THE GREAT OUTDOORS

THE CLEAN UP

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We recently enjoyed our first outdoor dinner party of the season with perfect California weather!  Getting the garden and patio back into shape from Winter is always a daunting task, especially when it seems like every leaf from every tree from miles around has decided to land in your backyard.
 Along with all the dirt.

BEACH HOUSE NEUTRALS

Sometimes I feel that we are overdone here in the OC.  We have the ocean close by, the warm sand between our toes, ocean breezes to cool our summers, palm trees punctuating our neighborhoods and a surf board in every garage - but our homes look like carbon copy Spanish villas with red tile roofs and stucco walls and our interiors bear no resemblance to the coastal region we pay so dearly to be near.  

TRUE GRAY

NO UNDERTONES IN MY GRAY, PLEASE

Gray.
Bleak.
 Gray Day. Stormy Gray. Misty Gray. 
Cement Gray. Concrete Gray. 
Gray Hairs. Cold Gray. Plain Gray.
 You're looking a little Gray.  
Old and Gray.  
Gray Matter.  Gray Area. Gray Cloud.
Gray seldom has positive connotations.

Gray alone can be cold, hard, unemotional, sterile.

Kind of like concrete.

Or Rocks.
And yet, it is currently the most loved color in home decorating

BENJAMIN IN THE BEDROOM

GOING NUTS....

Wall color can drive you nuts.
The perfect tan can turn pink or orange.  That lovely pastel green suddenly looks minty.  The beige you picked is fleshy.  The yellow you loved takes on a sickly green tinge.  What looks perfect in the paint store often looks quite different in the light of your own home.   Samples are the answer, and you should never put paint on your walls without trying it out first.  I use poster board or foam core board, 2 coats with a good 2-3 inch border of white around the outside (so the color on your wall now won't influence the color you want it to be).   I use poster board so I can move it around the room and see it in different light.  No more minty, fleshy, orange-y, sickly colors.  No more nuts.

ACCENT WALLS

NEWLYWEDS

Every room needs a focal point. 

There are obvious architectural focal points in some rooms.

Other rooms need to have one created

Paint is an excellent way to create a focal accent.

Accent walls shouldn't be overdone, but sometimes they are the perfect solution

to make an otherwise architecturally uninteresting room

a lot more interesting