Creating a Palette

We committed to our first color selection last night and it's got me thinking about the initial decisions we made when approaching the task of doing all the finish work in our new house. There are so many elements that have to flow together. We wanted to be true to our design style but we also recognized the need to be true to the houses construction and time as well. These first decisions are so important because they set the tone of the entire house. They're things you aren't likely to change either!

Here are a couple things we considered:

Trim Color: Before choosing a trim we looked at our windows. Currently, they are aluminum, but will be replaced with white. Our hardware is dark so we looked at white, dark and the potential trim all together to make a decision. We selected a creamier trim as opposed to a crisp white so they would all mesh.

Hardware: The main choices here were nickel, chrome and oil-rubbed bronze. Flipping through my favorite home magazines to see what hardware was used in the rooms I loved, it was oil-rubbed bronze! Something I learned about oil-rubbed bronze, it's considered a living finish and is actually mildly oily to the touch and will mature with age and use.

Millwork (moldings, casings, baseboards,doors, etc.): Here we really considered the time period in which the home was built and its specific design trends. I guess you might define the final style as shaker-colonial. The house was built in the late 60's so we didn't want to get too traditional, but I still love some softer, curvy lines. The wainscot is a dressed up shaker and the doors are pretty traditional, but soft and pretty too.

Floorings: We thought a lot about what each space is used for as well as how much traffic it gets. Of course cleaning was also taken into consideration. For example, I love travertine, but I wouldn't dare use it in a heavily trafficked area like the foyer because it is too porous and I don't want to have to clean it all the time! We settled on a glossy full-bodied porcelain instead.

Which brings me to some specific decisions we made on this house, after going through all these considerations we chose the following:

Trim Color: Sugar Dust Miller Paint

Hardware: Schlage oil-rubbed bronze, ah... it's timeless! We chose levers in the "Accent" style. They are the same levers we put in our last fixer and I love the look, feel and utility of them.

Millwork: Jeldwin molded interior doors, Continental, more to come on wainscott, mantels, casings, crown, headers and base boards.

Flooring: more to come