Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Warm and Lovely


On the heels of last week's post about a fantastically curated Midtown townhouse, I thought I'd post another great house I was privileged to get a look into for My New Home, a feature I write weekly for The Commercial Appeal.

This family was so gracious, so gorgeous, and their house is warm, inviting, beautiful and highly reflective of them, which is always my favorite thing about a house.

One of the very best features of this home's design was the bold decision the homeowners made to put a deep, rich, foresty brown on the dining room walls. The key to pulling that off successfully, in my opinion, is to punch it up with dramatic, colorful artwork, and they did this with the bright abstract cityscape visible through the open doorway from the living room. You can't see it in the photo (which ran with the article and was taken by freelance photographer Justin Shaw), but the draperies framing the window in this room are an eye-popping apple green. Trust me when I say the effect is not shocking, but lovely. (Yes, I just said "lovely." It's my English heritage coming out.)

Another thing the homeowners got right was the overall color palette. Wall colors throughout the house flow seamlessly, with a soft taupe in the hall that flows to a deeper taupe in the living room, then to the deep brown of the dining room, then to a soft blue in the kitchen that makes a stylish transition from the browns.

I enjoyed being in this house very much.

Monday, June 7, 2010

Midtown Chic




OK, I said a while back I was going to start posting stories and stuff related to my writing. Have I done it? No, not at all. Sooooo, better late than never, right?

I write these weekly features for The Commercial Appeal called My New Home, and although it's not always easy to find willing and able homebuyers every single week to profile....

(If anybody reading this knows anybody who's bought a Memphis-area home in the past 12 months and might want to be featured, please post a comment or send me a facebook message!)

....I love writing these stories. One, just about every buyer has an interesting story lurking under the surface, and two, poking around people's houses and getting a peek into their lives is so much fun. Last week, I wrote about a really nifty, quirky Midtown condo. The owner collects, well, pretty much EVERYTHING, but instead of looking junky, his place looks what I would call "curated." It doesn't hurt that he's the visual manager for the East Memphis Macy's store. He knows what he's doing. At any rate, here's a link to the story:

http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2010/jun/06/vintage-midtown/

And here's one of the pics that ran with it. This is his master bedroom, and the main items to note are the afghan folded over the end of the bed (its significance is mentioned in the story) and the original art on every wall. A lot to learn here for anybody who calls him/herself a collector.






 
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