I really, truly appreciated all your thoughtful comments and feedback on my last post. Leopard rug is scheduled to arrive Monday, so more updates on that soon. In the meantime, so many of you asked for the paint color I used in the front room that I thought I should repost it with the name of the color.
It’s Benjamin Moore Dark Harbor, mixed 25% darker.
Let me just take a minute to say that I am a picky mofo. I can tear perfection into a million imperfect pieces. That’s why Sanders is such a gem. In case you just started reading or don’t remember, Sanders is the paint genius who manages my local Benjamin Moore — he’s also the brains behind the Ask Sanders column. Without him I would I have hideous turquoise walls that make me cry angry tears of anger.
If you live in Austin or thereabouts (one reader drove up from San Antonio just to meet with Sanders!), go see him before he starts his own paint consulting empire and starts charging for his advice. He’s that good.
Plus look at his sweet little face! I love me some Sanders.
Moving on: more Dark Harbor pictures. Wish I’d thought to shoot this with a color card so it would be truly accurate, but I think this is close. It goes from navy to almost billiard green, and everything in between.
Can’t believe I am posting this horrible picture, but it’s been raining forever so I haven’t had a chance to reshoot without all the toys. I think I took one picture of this side of the room and gave up because it is a pita to shoot without off camera lighting. Anyway, you can see that DH does go a lot lighter when faced with direct sun.
While we’re all staring at this dumb picture, let’s talk about built in shelving. The front room is teeny tiny, so to save space I really wanted to build a nook around the sofa, kind of like this:
But with far less beige… Anyway, there are two problems. First, the chair rail. Yes, we can remove it, but blending in the texture is going to be a job x infinity. Second, I don’t know if we have enough depth on that side of the doorway — it’s about 12.” Any advice on how to handle this? Ideas?
Once again I am depending on you to solve all of my problems.
Why not get busy with world peace while you’re at it?
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Can’t stop staring at that beautiful room and the paint color. In love.
That is beautiful wall color.
Book shelves are typically only 11″-12″ depth so you could still create the built-ins, they’ll just be a bit shallower than the inspiration image. What if you only removed the chair rail where the shelving would be vertically flanking the sofa, leaving it in the open space between (behind the sofa)? Then you don’t need to worry about matching any exposed wall texture.
Every time you post you talk shit about your picture quality (or something else – decor, etc), and yet each picture looks like it’s straight from a magazine, and each picture just leaves me wanting more. I think you need to set your internal judging meter down by about 1/2 or we will never get to see anything from you! and I love everything in these pictures, the color, the furniture (that chair and couch set are so outrageously awesome), the artwork…
Speak on it, Jenny B…I fully agree!
Looks so good…though I am not familiar with this “pita” expression. Is that auto-correct for “bitch” or am I missing out on some kewl slang?
Love the bookshelf plans. Sounds like R’s idea would be a really good solution.
I want to bathe in Benjamin Moore Dark Harbor (mixed 25% darker haha)…it’s so great!
I agree with R’s idea – keep part of the chair rail where it would be exposed…that way it’s less work for you and adds some more architectural interest (maybe?)
You peoples are so kind! Did I mention that I’m picky? I’m also apt to talk shit about the photo quality in Elle or AD, so my judgmental bitchiness isn’t reserved solely for me. Don’t worry — I would never direct it towards you
Rosie, pita is short for pain in the ass. I guess I need to get off Facebook and the like…
I just double-checked the measurements and I actually have 14.5 inches until the shelf would butt up against the molding. Do you think it would look weird to leave the chair rail floating in between?
I AM missing out on the slang! Obviously, someone needs to spend MORE time on Facebook…
Pry the chair rail off and see how bad the wall looks underneath it — it was probably just nailed on and the wall could be fixed up with a bit of spackle.
The space looks slightly narrow for the bookcase to be fitted — it might be weird to walk into a room and have the bookcase right there with no intervening wall — but.. that doorway looks extra wide, so maybe you could re-frame it to be a little narrower and still make the built-in shelving plus a little transition wall space?
I love that blue color, too — I’m considering paint colors for my teeny fence and that’s on the list — it looks like the color of the bedroom on page 42 of this month’s House Beautiful — a very cute photo of a guy in PJs. (I ripped it out b/c I liked the wall paint color)
My thoughts have mostly been mentioned already – potential for making the doorway a bit narrower so you can fit more shelving? Leave the chair rail in place and cut notches out on the back on the shelves so even if you remove them eventually it’s still all good? To figure out if you’d like it, add some shelves in photoshop with rail in place.
Love that color. It’s more vibrant than the Hague Blue I’ve got going on, which I dig very much. Your photos are great, aykm? Re: the built-in, hmm, that’s a tough one. I like the idea, but can’t tell how much space you would have on either side of your sofa (which is so pretty, btw). I’m not sure how they would look butted up against a doorway, but I maybe a photoshop rendering might help? Sorry I’m not much help. My friend Elizabeth has built-ins just to the left of a doorway but not around any furniture. I’ll see if I can get a photo of it.
Can’t you just install the built-ins right over the chair rail and then scribe them to the wall?
Most built-ins are 12″ deep for uppers, sometimes bases are deeper, but I don’t think you want that look. Do you have 12″ to the jamb, or to the trim? I’d probably do 12″ deep, finish the left side and then add a filler piece to connect to the wall, but do it a few inches back. Does that make any sense at all? If you want to get down and dirty about the details we could layout it out in a floor plan.
Your color looks better and better from every angle and every time you talk about your “bad photography” I want to give up and throw myself off a bridge. (Because I will never be 1/5th as good as you.)
TGIF
You have MAD photography skills – even on your ‘worst’ days!! The colour is FANTASTIC and the furniture is so, so beautiful.
As for the built ins, why not use 12″ kitchen uppers from Ikea? I used them to do a ‘custom’ built in because I could stack them/hang them/mount them directly to the wall etc. I trimmed them out and they look pretty good! I plan on covering the back/sides of the interior with grass cloth. They other thing I like is that you can do solid or glass shelves. Mine all came from the ‘as is’ so they were super cheap.
Email me and I will send you some (really crappy) photos. PS Hope you and the baby are doing okay
Love that color! Love the enclosed by built-ins idea. And my sons love their bilibos ( saw yours on the sofa)
Love the color of the walls. Sanders is a master.You have got the eye.
Your measurement for the book shelves gives you plenty of space. The other thing you can do is start at 12 near the door and then bump out deeper away from the door frame.
Check out bookshelves (know you already have) on Pinterest and on blogs… You pregnant, stylish person, you are going to blow us all away by your cleverness.
mb (from big d) (more rain coming our way this weekend)
don’t hate me, but i vote no nook shelves with your existing sofa. part of the charm of the picture you’ve posted is the boxy-ness of the shelves, contrasted with a fluffy down filled french antique set inside, but with your milo baughman-esque sofa, you’ll be putting a box in a box and it might look like one big funky built-in. could you possibly flank it freestanding etageres? a pair of antiqued gold leaf ones would be stunning against your walls, and would provide a nice contrast to sofa yet still provide storage/display.
loving the floors and the paint color, btw!
Ditto Maison 21 I’m afraid. Sanders rules. So glad you kept Alexis…she’s stunning in that room!!
Christian is a genius. I was really into the built in look, but an airy pair of etageres would save me a lot of trouble. Plus I could move them around if need be.
Alexis (the couch) may or may not stay there. It all depends on what we do with the living room sofas. I also have an Elite camel leather sofa that is super comfy and would look great in there… the scale is not quite as perfect as alexis, though.
Thank you all for your nice comments about my photo “skills.” I guess I will stop complaining about my hand held shots for fear of looking like an asshole. And I promise I will bust out my tripod and lights someday.
Naomi, I have no idea what a scribe is, except for a person who writes things down, so I think we’re even!
straight-up ‘stealing’ that paint colour for my bedroom. TRY AND STOP ME!
I LOVE that inspiration photo. OK, with less beige. But I adore the couch. (See…not a MCM girl. Living in a non-ornate Victorian and have been repressing my ornamentation impulses for far too long.)
My thoughts: 12″ is easily deep enough for built-in shelves. Go measure your bookshelves, you’ll see – they range from 8″ to 12″. With respect to the chair rail – well, supposing you didn’t build a wooden back to the shelves, just had them flush onto the wall (you’re having a carpenter do this, right? If you’re doing it yourself, you might need a board in back to make sure there’s sufficient structural integrity – I know that’s the standard way, but I gather a carpenter could devise an adequate work-around), then you could just space the shelves so that one sits directly on top of the chair rail. The shadow of the shelf above would make it invisible, you wouldn’t have to remove it, and a future owner who wanted chair rail but no shelves would have that option.
Is that a ghetto solution? Also, you people with drywall are WAY oversensitive about the quality of your plaster repair. If I can’t see major grooves in the painted spackle from across the room, I figure I’ve done an A+ job. And if you’re only filling in nail holes, how could you screw it up? Itty-bitty putty knife, itty-bitty can of spackle, itty-bitty sponge to smooth it all out, itty-bitty can of oil-based primer…done.
Should have read the other comments first – so much more clever. Agree about some gold-leaf etageres going better with the style in that room. Or maybe something in the style of those brass-and-glass deco bar carts, but taller?
OMG! I know this guy! I’ve talked to him many, many times re BM paints @ the local Roosters on Congress & Stassney. He looked familiar when I saw the pic then I kept reading.
By the way, I love your wall color…I’m thinking Pashmina by BM for my house….I googled the paint color and came across your blog. I’ll add it to my sidebar to continue reading.
Hey Sandra, Sanders is AWESOME. Seriously — a treasure.
I really liked Pashmina, just chose to go a different direction in the great room. It’s a very pretty, sophisticated color, though.
Good luck!
I found your pictures and fell in LOVE with the wall color. The only problem I’m having though is I went to my local Benjamin Moore store and when I said can I get Dark Harbor, 25% darker. They all looked at me cross eyed. They talked about needing to know the formula, etc etc.
Did you just walk in and say I want it 25% darker? How can I get this?!
Thanks so much, your space is beautiful.
Hi Tiffany, yes — I just asked for it 25% darker and because my paint guy (Sanders) is awesome, it was no problem.
You might try it regular formula first. It shouldn’t be that much lighter… good luck!
what is the trim color brand and name…it’s gorgeous thanks bon
Hi Bon, it’s Benjamin Moore Dark Harbor.
[...] Paint: I think I am still leaning towards Plumage but thinking more of Dark Harbor à la Design Crisis. [...]
I love the Dark Harbor color – rich and beautiful. I unfortunately do not have a Sanders where I live and the staff are generally unhelpful. To ask for the color 25% darker, is that something that they can easily do in store?
Anne, I think so… but DH at regular formula is very pretty, too.