Time.  It’s such a funny thing.  I should have had this palette picked a decade ago.  When we jacked the old house up and poured its first ever foundation, I should have kicked it into high gear.  After the electrical was done – what about when the HVAC was installed?  The installation, boarding, and plastering should have been a red flag that I was now – dangerously behind schedule.  But it was summer and my mind was on other things.

Left:  Benjamin Moore’s Maple Leaf Red  Right:  Benjamin Moore’s Mineral Ice

Time to fish or cut bait.  I like my projects to have a cohesive color palette.  Not ever designer agrees with this philosophy, and I certainly don’t adhere to a minimalist all white, all beige aesthetic, rather I like to choose moments that I introduce a theme color or paper into a room.  Here’s where the struggle comes in for me.  The front door color – Nantucket Red was selected by my sister Mary Beth.  I love it, but in truth, it isn’t the way I would have gone.  Now I feel beholden to it – a need to bring it inside, and I am not at all certain how I will do that.

Plaster Perfection.  Smoothing out the rough edges.

The exterior is a pale gray – my favorite, and a lovely compliment to the Nantucket Red.  I am going to push for gray on the interior walls – pale, and in keeping with a neutral, but I have 3 bathrooms, and 4 bedrooms to design.  I am leaning toward using the Nantucket Red as a small, complimentary accent in each of the rooms.  It might come in the form of an accent wall that’s papered.  It might be hidden on the interior of a closet – painted walls or shelves, a pretty little pillow, a throw, a vase, the grosgrain ribbon detail at the bottom of the roman shade.  All to be determined, but I like where that’s going – you?

Hygge and West . Mermaids in Coral

Now I need to settle on the primary palette for each of the rooms.  The living room wants to be splashed in Benjamin Moore’s Mineral Ice.  Jo-Jo will accuse me of being a one trick pony, but finding that perfect gray took years off my life, and now that I know it exists, I can’t un-know it.  It’s begging to be recognized in all its subtle perfection.  And besides, this isn’t about me – the living room is making the decision – it’s the one that has to live with it.  Come to think of it, it’s neighbors – dining and kitchen have to live with it too.  They flow one into the next so really do need to share their colors. I could fall in love with a dark, dark navy for the secondary color in these rooms.  Maybe hang the painting of the fishing vessels I got at the Nice Flea Market in France on the wall.  It has a fisherman wearing that signature Nantucket Red.

Brahms Mount in Coral

Share your thoughts with me.  Don’t leave me hanging to make the decision alone. Jo-Jo is tough, she’ll shoot it down, and then where will we be?

Happy Sunday.