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Design Dilemma: Unusual Interior Paint Choices

More of us are eschewing traditional paint choices at home to go for something a little unexpected. This might mean exchanging basic white ceilings and moldings for ceilings and moldings splashed with bold color. Or it might mean choosing darker colors for walls or going for high contrast paint between moldings and walls. This post is dedicated to the expanding vocabulary of interior paint.

Colored Ceilings

Above, a homeowner has chosen a soft blue for a ceiling instead of the traditional white. The choice, which picks up the blue of the ocean right outside the window, gives this room a soothing yet warm and vibrant quality. If the owner had opted for blue walls, it might have been too much.

Below, another colored ceiling, this time in a soothing yellow ochre, gives a basic, traditional bedroom an edge:

And here, a canary yellow ceiling in a kitchen provides a pop of vibrant color as a relatively cheap and easy alternative to painted cabinets or patterned tile.  The look can be achieved with a $50 gallon of paint over the course of morning.

If you’re interested in the painted ceiling idea and you also happen to have ceiling moldings, consider a high-contrast paint job to highlight moldings. Something like this:

Or this:

Or this:

Moldings Painted Same Color as Walls

Are you looking to create a modern flare in a traditional space? Painting wall moldings the same color as the wall can help your home feel sleek and modern, but with a traditional twist. The look is cleaner than moldings painted a contrasting color, and the eye takes in the entire space at once, which can also make a space feel larger. For example:

Or this:

Or this:

And below,  painting the moldings the same color as the walls actually makes the ceilings feel higher:

Very Dark Walls

In the last few years, dark gray and black walls have been in vogue. In 2015, we’ve heard that blue is the new black, but the idea remains the same. What do dark walls do for a space? In the right room, they can look very glamorous, moody and sensual. We recommend using dark colors in rooms that get lots of light. If you paint a darker room a dark color, you might want to target an area that is used primarily at night — a bedroom or perhaps a TV room.

And this:

And this:

And here, this year’s dark blue:

High Contrast Look

Finally, another bold painting choice is choosing moldings that contrast starkly with wall color. This look highlights architectural detail and provides added interest. For some, the look may be too busy, but when done right, the look can be crisp and classy. For instance:

And this:

And this:

And this:

So if you’re thinking it’s time for a new paint job at home, give some thought to mixing things up. There’s no reason to stick to the tried and true with so many other options out there!

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A Transparent Forest Home at Rupanco Lake

This amazing transparent house overlooking Rupanco Lake, Puyehue in Chile is by Squella Arquitectos.

The house truly blends so well into the surrounding trees so as to disappear entirely.

The roof of the house is entirely constructed of 4′ X 8′ plywood, and the posts separating the glass is similarly, just 4″ X 8″ posts.

The extremely transparent design makes you feel that you are simply sheltering in a forest glad by the lake.

Add to the transparency the extremely elevated ceiling, as if a canopy of trees is all there is far overhead.

With the glazing extending all the way up, the sky is your constant companion.

The extremely minimal furnishings add to the sense that you are not really in a house.

This is the dining table, barely interrupting the forest.

From here you are looking right through the living room.
At the far end, the simplest of wood stores blends in with the vertical quality of the posts and the slender tree trunks outside.

Not shown, but seen in the plan, is a master bedroom and bathroom on the ground floor and two bedrooms housing four children upstairs, above the kitchen.

The side wall of the childrens’ bedrooms can be seen above the kitchen on the left, revealing that this partial second floor is inset above the kitchen, so the upstairs portion is all within the large glass cube.

An extremely bold and well executed plan.

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Distinctive 1950s Eichler Home Remodeled in California

What a wonderful remodel of a signature Eichler Home.

The clients turned to Klopf Architecture to remodel their family home.

Unlike most builders, back in the 1950s, Eichler designed homes with a real aesthetic sense.

In some neighborhoods in California almost every house is an Eichler home, with the distinctive Dutch cap roof and internal courtyard.

These are actually the most beautiful mass-produced homes you could find.

All the more astonishing, Eichler built these at a time when mass produced housing was extremely bland.

So the remodel of this one in in Burlingame, California, consists of minor changes like blending the indoor outdoor transition, by continuing a stone paver inside and out into the courtyard.

And opening up the already generous use of glass in these homes to extend the glazing floor to ceiling.

And of course the huge and unblemished manufactured stone island of the 21st century.

And the generous smooth lines of an induction hob complement the revamped kitchen.

A bench above the washer and dryer subtly update the laundry.

The lightest touch was employed in the bathroom, which does look dated for an Eichler home.

The modest sized 1950s bedroom is another anachronistic touch.

But Joseph Eichler was unusual as home builders go, building homes designed by skilled architects.

Having been privileged to tour inside some of these, I can certainly agree with the accolades they received at the time.