lake. In Manhattan, I window shopped, soaking up color palette inspiration. Fur coats were on display everywhere, reminding us of a winter that will soon be overtaking us.

But it was THIS fur coat that really sent me… the one belonging to the Wooly Bear caterpillar, another harbinger of winter. As he crept along the road, I did my best to measure the width of brown versus black in his fuzzy corpulence. According to folklore, the wider the brown, the milder the winter. If you believe this legend, this little guy says it’s going to be mild. Are you convinced of this? I'm not, but the notion certainly bestows the warm fuzzies.

photo by Elizabeth Brown

I’m not a meteorologist, I’m a color consultant. I can’t accurately predict the weather in Seattle, but I do foresee the perfect palette tailored just for you.

ebrown@eb-color.com 206-353-0454 eb-color.com

Six Degrees of Separation

Recently there was an inquiry from Germany from my website contact form that read as follows:

Dear Sirs,

for the renvation of a "Royal Suite" in the hotel "Intercontinetal Genf" the interior designer Tonychi, New York, chose some colours which numbers are not known at us.
Those are: ELKHORN AF-105, WHITE DOWN OC-131, VAN DEUSEN HC-156, CITRUS BURST 364 and SPACE BLACK 2119-10.Please send us a colour sample of each .

Thank you very much.

Best Regards

G. Müller
Project Mananger

Did he just say Tony Chi? The celebrated New York designer? Be still my beating heart! Now, why they just didn't contact his firm for said information is beyond me. I was happy to oblige, send along the swatches and relish the six degrees of separation. And how did they find me? Easy… Google search. I've specified this Benjamin Moore color, "Elkhorn" a couple of times.

As an accent wall for a living room:

photo by Elizabeth Brown

And as the body of an exterior:

photo by Elizabeth Brown

This happy occurrence was a gift. I became privy to a cutting edge palette specified by an urbane designer without leaving my office. The specified colors were “Elkhorn”, “Citrus Burst”, Van Deusen Blue, White Down and Space Black.

I was so taken by them, they inspired an Etsy treasury entitled “Citrus and Midnight”.

What do you think?

Whether you're urbane or folksy, live in the city or the country, and you're seeking professional assistance in assembling your own unique palette, call me for a color consultation and we'll make it work.

206-353-0454 eb-color.com ebrown@eb-color.com

Elisabeth Louise Vigee-Lebrun...A Remarkable Colorist

Elisabeth Louise Vigee-le Brun. Sigh. My mentor, my idol, my goddess, Marie Antoinette’s favorite portraitist. And although she lived in the 18^th century, she still whispers in my ear.

Upon making my first acquaintance with Elisabeth at the Louvre eleven years ago, we’ve been fast friends ever since. There I was, meandering the rooms of the second floor of the Sully Wing, in total rapture drinking in such an embarrassment of riches only to be stopped dead in my tracks by the painting below, one of her many self portraits. Look at the sheer perfection of the composition, the exquisite color palette with its subtle passages, all the while expressing such expressive warmth.

And then, I saw this beautiful gem.

After that, I was hooked, happily undertaking pilgrimages to view her masterpieces whenever I was so fortunate -to the Kimball Art Museum in Ft. Worth, Texas,

The National Gallery in London,

The Uffizi,

Her life was as full and colorful as her paintings and her biography is a fascinating read.

A great site to view all of her work and learn everything Vigee -Lebrun is Batguano.com. (Why a site devoted to this amazing woman is referenced to bat droppings is beyond me, but what’s in a name, right?)

I appreciate beautiful colors wherever I may find them and as a color consultant, would love to help you with yours.

Elizabeth Brown 206-353-0454 eb-color.com

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