How the Navy Introduced Me to Designer Lee Ann Thornton

While researching my last post, looking for images of Navy chairs, I discovered this kitchen nook designed by Greenwich Connecticut-based designer Lee Ann Thornton.

I also discovered that I love her aesthetic and affinity for mixing patterns, textures and styles. Check out the disparate pairings in this small corner alone: distressed table surrounded by mid-century chairs and a vintage-inspired bench dressed with a tailored, contrast piping cushion topped by crisp pillows in contemporary patterns and colors. Add one gorgeous pendant light, a modern botanical and the warm textures of a woven blind and wood flooring and yes, please, I'll move in right now.


And—what luck!—look at the kitchen that comes with the nook. The perfect mix of vintage and contemporary (pressed ceiling + modern stools), cool and warm (fresh green walls + deep brown floors), clean lines and textural details (crisp white cabinets and expanses of marble + woven blinds and baskets). And is that a mud room I spy through the door? If there is also a walk-in pantry somewhere nearby (there has to be, right?), then this is most definitely my idea of kitchen heaven.

More of the same heavenly mix in this seating area. Can you find all of the elements I've already mentioned in this single shot? They're all there.

In fact, it seems that every one of Lee Ann Thornton's designs incorporates the same elements even when the look is decidedly different. Here, a living room in soft blues, neutrals and bits of the sea and chinoiserie.

Another living space in periwinkle and white with hits of chocolate, a tropical touch of seagrass and bamboo, and an unexpected zebra or three.

And here, the boldest, brightest pattern-mixing-est room of them all: a casual family space in summery, sea-worthy blues and whites.

To see a bit more (honestly, I've stolen—um, borrowed—more of her images than I probably should have), visit Thornton Designs here. There is also a lovely interview with the designer here. I am so impressed with and inspired by the designs of Lee Ann Thornton... and so happy that the Navy sent me her way.

May Flowers, Green Weekend

The delicate, sweetly-fragranced lily of the valley is the traditional birthday flower for those of us born in the month of May. Its botanical name, majalis, even means "that which belongs to May". A symbol of spring and rebirth, bunches of these tiny flowers are sold in the streets of France on May Day (May 1st). In the language of flowers used by florists and wedding planners, common meanings for this lily include "return to happiness", "purity of heart", "sweetness" and "you've made my life complete". I have a card hanging in my office that my husband gave me years ago. On the cover is a beautiful bouquet of lilies of the valley. I think he was telling me—however unwittingly—that I make his life complete! (Right, Honey?)


The legend of the lily of the valley's origins is that it sprang from Eve's tears when she was sent out of the Garden of Eden. It is in some places believed that this flower protects gardens from evil spirits, and in Ireland, the plant is known as "fairy ladders" because of the way the bell-shaped flowers hang down from the stem like stair steps. I also think the flowers would make excellent fairy hats. This particular lily is a woodland plant native throughout the cool temperature regions of the Northern Hemisphere in Asia, Europe and the Eastern US. They would never survive here in the arid foothills of Southern California. I wouldn't be surprised though if some intrepid botanist has designed a hybrid I don't know about. If so, even I could have my very own fairy garden. Do you have these little pretties in your garden?


While writing this post, the white flowers and green foliage in the pics above reminded me of the following scenes from the latest Design Within Reach catalog. . .

. . .white lawn chairs on cool green grass, dockside Adirondacks, crisp green upholstery on a patio overlooking the ocean, grassy green tableware under a wide white umbrella. . . all images of terrific ways to spend any part of this long holiday weekend—a "return to happiness" for those who've waited patiently for summer to officially begin.

Happy Birthday to all of you May babies out there!

And Happy Weekend to us all!!

This post marks the last in my "flower of the month" series—which means I've been writing this blog for an entire year now! They've been fun for me and I hope you've enjoyed them too. To review the entire year in flowers, click here.

And we lived happily ever after...

Bailey has come home to live with me! I mean us. Saturday morning we sped down to the Pottery Barn Outlet, swiped my debit card so fast it almost melted, hurriedly loaded my—I mean our—new coffee table into the back of the Rodeo, and headed for home. But before we left the parking lot, I snapped a pic of Bailey tucked in all safe and sound. That's my hilarious husband, above, sticking his arm in through the passenger door. And I have to say, to him and to you, that he has been such a good sport throughout this "ordeal". Once he realized just how much I loved Bailey, and was adequately reassured that I do indeed love him more, he was totally on board with the idea of a new table.

Ta da!!! Bailey's new home, above—so much better than the demoralizing cold concrete floor of an outlet store. Having taken on the exact duties of the old oak table—same books, flowers, basket of magazines, bowl of balls and clock—Bailey delivers an even more than expected amount of cheer and charm to a space that was already pretty happy. But not in a way that's too obvious. It's as if Bailey has been here all along. Aside from all the obsessing and hand-wringing, it was a seamless transition. As if it was meant to be.

Inspired by the addition of Bailey's fresh green-ness, I did a little pillow shopping this weekend as well. The spiffy number above if from Pier 1. Its mossy green, curvy cotton jacquard pattern is a perfect complement to Bailey and a nice juxtaposition to the graphic checks of my red reading chair. If you haven't taken a look at the toss pillows at Pier 1, I suggest you do. There are so many colors and styles from which to choose, I'm sure you'll find something that suits your space. And I do advise you to see them in person before you buy. Colors on their website are not always true, and you'll want to feel the fabrics before committing to something you'll be curling up with at home. Their quality is quite often a nice surprise, most have zippers for ease of cleaning and some, like mine, have feathery down inserts. If the pillow you choose does not, it's simple to insert your own if that's the look and feel you prefer. If you hurry, you can take advantage of the currently reduced prices on past season selections as well as a sale going on now that includes many of their new designs. My pretty new pillow cost less that $24.00.

Another serendipitous bargain was this red toile pillow cover, above, that I found in the markdown baskets at my local Pottery Barn (not the outlet). It's a cotton print with soft velvet welting and was a whopping $13.00. A 20" down insert I already owned fluffed it up so it could join its new friends on the sofa.

As wonderful as it is to have Bailey home, it's been equally wonderful to hear from so many of you!

Thank you so much!

...for your advice and encouragement... for allowing me to be completely ridiculous without judging me as such... for recognizing that even us designer types can become paralyzed when it comes to making decisions for ourselves... and for playing along. It was so much fun waking up each day to a few more comments and emails! Next time I'm faced with such a perplexing dilemma, I know exactly where to go to find help!

For any of you still wondering, here are answers to some of your questions:

1) No, the mean ladies at the PB outlet would not let me borrow Bailey "on approval". Okay, it's not really their fault. PB apparently has an unbending policy with regard to their clearance furniture... it's priced to move out the door and that's where they want it to stay.

2) Bailey is exactly the same size and shape as "old oak"—42"Wx18"H (So what was my problem right? Remove ugly, insert pretty. Sounds so easy.)

3) Bailey fits nicely within the confines of my big white sectional... its round shape is perfect for scooting around to find your seat.

4) Many of you expressed concern that I would regret forever not bringing Bailey home. I'm positive you were right.

See how nice Bailey looks in the photo above holding my laptop and coffee mug? That's where I did my email and blog reading this morning. Many thanks again to all of you who helped make that beautiful moment possible!

It's Not So Easy Being Green

Seems I'm a bit hyper-focused on chairs these days. Recent posts about clutter and tomatoes, (of all things), featured chairs and here we go again...

This ladder back chair has lived with me for almost twenty years. It was purchased two homes ago to act as the desk chair in my then freshly remodelled kitchen. It's a late-80's antique repro of sorts. It is not really very special and was certainly not expensive. But it is well-built and it has worked hard. At desks, in two kitchens, in one bedroom, as an extra at the dining table and now, it resides in my entryway. It collects handbags and mail and is the "on deck" spot for all things ready to leave the house, including not-so-patient children. It assists with shoe tying, light bulb changing, grocery toting and occasionally serves as a cat bed. It has never not been up to the assigned task. Considering all this, I suppose my ladder back is pretty special after all.
Looking at it one day in all its basic brown-ness, I decided it deserved a treat. A "thank you". A happy-color face-lift. There is, after all, enough brown in this house what with all the oak and walnut on the floors and most of the furniture. A pretty, friendly color just inside the front door might be a more pleasant way to greet guests. Something like one of the examples above from Maine Cottage Furniture. These Edna chairs are modeling four of MCF's standard colors: Moss, Sun, Spruce and Celadon. After lots of thought and looking around my house for color inspiration, this is where I started to narrow my choices.

I was pretty sure I wanted a blueish-green, but I entertained the idea of yellow for a moment as there is a lot of golden yellow in both the living and dining spaces that can be seen from the entry. (The panel above, via countrycurtains.com, will stand in for the golden checks in my living room) But yellow, I decided, would be too bold, jump out at me too much as I entered the front door. The color should be quieter. I wanted it to say "Hi! This is a fun, happy house" without looking like it came from an actual funhouse.

So green with a hint of blue it would be. A jadeite sort of green. I would mix the paint to match one of the bowls in my kitchen. Out from the storage shed came pots of paint in all the various hues and shades I thought I needed in order to achieve my ideal color. I mixed and mixed, and along the way, decided I liked a little more blue in my green. So I mixed and mixed and came up with a color I loved. I began to paint. The more I painted, the more I loved it. My chair was looking happier with each stroke of my blue-green brush. And it looked great there in my kitchen surrounded by all the other vintage greens and yellows. Over the course of two days, I brushed two full coats on every surface of my chair. When it was dry enough to touch, I carefully lifted it by its finials and tippy-toed it out to the entry. And knew immediately that I had made a terrible, too-bright, aqua-blue mistake.

Not that I have anything against aqua. But seeing my chair in its place by my front door made me think of these interiors, above, by Maine designer Tracey Rapisardi. I love her work. But everything about her work that is so good—bright, clean, beachy colors—is all wrong for my house where the colors are more muted, aged, "dirtier" as Maria might say. Especially in my entry and living room, where the light is lower and softer than in my kitchen, my new minty-fresh ladder back stuck out like a sore thumb. See for yourself. This photo, below, is the only one I can bring myself to show you. Oh sure, it's a pretty color. But wrong, wrong, wrong in this space. I should have tested the color in the room at some point instead of forging ahead and assuming that, because I loved it, it would look right. That's what I get for being in a hurry.

So back to the paint pots I went. Pour, pour. Mix, mix. Add a little bit of yellow to the base green this time. A little bit of brown too. And not quite so much blue. Using a piece of kitchen pottery that is more sage than jadeite as a guide, I came up with a new green that, in the kitchen, looks almost grey and very pale. But out in the entry... we have a winner!

The color is something between the original jadeite I was looking for and the aqua that turned out to be a mistake. It's softer and quiet and a little earthy. It says "Hi! Can I take your bag?" without shouting. In the pic below, you can see how the green works with the colors in the living room as you peek over the back of the sofa. Green is a minor element in this space, but there is a lot of it in the adjoining kitchen and dining areas. A little green in this room adds continuity to the overall look of my home's decor.

Now, if you think this is an awful lot to say about one chair and one color decision, you should read Maria's latest post over at Colour Me Happy. Maria writes about the decisions and actions that take place when designing and ordering the fabrication of a single custom pillow. It's a lot like the process I went through to decide on the color of this chair. Although, if I'd sent the chair to a painter rather than painting it myself here at home, it would have been a much longer process—not to mention more expensive due to my poor first choice. Every interior design project is like that. A string of decisions sets in motion any number of actions. Each action requires its own record and review and approval before the next action can be taken. Multiply this by however many elements are changing in your space: flooring, wall color, sofa, chair, table, a lamp or two, rugs, pillows. . . and so on until your room is complete. It's a lot of work, even when you've been specially trained to do it, even when you have a lot of experience, and especially if any mistakes are made along the way. But the hard work pays off when you end up with something like my prettier, happier green chair.

Image of jadeite dinnerware via thepioneerwoman.com, Tracey Rapisardi interiors via bhg.com. See more of her work at searosedesigns.com

BLUE + GREEN. A Question Asked and Answered.

Among the comments on my last post, The Bluest Blue, was a question regarding accenting blue with green. I asked "Anonymous" to get back to me with more details... how the room is to be used and by whom, is the blue in question the same bright cobalt I was featuring, how should the room feel i.e. calming, energizing, etc. Unfortunately, I didn't get any more information about what 'Anonymous' is really looking for. And since there are so many questions to be asked and answered, it's difficult to make a real recommendation in this format. I can only attempt to answer in a very broad way with a bunch of photo examples. Here is my response. I hope it helps.

Dear Anonymous:

You are in luck! You could not have asked this question at a better time. Right now, the summer issues of shelter magazines are full of images combining all shades and hues of blue and green. I suggest that you run! immediately to your local bookstore or newsstand and buy these three: August House Beautiful, July/August Veranda and July/August Southern Accents. Here's a sampling of what you will find inside each.

This photo from House Beautiful is my favorite image from all three of these issues. It's a painting by Sarah Graham in the room designed for the Kips Bay (NY) Decorator Show House by the incomparable Bunny Williams. The jewel tones of the art and the wall it's hung on could inspire so many beautiful rooms. The thing is though, this room isn't really all blue and green as this photo might suggest.

Here's another view of the same room. Leading me to say that if you love the idea of using blue and green together but not to the exclusion of any other colors, I don't think I've ever seen a prettier, richer example of how to do it. The caramels and browns and bright tangerine balance the intense turquoises and greens on the walls and in the artwork. You really must see all the photos and read the text to even begin to understand how beautifully well this room works. Bunny is the best.

This next series of images show rooms that do use blue and green exclusively. What you should notice is how the use of neutrals around the blues and greens helps set the tone of the room. This summery beach house bedroom, for example, uses bright white to accent the yellow-greens and watery blues which keeps the room bright and happy... perfect for young children.

This more grown up bedroom also uses white as the neutral background and accent but here it's a softer white and there are some creamy off-whites and golden accents on picture frames and such to warm the space. The combination of periwinkle blue and apple green doesn't lose it's fun punch though.

This third blue and green bedroom is more sophisticated. There are fewer and more subtle patterns. The blues and greens are more subdued and far outweigh the white accents thus lending a darker, cozier feel. The golden tones of the carpet have a grounding influence and relate to the brown undertones of the olive green walls.

In other rooms, blue and green are used in ways that might not make them the star of the show, but certainly they play an important role in tying things together. This tiny photo doesn't begin to do justice to this room designed by Joe Nye, also in the current House Beautiful (an outstanding issue this month!). In what initially looks like a jumble of objects and patterns, you'll notice the unifying colors of blue and green: screen, end tables, lamps, lampshade, pillows, and little bits here and there among the books and art.

In Southern Accents, designer Juan Montoya used blues and greens and creams in the upholstery and carpet to great effect. Not only do they accent the fantastic textile art on the wall, I think they also serve to cool down the golds and coppers that, alone, might read a bit too warm in this Florida home.

Artwork is a great place to find color inspiration. And it doesn't have to be art that you actually have in your home. A photo like the one below of the Apalachicola River, found in Southern Accents, might inspire a room like the one that follows.

The variety of blues in the sky and water can all be found in this room designed by Janie Molster, also featured in this month's Southern Accents. The strip of gold/green/brown land between water and sky can be found in the wood paneling and green upholstery and accents. You might also notice that the river photo and the room both feel much more masculine than feminine.

Here's a photo I used in a previous post. It doesn't get more summery than this. Blue skies, sandy whites and the mixed up blue/green/aqua of the ocean.

And here's the room, from Veranda, I think it could inspire. Furniture that looks like driftwood, sandy travertine floor, airy space-expanding white all around and just enough watery seaglass-colored accessories to perfectly mimic your memories of a day at the beach.

Finally, two images from House Beautiful's "The Home Book" that are not for the faint of heart or commitment-phobic. If you really love blue and green and are willing to go all the way in a big way, follow the example set by these two rooms. The first is a super mod living room with a wall mural straight out of a Southern Colonial mansion... if it weren't for the overly vibrant hues. The second is a kitchen... quite probably the biggest remodel investment you might make in your home. This is a blue and green combo you're going to live with for many years and, if it pleases you, I say go for it!

So, Anonymous, there you go! I hope this post at least sets you on your way to discovering which blues and greens you like together and which ones you might want to use in your current decorating project. The only thing I'll add is "keep your eyes open". Look everywhere for inspiration... books and magazines of course, but also notice the artwork you pass in a hallway, the colors in your neighborhood gardens, clothing and window displays at the mall... color inspiration can come from anywhere. Good luck and have fun!

All photos from the three magazines and the book specified in the text with these exceptions: first and third bedrooms are from countryliving.com, second bedroom from House Beautiful April 2009, and beach photo is from an unknown site on Flickr.