Three features in my house that you can have too; and more!
I hesitate to hold up my house or decorating as an example, but I know from what people say that they have a certain nice feeling about it, even though my ways are so random; nor do I exert all my efforts to bring any of about (granted, the kitchen was a big exertion, but there are so many things I put off around here that I wouldn’t, if decorating were my profession or something I was hoping to “influence” with!).
This house of ours is not the usual sort of house, and I’m very aware of that. We definitely stumbled into it and are grateful for its beautiful features, that are mostly due just to when it was built, that make it special.
When I was showing the contractor for the kitchen renovation (a really skilled finish carpenter) some of my trim in other rooms, he sort of said, “Yeah, there was a guy and he just made all that.” In other words, a bygone day we’ve now gotten priced out of.
Nevertheless, I’ve learned some things from this house and I want to share them, because you can do them in your house too!
I think the general idea of decorating is to paint things. Most of the advice is on exactly what shade of neutral to pick, for instance, and you get all obsessed with that, only to feel it didn’t really make a difference, and then you try again. I see people get frustrated. No matter what color they choose, the result — in terms of the overall satisfaction with the room — is not what they were hoping for.
I want to say this:
It’s not the color, not yet.
It’s a few other things.
Get those things right, and it almost won’t matter what color you choose*; most of the colors you see in the rooms you are drooling over will look good and really benefit from painting.
*I mean I have very specific ideas about color too, but many colors look good when the trim is right.
Yes, you can hone in on the right color, but it won’t help you unless you have these three things right:
1. The trim, the molding including crown molding, the baseboards, the woodwork, really matters.
We haven’t had a Pattern Language talk in a while! This one is almost obscure until it clicks that it’s mostly about trim:
Frames as Thickened Edges (225)
Problem
Any homogeneous membrane which has holes in it will tend to rupture at the holes, unless the edges of the holes are reinforced by thickening.
Solution
Do not consider door and window frames as separate rigid structures which are inserted into holes in walls. Think of them instead as thickenings of the very fabric of the wall itself, made to protect the wall against the concentrations of stress which develop around openings. In line with this conception, build the frames as thickenings of the wall material, continuous with the wall itself, made of the same materials, and poured, or built up, in a manner which is continuous with the structure of the wall.
I think he’s saying “poured” because he has in mind adobe or concrete or something, but I also think he’s really just talking about making the trim around your windows substantial — most of us don’t live in a concrete house!
You want to feel that the house is supported in various ways, and trim gives you that feeling.
Let’s say this: skimpy or no trim actually gives you the opposite feeling, that the house is not well built. (This is why the modern/contempo building is not really something most people love.)
You have to take into account the style of your house, of course. If you have a style from the past, you know what it is and you can look up or copy exactly how the trim should be to remedy any past renovations. Hopefully the original wasn’t “a guy” whose skill would cost a fortune to replicate, even though it was standard back in the day. And I have rooms where doors were trimmed out a bit differently from others — in the same room! — and it doesn’t bother me, because it’s all of a certain quality. (I have so many doors, for real!)
But chances are you have some sort of development house where the builder has just used stock trim, and maybe actually cut corners with it.
In that case, no wonder you are having trouble getting that settled, homey feeling that maybe you look at my pictures and wish you had! “It’s not me — it’s my trim!”
That’s a feeling I had in the kitchen before we renovated — the moldings were all very cheap, from a previous renovation.
If you look at the colors used in houses of the past or very expensive, well done houses today — if you really look — you’ll see that even daring colors look good because of how much of the wall space is taken up by moldings and trim.
That same color in a builder-grade house is going to fall flat because there will be too much of it, with too little to break it up.
Yes, these are great, invigorating colors, but they are relieved and showcased and also yet integrated by the great quantity of the trim (and furniture of all heights, drapes, etc. of course, but those cannot compensate for lack of structure).
In this room, the same color will read as “boom, a color” and not be unified with the other elements (because there are no other elements!):
I really advise you to take it room by room and before you paint, invest in good moldings and trim with more heft to them.
If you are building your house, look at examples of trim work and be incredibly specific with your builder about how you want the moldings to be. If you don’t give him exact guidance for everything, I promise you he will default to whatever is cheapest.
A lot of it can be DIY’d. The internet is actually full of advice on this! (And looking at my house, I see it’s almost impossible to overdo it.)
For instance, I think this DIY trim is pretty classic and really does transform the room.
All this goes for baseboards too. I learned in previous projects that toe kicks and quarter-round molding exist mostly to hide poor work installing the flooring. If you must have something (e.g. you are installing a new flooring above the old one), avoid quarter-round totally.
As I always say, train your eye — which means, make your Pinterest boards, examine older styles and high-end new ones, compare and contrast. It’s amazing how intricate and particular this subject is!
But the main point in case you haven’t gotten it yet is simply to be sure, before you paint, that your trims are substantial.
2. Wall sconces.
The lighting in my 1860s house was installed at some point in the early 20th century, and most rooms have a pretty random smattering of sconces and no overhead lights at all.
(I should change out that light switch plate and I would if I had the energy.)
But living with them taught me that wall sconces are vital to providing nice, homey lighting.
Most decorators tell you to avoid overhead lights, but gosh, you need some light! Sconces are the answer. In the kitchen, I do have ceiling lights (not as many as the electrician wanted), but the sconces are what make it feel homey right off the bat.
You can install ones that have a cord. If you are redoing the electric or building, by all means go for the sconces. You will not regret it.
3. Incandescent lights
No paint color will look nice, nothing will look nice, you will just never be happy, if you have LEDs in your fixtures. Please do not with your “warm yellow” or other lies.
Put LEDs in your closets, put them in the basement storage, but if you want a good cozy life without depression and anxiety, you will have to go unscrew them from your lamps and chandeliers. I’m telling it to you straight.
My house feels homier than yours and my colors seem nicer because I have incandescent lights. LEDs make every color look dead. Simple as.
Soon you are going to see them in the stores, as America becomes Great Again. For now, you can order them from Amazon. It’s always changing, so you just have to do a search — “rough use” will often help turn results up. I will try to put my sources in the comments. Sometimes you can get incandescent chandelier lights at the store, which is very nice.
And they don’t make it easy because sometimes you search for incandescents and the LEDs still come up! But scrutinize the information, keep looking, you can find them.
BONUS:
4. Lamps.
I got this one on the side of the road, and it turned out to be a colossal pain to figure out a shade for! But in the end this is how it turned out:
Every room where people sit should have at least three lamps — and then you can have your sconces too. You can actually find nice lamps often at the thrift store, depending on where you live. The shades are trickier.
I very modestly and with great humility, knowing all my shortcomings, think people like coming into my living room or den because there are lamps in there! Not because of any great expertise or style on my part!
bits & piecesA thoughtful piece about how children learn: Should Children Reason?. I’m not sure if I agree with all of it (I’m not sure the author has clarified all her observations), but I always think it’s a good idea to consider how a child is quite independent of us. We can help him learn things but we can’t make him do it.The frame really affects how we perceive a painting — and that’s a metaphor for everything, really, especially the work we do as homemakers.I don’t know anything about this classical art school firsthand, but I’m passing along David Clayton’s mention of it (note he has a Substack now).We Still Need Paper MapsThis Substack offers original recordings — in this case, of C. S. Lewis reading his own work.
from the archivesHow to encourage good conversational habits in childrenDevotion to home instead of subjection to the world
liturgical living
Tomorrow is the start of Septaugesima, the liturgical season that offers preparation for Lent. To learn more about it, go here.
“On one occasion Pope Paul VI compared the complex made up of Septuagesima, Lent, Holy Week and Easter Triduum, to the bells calling people to Sunday Mass. The ringing of them an hour, a half-hour, fifteen and five minutes before the time of Mass has a psychological effect and prepares the faithful materially and spiritually for the celebration of the liturgy.”
For a guided spiritual reading and thoughtful traditional accompaniment, go to the IRIA Foundation. (Just note that it’s based in Australia, so can be a little confusing as to which day it is! But the priest who runs it, Fr. Mark Withoos, is a friend of ours and very dedicated to helping people recover tradition!)
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