Odi et Amo: House Beautiful / Beautiful Color

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

House Beautiful / Beautiful Color

Since the demise of domino I've been looking for a replacement among the many remaining shelter magazines on the newsstands. After all, I don't want to commit to another magazine subscription unless I'm sure I'll like it. And so far, I'd say the next best thing to domino (that's readily available in the U.S. anyway) is House Beautiful. The March issue, currently out on newsstands, has an amazing spread on color and is definitely worth giving a shot before you write the magazine off as stuffy or unattainable. Besides, that blue kitchen featured above is the second blue kitchen that I've seen this month that I've liked (and is seriously making me rethink my prejudices against painting cabinetry anything but white).

This first image is the bedroom from a home in Montecito, CA, designed by Christina Rottman (which incidentally also features the amazing blue kitchen on House Beautiful's cover). While I question whether or not you can maintain that beige constitutes a color for purposes of a color issue, I absolutely love this room. The dark beams, the gorgeous wallpaper, the barely-there iron four poster bed...simply stunning.

The two images shown above are both taken from the home of antique dealer Ned Marshall in New Orleans, LA, and I think they demonstrate Marshall's mastery of color. Both rooms use rich, saturated tones but avoid feeling oppressive or chaotic because of the rooms' high ceilings, bare floors, and pared down palette. In the entryway, Marshall makes his major statement with the pink couch while the walls and accessories take a supporting role. In the sitting room, the walls are allowed to shine in Hermes' orange, while the furniture and accessories are either neutral or match the walls' hue.

The final house spotlighted in the color feature is the Pennsylvania farmhouse designed by Jeffrey Bilhuber (whose client list includes Anna Wintour, David Bowie, and Peter Jennings -- seriously!). The color palette here is the most intense and incredibly unique. Who would've guessed that kumquat, indigo and eggplant would work so well together? From the painted floors to the bright upholstery, I love it all.

For more pictures and the (for once) really information interviews from all the designers featured in the color issue, pick up a copy of House Beautiful -- and be sure to come back and let me know what you think of the feature, as well as where you fall on the color spectrum (Based on their methodology, I suppose I'm either "deep" or "intense".)